Member-only story
I Think I’m Done Freelance Consulting
There are far too many sleazy, dishonest, disreputable dirtbags failing upwards into positions of power in major companies and organizations. It is time for me to walk away.
As some of you know the past 12 years or so I’ve been taking on clients facing prosecution or civil lawsuits over accessibility issues, as well as helping those companies develop simpler, cleaner, more useful solutions for all users. Even though the whole time I’ve been on doctors orders not to work, the simple fact is that disability and other benefits are insufficient to pay bills, particularly with how absurd rent is.
There have been a lot of ups and downs, and for the most part it was a rewarding experience. To know that I was helping the “common user” against corporate greed, ignorance, ineptitude, and the general sociopathy that’s all too painfully common amongst developers, marketers, advertisers, if not outright just plain hucksters leeching off the teat of society.
But the lows have been really low. Companies where the people responsible for the web presence refuse to learn what I have to teach. Willfully and purposefully sabotage my efforts. Cases where the resistance is so bad I have to tell the owners to fire large swaths of staff. Which as often as that’s what I tell clients, I feel like a total shitheel for doing because I do actually care…