The Accessibility to Burnout Pipeline
Detailed image description of the sketchnote
Sketchnote with title "The Accessibility to Burnout Pipeline" by Shell Little at axe-con 2023.
Content warning
- mental health
- workplace trauma
- ableism
- PTSD
"This talk was difficult."
Workplace trauma is real. Your feelings are valid. You are not alone. This work is too important to loose more people. Accessibility as a field is stretched too thin and it's leading to burnout.
Pipeline to Burnout
Burnout factors disproportionately affect accessibility specialists!
- Lack of control
- sense of hopelessness
- unclear and changing job expectations
- unreasonable workload
- having to fight for a seat at the table
Advocacy work is mentally draining. Burnout is a failure of management. No one should fear taking time off. We genuinely care about the work.
Prevention
All hope isn’t lost. It’s not the actual work but the environment that we are forced to do the work in…
Community
- be transparent
- find accessibility group for support
- check in with your team
- raise awareness about difficulties
Office
- compromise – You can't do everything
- re-evaluate your relationship with work
- take mental health days & medical leave
- talk openly
- use boundary statements
30 mins of out
Conclusion
- If you are feeling burnt out, know you are not alone.
- You are not at fault for the way you're feeling.
- Never lose sight of the why and the who.
- The work is important but so is your own well being.
- There are resources available to you, use them.