Be Inclusive

What a wonderful feeling to release a couple new features and have someone reach out immediately with excitement about it, that's what it's all about!

So, what were the new features?

Both were related to audit observations and were based on subscriber feedback. I take feedback very seriously, so these features were placed at the top of the list.

• Enhanced Observation File Upload Options - Now you can paste files directly into observations, in addition to the file explorer and drag & drop options. You can now also define alternative and description text for each file uploaded too!

• Ability to move an observation from on target sample to another. A small change but one that's been requested a few times. Sometimes we log an observation to the wrong sample, no problem to move it now!

Once again, I would like to thank all subscribers who have offered suggestions, logged obscure bugs, and shared their experiences over the years. You're the best! 🎉

Next up, WCAG 2.2! Onwards and upwards 🚀

I've always focused a lot more attention on the code and user experience of Be Inclusive, I often got caught in that trap of "if you build it they will come" and while I don't regret all that effort - I think it's led to a wonderful user experience - I do realize there needs to be more work done on the marketing and outreach side too.

I've recently started that journey, reaching out to folks that recently canceled after a trial, to current subscribers, and to some past prospects, mostly to say hi and to get a conversation going. I would hate being "that guy" that sends emails daily for a week and only wants to talk about their product. So I'm taking a different route, if I know them I take the time to catch up first and if I don't I try to find out more about them.

I'm not buying email lists and sending 20,000 emails in a week, my prospects are going to be folks I'm reasonably sure would be at least marginally interested. My goal is to send ~20 emails a week, never automated, and always as personalized as I can. Mine is a niche product, I think the winning strategy is for my marketing to be just as niche.

Let's see where this takes us in 2023!

On this day two years ago I released the first public beta of Be Inclusive, taking a moment to celebrate how far it has come in that time.

There was a lot of effort that went into getting Be Inclusive into beta starting with some market research, some basic wireframes when the idea was validated, and on to a high fidelity demo to get some early feedback, followed by a whole lot of code and testing.

In the two years since, there have been dozens of new features added, countless bugs fixed, and a small handful of users that have been very receptive and helpful with feedback. I'm very proud to have taken it from an idea to a fully functional application that has been helping people on their accessibility journey. Onward and upward!