Who's Responsible for Accessibility?

I've been on projects where tickets come in for a11y fixes (most commonly color contrast or font size issues) and depending on the speed, timeline, and scope of the project, I find myself asking: do I flag this to the designer, or do I just make the call myself?

It's a question I don't think has a clean answer. I've done both, and there are tradeoffs either way.

Is it on the designer to spec EVERY possible a11y standard from the start? The developer to catch it before it ships? QA or the client to flag it after it's already live?

I can see how things slip through. Designs move fast, components stack up, budgets and hours minimal, and it's hard to account for every a11y consideration during the design phase. I'm not deeply familiar with the design process or whether there are standards designers follow for this, so I can't speak to that, but it makes me wonder if a more preventative approach could help. Not just catching issues after the fact, but building enough awareness on both sides to reduce how often they come up to begin with.

No answers here, just something I've been thinking about.

Potential Figma plugin coming soon*