There’s no going back

I recently discovered a YouTube video about a children’s TV show from my childhood. The content was nostalgic and the tone of the commentary was dry and snarky, which was an entertaining combination.

One particular video I watched from the same channel was The Big Breakfast II: A Tale of Two Eras, and the ending really caught my attention:

Bogged down in the worries of the modern world we may yearn for the simpler times. Yet even if we could somehow find ourselves back there, it’s clear from watching that the old saying is true: you can never go home again.

After a bit of digging, I discovered that the ‘old saying’ comes from You Can’t Go Home Again, a 1940 novel by Thomas Wolfe.

At the time, The Big Breakfast felt incredibly fresh and exciting, but watching some of the footage back was difficult. It’s crude and littered with problematic attitudes towards women.

That mixture of nostalgia and discomfort felt familiar.

The further I go on my accessibility journey, the more I learn, and the more I cringe at some of my earlier practices, from the markup I wrote to the design patterns I used.

That’s an unavoidable but perfectly natural part of the process of maturing as designers and developers; in fact, it’s a good way to gauge progress! But it still stings knowing we’ve created hurdles and barriers for real people.

Thomas Wolfe was right: there’s a bittersweet edge to looking back. I might miss the simplicity of knowing less, but what I’ve learned has changed me. There’s no going back, and I wouldn’t want to.