# Michael Harshbarger > Program and project leader specializing in accessibility leadership, enterprise delivery, and leading well under pressure. Michael Harshbarger is a Strategic Accessibility Training Consultant at Deque Systems, where he leads enterprise accessibility training programs. Previously, he served as a Senior IT Program Manager at State Farm (2005–2018), leading large-scale initiatives including a $1.6B divestiture, $2B data center buildout, and enterprise claims transformation. He writes about program leadership, accessibility as a quality attribute, modernization risk, and how calm execution changes outcomes. He speaks at conferences including CSUN Assistive Technology Conference, PMI Global Conference, Deque axe-con, AccessU, University of Illinois WebCon, and PMI Mass Bay. His work is practical — built from daily experience training practitioners at real organizations, not from annual conference preparation. ## Key pages - [Home](https://michaelharshbarger.com/): Overview of Michael's professional platform and latest insight. - [About](https://michaelharshbarger.com/about.html): Background, career history, and professional philosophy. - [How I Lead](https://michaelharshbarger.com/how-i-lead.html): Leadership approach — catching problems early, aligned teams, quality built in, and leaving teams better than you found them. - [Experience](https://michaelharshbarger.com/experience.html): Career history at State Farm, Deque, and AccessibilityFirst. - [Speaking](https://michaelharshbarger.com/speaking.html): Conference talks, upcoming sessions, and speaking history. - [Insights](https://michaelharshbarger.com/insight.html): All published insights on leadership, accessibility, and delivery. - [Contact](https://michaelharshbarger.com/contact.html): Speaking inquiries, consulting, and leadership roles. ## Published insights (newest first) - [The Distance Tax](https://michaelharshbarger.com/insights/the-distance-tax.html) (Aug 12, 2026): Every team is already paying the Distance Tax. Most have never calculated it. The return-to-office debate is asking the wrong question. Distance is the real variable, and it shows up whether you are remote, hybrid, or in the same building. - [Distance Is the Hidden Cost of Scale](https://michaelharshbarger.com/insights/distance-is-the-hidden-cost-of-scale.html) (Aug 12, 2026): A US team and an India team were stuck in an email chain that was making things worse. When I stopped the emails and made them talk, delivery changed overnight. That is what distance does, and that is how you fix it. - [The Danger of Half-Decisions](https://michaelharshbarger.com/insights/the-danger-of-half-decisions.html) (Jul 6, 2026): A half-decision feels like leadership and costs more than no decision at all. Here is how to spot one and what it does to your team. - [The First Commitment Matters Most](https://michaelharshbarger.com/insights/the-first-commitment-matters-most.html) (Jun 22, 2026): The first date you commit to is the one your team treats as truth. Get it wrong and every later commitment carries the cost. Here is how to get the first one right. - [The Trust Curve](https://michaelharshbarger.com/insights/the-trust-curve.html) (Jun 8, 2026): Trust is built in deposits and broken in withdrawals. The curve is steep, both ways. Here is how to think about the deposits. - [Two I Cannot Thank in Person](https://michaelharshbarger.com/insights/the-mentors-who-made-me.html) (May 25, 2026): Two of the people who made my career are no longer here to thank. Memorial Day is the right day to name them. - [Why Leaders Break Scope and How to Stop It](https://michaelharshbarger.com/insights/why-leaders-break-scope.html) (May 11, 2026): My wife asked if we could get a permanent dishwasher. I said I would take a look. Nobody planned a kitchen renovation. It happened one while I am in here at a time. That is scope drift. And leaders do it constantly. - [Scope Is a Leadership Problem](https://michaelharshbarger.com/insights/scope-is-a-leadership-problem.html) (Apr 27, 2026): Scope is a leadership decision, not a documentation exercise. When leaders fail to define and defend the boundaries of the work, teams inherit chaos. When leaders get scope right, delivery becomes predictable, purposeful, and humane. - [Constraints Are Always Present](https://michaelharshbarger.com/insights/constraints-are-always-present.html) (Apr 13, 2026): Constraints aren't barriers to success — they are the definitions of it. Every project has six: time, cost, scope, resources, risk, and quality. Managing the Pack of Six means making trade-offs explicit rather than letting them happen by default. - [A Project Exists Before You Call It One](https://michaelharshbarger.com/insights/a-project-exists.html) (Mar 30, 2026): Projects don't begin with charters. They begin when a leader recognizes the cost of doing nothing and defines a meaningful outcome worth pursuing. - [The Art of Elephant Management](https://michaelharshbarger.com/insights/art-of-elephant-management.html) (Feb 16, 2026): Unspoken truths slow delivery. Leaders restore alignment by naming what others avoid — the budget nobody wants to say is wrong, the timeline everyone knows won't hold, the dependency nobody has confirmed. - [You Are the Company](https://michaelharshbarger.com/insights/you-are-the-company.html) (Feb 2, 2026): A personal mission statement isn't motivation — it's a decision filter. Writing down what you stand for before the pressure arrives means you don't have to figure it out in the moment. - [The Leader You Already Know How to Be](https://michaelharshbarger.com/insights/leader-you-already-know.html) (Jan 19, 2026): Two lists: the leadership behaviors you respect, and the ones you refuse to repeat. Written down before the pressure shows up, they become the clearest decision tool you have. - [Strong Leadership Under Pressure](https://michaelharshbarger.com/insights/strong-leadership-under-pressure.html) (Jan 5, 2026): What calm, clear leadership looks like when the timeline is tight, the stakes are high, and the data is incomplete. Experienced leaders don't panic — they slow down, clarify, and move forward with less information than they'd like. - [Seeing the Whole Enterprise](https://michaelharshbarger.com/insights/seeing-the-whole-enterprise.html) (Dec 13, 2025): How program leaders connect architecture, operations, accessibility, customer experience, and finance to make better decisions under pressure. The whole is always more complex than any one domain suggests. - [Accessibility Estimates Turn Guesses Into Strategy](https://michaelharshbarger.com/insights/accessibility-estimates-pert.html) (Dec 3, 2025): Using PERT, Agile practices, and real accessibility issue data to turn "we've never done this before" into grounded, repeatable estimates that stakeholders can plan around. - [Why Instructional Design Makes Project Communication Work](https://michaelharshbarger.com/insights/teach-try-show-revise.html) (Dec 2, 2025): Borrowing from instructional design — Teach → Try → Show → Revise — turns project updates into something people can understand, remember, and act on. - [How Treating Accessibility as a Core Requirement Reshapes Planning](https://michaelharshbarger.com/insights/accessibility-core-requirement.html) (Dec 1, 2025): Accessibility belongs with security, stability, and reliability as a non-functional requirement. Treating it that way changes how you plan, manage risk, and build long-term customer trust. ## Conference talks - [Building a Culture of Accessibility Leadership](https://michaelharshbarger.com/speaking/building-a-culture-of-accessibility-leadership.html): Leadership behaviors and ownership structures that keep accessibility alive after training ends. - [AI in Accessibility: Where Tools End and Humans Lead](https://michaelharshbarger.com/speaking/ai-in-accessibility-where-tools-end-humans-lead.html): Where AI adds genuine value in accessibility work and where human judgment remains non-negotiable. - [Accessibility for Small Business: A Practical Roadmap](https://michaelharshbarger.com/speaking/accessibility-small-business-roadmap.html): A budget-conscious, practical approach to accessibility for organizations without enterprise resources. - [I Asked an AI to Run My Project. Here's What It Got Wrong.](https://michaelharshbarger.com/speaking/asked-an-ai-to-run-my-project.html): Live on-stage conversation with AI exploring real project challenges and the limits of AI judgment. ## External writing (published on Deque) - [Change Management for Accessibility: Part 1](https://www.deque.com/blog/change-management-for-accessibility-part-1/) - [Change Management for Accessibility: Lewin's Three-Stage Model](https://www.deque.com/blog/change-management-for-accessibility-lewins-three-stage-model/) - [Change Management for Accessibility: Plan Do Check Act (PDCA) Model](https://www.deque.com/blog/change-management-for-accessibility-plan-do-check-act-pcda-model/) - [Change Management for Accessibility: ADKAR Model](https://www.deque.com/blog/change-management-for-accessibility-adkar-model/) - [Change Management in Accessibility: Strategic Execution Framework](https://www.deque.com/blog/change-management-in-accessibility-strategic-execution-framework/) - [How Keyboard Testing Improves Digital Accessibility](https://www.deque.com/blog/how-keyboard-testing-improves-digital-accessibility/)