Design Overtime: The Cost of Caring: Accessibility, Burnout, and Finding Yourself Again (with Anna E. Cook)

In this conversation, Anna E. Cook and I talk about what happens when the work that defines you stops being the work you're hired to do. Anna traces the systemic forces pushing accessibility specialists out of their roles, connecting it to broader DEI rollbacks, and reflects on the identity crisis that follows when your expertise becomes a liability. We also talk about burnout, and why "just work less" misses the point entirely. For Anna, recovery required detaching her identity from her job, accepting imperfection, and exploring hobbies with zero expectation of productivity. This episode is for anyone who's ever wondered whether caring too much about the right things might cost them, and decided to keep caring anyway.

Guest Bio

Anna E. Cook (she/they) is a designer working across design systems, platform infrastructure, and the code that connects them, with a specialty in accessibility. She is currently a Senior Designer at Microsoft and created the LinkedIn Learning course "Auditing Design Systems for Accessibility."

Links

Anna's website: https://annaecook.com/

Credits

Cover design by Kristine Planche (inspired by Raquel Rubio Breternitz).