Making accessibility a shared responsibility
I led a programme to scale WCAG 2.1 standards and mindset across multiple product lines.
The project
My role
Initiation: formed a task force of experienced design practitioners and benchmarked accessibility knowledge and application.
Rollout: created a work programme to educate and support designers through accessibility fixes and processes.
Scale: ran quarterly pulse checks to track accessibility knowledge and application, using results to focus training and recognise progress.
The personas
Designers and engineers across product lines who needed clarity, confidence and consistency applying WCAG 2.1 accessibility in both a quality overhaul and everyday work.
The problem
Our products weren’t accessible, and clients faced delays fixing issues before rollout. Standards and knowledge varied across teams, so we needed to make accessibility everyone’s responsibility.
Constraints
We had to deliver within limited budgets and timelines, with no dedicated accessibility team or centralised process. Each product line worked independently, making it difficult to apply changes consistently.
Our approach
Build champions, scale learning
We formed a small group of design champions to share knowledge, coordinate support and create practical guidance. We tracked progress and ran pulse checks to measure effectiveness as the work scaled.
Project highlights
Support network: champions across disciplines
We manned a Slack channel and created a central Confluence space to capture common questions and decisions—making accessibility support visible and easy to reach.
Guidelines: clear, practical, and open
Plain-language WCAG 2.1 guidance tailored to our components and workflows, turning standards into usable everyday tools for designers and engineers.
Pulse checks: tracking knowledge and progress
Quarterly surveys showed where awareness and knowledge were improving. We tracked work in Jira and held regular syncs with the QA Director, who led the technical side of the initiative.
Challenges
What was hard
Teams had different levels of accessibility knowledge, and roadmap pressure made it hard to coordinate fixes and learning.
How we handled it
We made progress visible through pulse checks and linked Jira work. We manned support channels and documented common challenges so teams could roll out improvements when ready.
Outcomes
More consistent WCAG 2.1 coverage, evidenced by automated tests across product lines.
Higher awareness and confidence applying accessible design practices.
Lower implementation costs in professional services as fewer fixes were needed during client onboarding.