Summary
The outcome of designing at scale won't be accessible products unless accessibility practices scale in parallel with design. There are six primary challenges to scaling accessibility: 1) Reliance on human testing which is especially complicated for large/dynamic products. 2) SaaS/Native app "release whenever you want" timelines. 3) Third party code/content managers. 4) Achieving "substantive WCAG conformance" 5) Closing the feedback loop by getting defects/feature requests from people with disabilities into the backlog. 6) Shifting the focus to an accessible experience, not just an accessible product.
Key Insights
-
•
Accessibility encompasses both visible and invisible disabilities, affecting roughly 30% of users via permanent, temporary, or situational impairments.
-
•
Assistive technologies communicate bidirectionally with software, requiring products to support this interaction cleanly to be accessible.
-
•
WCAG standards are the international source of truth for accessibility, with version 2.1 AA widely mandated and 3.0 on the horizon.
-
•
Automated tools catch about 30% of accessibility issues, machine learning tools currently only about 4%, leaving over half to human validation.
-
•
Making a product accessible initially is straightforward with resources and people; maintaining accessibility over time is far more complex and process-driven.
-
•
Scaling accessibility in cloud and continuous integration environments is challenging due to rapid, frequent software releases.
-
•
Integrating accessibility from the beginning into design, development, and definition of done prevents costly retrofitting later.
-
•
Organizational culture changes including executive buy-in, centralized resources, and accessibility champions are essential for scaling.
-
•
Hiring and retaining employees with disabilities and ensuring all workplace tools and events are accessible fosters inclusion and eases product accessibility efforts.
-
•
Accessibility defects should be treated like any other critical bugs and prioritized accordingly to ensure timely remediation.
Notable Quotes
"Accessibility isn’t just about visible disabilities; it’s about invisible disabilities and situational impairments too."
"Either you need accessibility now or you will need accessibility in the future."
"Assistive technology has to communicate with the destination, that’s your website or product."
"You’re not supposed to sell to the US public sector unless you’re WCAG 2.0 AA compliant."
"Getting something accessible is a straight line; keeping something accessible requires process change."
"Keeping something cloud-based accessible is the most complicated because of hundreds of releases per day in continuous integration."
"Accessibility at scale can put you into the VUCA world – volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous."
"You want to catch accessibility defects early through automated testing in your CI/CD pipeline, what we call shifting left."
"If you’re rewarding designers for delivering on time, great, but if you reward them for delivering accessible products on time, you’ll get better results."
"Accessibility defects are bugs. If it’s a P1 blocking bug for an accessibility issue, treat it like any other P1 bug."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"Our code of conduct is not window dressing; it’s the front end of a process to keep everyone safe."
Louis RosenfeldWelcome / Housekeeping
June 6, 2023
"Organizations succeed when they have a language that works today but must evolve it to survive tomorrow."
Paul Pangaro, PhDSystems Disciplines: Table Stakes for 21st Century Organizations
June 6, 2023
"Buy-in is critical: stakeholders need to believe the team can move through change and support them."
Dharani PereraThe mandala of service design: unlocking alignment and action through service design
November 20, 2025
"People don’t use our products for the sake of using them. It’s to achieve an outcome."
Tiffany ChengDesigning in a Pandemic: Integrating Speed and Rigor
June 9, 2022
"Cluster analysis is very useful if you want to avoid a one-size-fits-all approach to product or service design."
Ricardo MartinsUnlocking the power of advanced quantitative methods
March 12, 2025
"The chart controls were circular and confusing; users looked like deer in headlights not knowing where to start."
William Newton Jenny ChangHow to Lead With Data, and Without Data
June 7, 2023
"We must distinguish between right and entitlement when engaging in research and acknowledge the responsibility that accompanies privilege."
Sahibzada MayedThe Politics of Radical Research: A Manifesto
March 27, 2023
"Researchers want designers to help them with the research because there aren’t enough researchers in the world."
Prayag NarulaHow to Empower Your Designers to Do Good Research – And Why You Want To
June 10, 2022
"You can’t just break apart these components and type; instead, you change their properties to adjust labels, colors, or icons."
Jack BeharHow to Build Prototypes that Behave like an End-Product
December 6, 2022
Latest Books All books
Dig deeper with the Rosenbot
How does the vector.md file help marry human-centered design with machine-readable artifacts?
What lessons from method acting can inspire more immersive and emotionally open design research practices?
How can national development agencies strategically manage their innovation portfolios to balance risk and impact?