Summary
The Cigna Digital Design Operations stood up a new Digital Accessibility and AccessbilityOps team. Digital accessibility as a general term is the inclusive practice of ensuring that digital products (websites, apps, PDFs, etc.) can be used by everyone — including those with a disability or physical impairment — while retaining functionality and usability. Our team ran into many roadblocks including establishing processes, team structure, organizational support, and human resource issues, including onboarding a new team member who was blind. This case study showcases the steps, challenges, and lessons learned standing up a Digital Accessibility Ops team at a Fortune 100 Health Insurance company.
Key Insights
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A visually impaired developer, Mike, exposed fundamental gaps in Signe’s accessibility onboarding processes.
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Digital accessibility lawsuits increased 177% between 2017 and 2018, averaging one filed per hour in 2018.
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One in four US adults and one billion people worldwide live with disabilities, representing a $1.2 trillion spending market.
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Successful accessibility requires an internal champion to educate, advocate, and embed accessibility operationally across teams.
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Accessibility ops is integrated under design ops but focuses on accessible tools, vendor contracts, onboarding, and cross-team education.
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Screen reader testing can reveal severe usability issues, as demonstrated during a one-day training where their website was unintelligible.
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Accessibility should be integrated early in the design process, not only addressed during QA or after product release.
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Simplifying complex guidelines like WCAG into plain language enables designers to understand and apply accessibility efficiently.
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Starting accessibility work is iterative; their autocomplete feature improved from 50% to 80% accessibility through collaboration.
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Four foundational steps to building accessibility ops include leadership mandates, embracing WCAG standards, HR engagement, and defining team scope.
Notable Quotes
"Mike was really excited to join but quickly realized he couldn't be onboarded as easily as his sighted peers."
"One digital accessibility lawsuit was filed every single hour in 2018."
"We don't assume companies intentionally fail certain audiences; it’s often about awareness and lacking champions."
"Can you testify right now that all your digital properties are accessible to disabled users?"
"We had to find someone in service ops and supply team management to get Mike's laptop set up with assistive tech before he started."
"Accessibility ops is like design ops but focused on accessibility, including accessible tools and vendor requirements."
"The screen reader sounded unintelligible—our website was a garbled mess to visually impaired users during training."
"It’s important to distill accessibility guidelines into simple terms so designers understand why changes matter."
"Accept that the first iteration won’t be 100% accessible; moving the needle bit by bit still creates huge impact."
"Using a screen reader demo helps leadership hear firsthand why accessibility matters and gain buy-in."
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