Log in or create a free Rosenverse account to watch this video.
Log in Create free account100s of community videos are available to free members. Conference talks are generally available to Gold members.
DesignOps for Inclusive Design and Accessibility
Summary
A lot of folks talk about accessibility and inclusive design, but have no clue how to bring it into product development practice. Join us for a conversation about different approaches to building operational support for inclusive design and accessibility practices. Panelists include Elliott Polette and Attiyya Akinwole from The Home Depot, Kalee Dankner and John Davenport from LinkedIn, and Mara Sohn who led on Pinterest’s accessibility efforts. Saara Kamppari-Miller, Inclusive DesignOps Program Manager at Intel, will host this panel.
Key Insights
-
•
Inclusive design is a process focused on recognizing exclusion, learning from diversity, solving for edge cases, and then scaling to many users, rather than a fixed result.
-
•
Leadership buy-in is crucial for prioritizing accessibility and securing resources for inclusive design initiatives.
-
•
Embedding accessibility specialists within design operations teams fosters consistent integration and education throughout the product lifecycle.
-
•
Quantifying accessibility through bug tracking dashboards, compliance scorecards, and peer review programs helps measure progress and raise awareness.
-
•
Peer reviews by accessibility-trained designers can elevate design quality and reduce engineering rework around accessibility issues.
-
•
Design systems with pre-approved accessible components streamline implementation but do not replace continuous training and education.
-
•
Grassroots efforts, including hackathons and empathy-building exercises, can launch accessibility programs in the absence of funding or dedicated staff.
-
•
Risk communication and competitive benchmarking are effective strategies to persuade leadership to invest in accessibility.
-
•
Accessibility ownership must be shared across product management, design, engineering, legal, and operations—not isolated to one group or individual.
-
•
Emerging accessibility areas needing attention include haptics and tactile technologies to support users with combined sensory disabilities.
Notable Quotes
"By designing products through the lens of edge cases like disabilities first, they often become better products for everyone."
"Accessibility is more of a process than a result; it starts at the very beginning of product development with research including disabled users."
"Leadership needs to be just as behind accessibility as the designers and professionals doing the work."
"One superpower of ops humans is making problems and gaps visible to build awareness and drive change."
"Tools are great, but they do not solve all problems; training and understanding the why behind accessibility is essential."
"Meeting designers where they spend their time, like integrating accessibility plugins into Figma, is the most effective way to make progress."
"Accessibility is a program, not just a single project; starting small and scaling efforts builds momentum."
"Nothing about us without us is the mantra we embrace when doing inclusive design operations."
"If you don't have dedicated accessibility people, start grassroots by building empathy and rallying teams around user stories."
"Accessibility ownership should never fall on just one person but be understood and shared across entire product teams."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"Traditional design thinking and human-centered design rarely take localized nuances and global trends into account."
Chloe Amos-EdkinsA Cultural Approach: Research in the Context of Glocalisation
March 27, 2023
"The factory clocks were instruments not for measurement but for cheating and oppression."
Tricia WangSpatial Collapse: Designing for Emergent Culture
January 8, 2024
"We didn’t want to develop yet another model but rather a customizable approach to support diverse clients with innovation portfolio management."
Milan Guenther Benjamin KumpfThe $212 billion ‘so what?’: unlocking impact in development cooperation
November 20, 2025
"AI won’t transform all things at once; it’s about piloting and delivering discrete business value first."
Jon Fukuda Amy Evans Ignacio Martinez Joe MeersmanThe Big Question about Innovation: A Panel Discussion
September 25, 2024
"OKRs are not one-size-fits-all; you have to shape them based on your organizational context and culture."
Bria Alexander Benson Low Natalya Pemberton Stephanie GoldthorpeOKRs—Helpful or Harmful?
January 20, 2022
"I want there to be no hierarchy in communication. Even a junior associate should be able to talk directly to CEO Marc Benioff."
John TaschekMaking People the X-Factor in the Enterprise
June 15, 2018
"Enterprise problems are often engineering problems as much as design problems."
Dan WillisEnterprise Storytelling Sessions
May 13, 2015
"We have a feedback program agreement that once signed, is evergreen and covers everyone in the customer’s company."
Tracy McGoldrickIBM User Experience Program—The What, Why and How
October 15, 2021
"Benjamin Rial is going to tell a really awesome story about wayfinding and future wayfinding."
Alana WashingtonTheme 3 Intro
October 1, 2021
