Rosenverse

This video is only accessible to Gold members. Log in or register for a free Gold Trial Account to watch.

Log in Register

Most conference talks are accessible to Gold members, while community videos are generally available to all logged-in members.

Scaling Accessibility Through Design Systems
Gold
Thursday, June 9, 2022 • Design at Scale 2022
Share the love for this talk
Scaling Accessibility Through Design Systems
Speakers: Alexis Lucio
Link:

Summary

Incorporating accessibility can be seen as a daunting task, especially for products that have already been released. Alexis Lucio, Senior Accessibility Lead at Splunk, will share her journey in making accessibility a first-class citizen within Splunk Design System. Topics include: how to advocate for accessibility, utilizing use cases to optimize design and dev, how to utilize user input, and ideas on how to collaborate with cross-functional partners.

Key Insights

  • Accessibility should be integrated early ('shift left') in the design and development process to reduce tech debt and remediation costs.

  • Automation tools catch about 30% of accessibility defects and cannot replace human audits and discernment.

  • Accessibility is often mistaken as limiting creativity, but it is actually a driver of innovation and inclusivity.

  • Unique naming for components like message bars is critical to avoid confusion for assistive technologies when multiple instances exist.

  • Breadcrumb navigation must not rely on color alone to convey meaning; it should be accessible through keyboard and screen readers and consider interactive behaviors.

  • Documenting accessibility decisions in design systems helps maintain consistency and educates users of the system.

  • Accessibility requires ongoing education and advocacy to get buy-in from diverse teams including designers, engineers, and product managers.

  • Small incremental changes to accessibility are better than no changes; it’s an ongoing journey rather than a one-time fix.

  • Accessibility levels range from inaccessible to legally compliant, usable, and ultimately innovative; compliance alone does not guarantee good UX.

  • Cross-functional collaboration and shared resources like accessibility one-pagers and bug-triaging spreadsheets improve scalability of accessibility efforts.

Notable Quotes

"Accessibility is innovation and this statement could potentially be some unchecked ableism."

"Automation only catches maybe 30% of all your a11y defects and even then we still receive a lot of false positives."

"I help you unlearn and relearn patterns so that you can build better products."

"If you’d rather exclude a group of people from using your product than do accessibility, then think about the impact you’re making."

"You can have a single page that’s got inaccessible, compliant, and accessible experiences all in one."

"No design system will ever be fully accessible because new features and permutations are always being introduced."

"Accessibility is a key component of user experience that has been neglected and requires specialists to close the gap."

"Small incremental changes are better than no changes at all from both the process and technical view."

"We’ve been taught to build fast and break things, and we often play accessibility on the back burner."

"Unique names for components like message bars are crucial, especially when multiple instances are shown at once."

Ask the Rosenbot
Billy Carlson
Ideation tips for Product Managers
2022 • Design in Product 2022
Gold
Angy Peterson
More Than Technology: Personalized Public Sector Experiences
2021 • Civic Design 2021
Gold
Ted Neward
Theme 4: Enterprise Organizational Journey
2019 • Enterprise Experience 2019
Gold
Dorelle Rabinowitz
The Magic Word is Trust
2018 • Enterprise Experience 2018
Gold
Marisa Bernstein
It Takes GRIT: Lessons from the Small, but Mighty World of Civic Usability Testing
2021 • Civic Design 2021
Gold
Emily Williams
When UX Research and Institutional Racism Collide: A Case Study
2021 • Advancing Research 2021
Gold
Liam Thurston
Why Your Design Team Is Quitting, And How To Fix It
2022 • Design at Scale 2022
Gold
Sean McKay
Whole Product Thinking: Expanding beyond problem and solution space thinking
2024 • Rosenfeld Community
Dan Saffer
Why AI projects fail (and what we can do about it)
2025 • Rosenfeld Community
Christian Madsbjerg
Influencing Strategy
2020 • Advancing Research 2020
Gold
Todd Healy
Driving Change with CX Metrics
2023 • Enterprise UX 2023
Gold
Rittika Basu
Age and Interfaces: Equipping Older Adults with Technological Tools
2023 • Advancing Research Community
Prayag Narula
Dialing for Research: How to Reach the Unreachable
2022 • Advancing Research 2022
Gold
Eniola Oluwole
Lessons From the DesignOps Journey of the World's Largest Travel Site
2019 • DesignOps Summit 2019
Gold
Alfred Kahn
A Seat at the Table: Making Your Team a Strategic Partner
2023 • Design in Product 2023
Gold
Sofía Delsordo
Public Policy for Jalisco's Designers to Make Design Matter
2021 • Civic Design 2021
Gold

More Videos

Jenny Price

"Invest in brand unification as a strategic tool to build stakeholder confidence and increase engagement."

Jenny Price

From Tradition to Transformation: Unlocking Startup Agility in a Legacy Enterprise

September 10, 2025

Bria Alexander

"Future-facing regulatory structures can avoid post-traumatic innovation by anticipating technology’s social impacts."

Bria Alexander Ariel Kennan Charlotte Lee Sarah Brooks Emily Lessard Gordon Ross Joanne Dong

Reflect and Chart Forward

December 10, 2021

Scott Stephens

"Even as a designer, I was able to learn how to build formulas and automations — the tools are quite accessible."

Scott Stephens

The Next Generation in DesignOps Toolsets

July 28, 2022

Bria Alexander

"It's okay to try and mess up your OKRs in the first few quarters and learn from it."

Bria Alexander Benson Low Natalya Pemberton Stephanie Goldthorpe

OKRs—Helpful or Harmful?

January 20, 2022

Aditi Ruiz

"Synthesizing user feedback in a way that’s easy for product managers to consume is one of the hot topics right now."

Aditi Ruiz Christian Crumlish Farid Sabitov

Pulse Check: Empathy Mapping Your Product Manager, Pt. 2

December 6, 2022

Jen Cardello

"So much change was killed just because leadership said so, and that really breaks my heart."

Jen Cardello

Standardizing Product Merits for Leaders, Designers, and Everyone

June 15, 2018

Sylvie Abookire

"Psychological safety creates an atmosphere where it’s safe to speak up, ask questions, and be imperfect."

Sylvie Abookire Susan Abookire Caitlyn Nalder

A Civic Designer's Guide to Mindful Conflict Navigation

November 17, 2022

William Newton

"Data is a language you need to learn to speak and a mindset that must be continuously practiced."

William Newton Jenny Chang

How to Lead With Data, and Without Data

June 7, 2023

Cheryl Platz

"Multimodal design is the design practice you probably don’t realize you’re doing already."

Cheryl Platz

Demystifying Multimodal Design: The Design Practice You Didn't Know You're Doing

April 4, 2024