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."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"Every group has their own vocabulary that signals belonging, but jargon can become a barrier to understanding."
Joshua GravesWe Need To Talk: Managing Ludicrous Requests at Work (Part 3 of 3)
May 12, 2025
"How you make service is part of what you make; functionality and operability become one inseparable experience."
Jeff SussnaWhat DesignOps Can Learn From DevOps
November 6, 2017
"The tech industry is retreating from responsibility and ethics despite increasing awareness of moral impact."
Cennydd BowlesExit Interview #2: Rediscovering the ethical heart of design
November 6, 2025
"The Homeowner Playbook helped align teams across product, marketing, and operations by giving everyone a shared research fact understanding."
Katie HansenFinding the unknown in the known: Harnessing meta-analysis and literature review
March 12, 2025
"Louisa Scholar saves us a lot of work by curating the Civic Design library and digital benefits hub."
Bria AlexanderOpening Remarks
November 18, 2022
"Balancing defining best practices with enabling experimentation improves the breadth and quality of work."
Sean Baker Sara RomanoskiWeaving Knowledge Management into the Fabric of Our Design Practice
September 11, 2025
"Borrowing from existing digital products helps show stakeholders proven design approaches rather than starting from zero."
Billy CarlsonIdeation tips for Product Managers
December 6, 2022
"Performance is about how effectively we translate experience into new understanding and turn that into wiser action."
Jen BriselliLearning is the north star: service design for adaptive capacity
November 19, 2025
"Empathy isn't just kindness, it's the lens through which we see users' true motivations."
Prayag Narula Hannah HudsonEmpowering Designers to do Good Research
March 11, 2022