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
"Designers tend to work behind closed doors because the design process is messy and chaotic, and they don’t want people to see that."
Iain McMaster IHan ChengDesign and Product: from Frenemy to Harmony
November 29, 2023
"We rejected a studio model because designers should take business direction from the teams they’re embedded in."
Marc Rettig Julie Baher Phil Gilbert Nathan ShedroffDiscussion
May 14, 2015
"The traditional product metrics focus narrowly on the product or near-term impact but fail to capture what success means for the whole person."
Raven VealDark Metrics: Illuminating the Negative Impact of Digital Health Design
March 12, 2021
"We earned over $100,000 in commission by connecting customer needs to an existing domain registration service."
Nick CochranGrowing in Enterprise Design through Making Connections
June 3, 2019
"The poetic and humanistic aspects of design are getting squeezed out by prescriptive delivery models."
Uday GajendarThe Rise of Meta-Design: A Starter Playbook
May 19, 2022
"Campfires are tribal, engaged knowledge spaces, libraries are corporate buildings, organized and curated."
Kate Towsey Jake BurghardtResearchOps AMA with Kate Towsey & Jake Burghardt
October 16, 2025
"We ditched the lab coats because they were a little off-putting."
Melissa Schmidt Adam MenterHow UX Research Hit It Big in Las Vegas
June 4, 2019
"The last thing you want to do is get it right and end up with it being wrong."
Harry Max Jim MeyerPrioritization for Leaders (2nd of 3 seminars)
June 27, 2024
"If you want access to those names, you got to come through us and show your research plan, which helped us ensure quality."
Megan BlockerA Selectively Scrappy Approach to ResearchOps
November 8, 2018
