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
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Accessibility is essential for inclusive web design, impacting over 15% of the global population with disabilities.
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Integrating accessibility during the design phase significantly reduces the cost and effort of remediation later on.
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Automation tools for accessibility can miss up to 70% of issues and should not be solely relied upon.
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Criticism of accessibility efforts often stems from misunderstandings about creativity and innovation.
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Education and awareness are vital in getting design teams on board with accessibility initiatives.
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Providing clear guidelines in design systems can prevent accessibility defects before they arise.
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Accessibility should be viewed as a component of user experience and not just a legal requirement.
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Documenting accessibility decisions within design systems helps future-proof them against misuse and misinterpretation.
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Accessibility features can enhance SEO, thus expanding market reach.
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Regular audits and bug triage processes are necessary for maintaining accessibility standards in ongoing projects.
Notable Quotes
"Accessibility is innovation and this statement could potentially reflect some unchecked ableism."
"If you can't get past this hurdle, the rest of the content in this talk is irrelevant because there's no room for a growth mindset."
"The design industry has taught us that accessibility isn't innovative."
"An audit was our biggest learning lesson when we didn’t accessibility audit for Splunk design system."
"Just because something’s compliant doesn't mean it’s user-friendly."
"You’re not going to be able to babysit your design system 24/7."
"Accessibility is a key component of user experience that has been neglected in digital product creation."
"Automation only catches maybe 30% of all your accessibility defects and even then we still receive a lot of false positives."
"As long as you're building new things and creating new products, you'll always have to work on accessibility."
"Accessibility features like transcripts and all image descriptions can improve your SEO and therefore your market reach."
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