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
Paul Pangaro, PhD
Systems Disciplines: Table Stakes for 21st Century Organizations
2023 • Enterprise UX 2023
Gold
Audrey Crane
Shadow Design–Where Else is Design Happening in Your Organization?
2023 • Enterprise Community
Maria Taylor
Knowledge is Power: Managing the Lifeblood of the Design Org
2023 • DesignOps Summit 2023
Gold
Marissa Cui
Climate Design Product Showcase
2024 • Climate UX Interest Group
Sofia Quintero
The Product Philosophy Behind EnjoyHQ
2021 • Advancing Research 2021
Gold
Teresa Swingler
Look, Up in the Sky! UX/UI for Aerospace
2022 • Enterprise Community
Jon Fukuda
All the Ops: Successful cross-functional collaboration
2025 • DesignOps Summit 2025
Gold
Liam Thurston
Why Your Design Team Is Quitting, And How To Fix It
2022 • Design at Scale 2022
Gold
John Calhoun
Meters, Miles, and Madness: New Frameworks to Measure the (Elusive) Value of DesignOps
2024 • DesignOps Summit 2024
Gold
Gina Mendolia
Therapists, Coaches, and Grandmas: Techniques for Service Design in Complex Systems
2024 • Advancing Service Design 2024
Gold
Andrew Custage
The Digital Journey: Research on Consumer Frustration and Loyalty
2023 • Advancing Research 2023
Gold
Vanessa Varin
Feedback: The Other F-Word
2025 • DesignOps Summit 2025
Gold
Nalini P. Kotamraju
Two Jobs in One: Being a “Leader who is a Researcher” and a “Researcher who is a Leader"
2021 • Advancing Research 2021
Gold
Shan Shen
Translating UX Terms into Business Contexts
2023 • Design in Product 2023
Gold
Doug Powell
DesignOps and the Next Frontier: Leading Through Unpredictable Change
2025 • DesignOps Summit 2025
Gold
Louis Rosenfeld
Opening Remarks
2023 • DesignOps Summit 2023
Gold

More Videos

Victor Udoewa

"Land acknowledgments don’t actually change the allocation of power or resources; they work at the mythological level."

Victor Udoewa

Radical Participatory Design: Decolonizing Participatory Design Processes

December 10, 2021

Jennifer Strickland

"Critical design thinking tools still have value if we consciously operate within and disrupt hegemonic spaces."

Jennifer Strickland Lesley-Ann Noel

Fireside Chat: How Design Addresses a World on Fire

March 18, 2022

Jon Fukuda

"There’s a journey in growing successful design ops practice and practitioners that we’ll hear from in this theme."

Jon Fukuda

Theme One Intro

September 8, 2022

Dave Malouf

"Without real business world experience, most leaders struggle with the overwhelming amount of demands placed on them."

Dave Malouf Adrienne Allnutt Jon Fukuda Dominique Ward

The Future of DesignOps

January 8, 2024

Kevin Bethune

"We’re serving a hyper-connected, multifaceted, intersectional world, and even the planet is a stakeholder."

Kevin Bethune

Reimagining Design: Unlocking Strategic Innovation

June 8, 2022

Bria Alexander

"Sponsor sessions are completely free and offer content just as valuable as the main program sessions."

Bria Alexander

Opening Remarks

November 17, 2022

Jemma Ahmed

"We will learn from trauma-informed practices and learning science to advance how we do things."

Jemma Ahmed

Theme 2 Intro

March 10, 2022

Catherine Blizzard

"We created a decision tree to help junior staff decide which stakeholder requests to triage and which to respond to directly."

Catherine Blizzard

Using Integrated Insight to Drive Growth

March 10, 2022

Alastair Simpson

"Exceptional teams are made up of individuals who reach out beyond the traditional boundaries of their own role."

Alastair Simpson

Debunking the Myths of Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration

October 24, 2019