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
Jon Fukuda
Theme One Intro
2022 • DesignOps Summit 2022
Gold
Kate Towsey
Ask Me Anything (AMA) with Kate Towsey
2025 • Rosenfeld Community
Mandy Drew
What Role(s) Can Research Play in Responsible Design?
2021 • Advancing Research 2021
Gold
Hugh Dubberly
Problems with Problems: Reconsidering the Frame of Designing as Problem-Solving
2019 • Enterprise Community
Dr. Jamika D. Burge
Broad Strokes: Connecting Design, Research, and AI to the World Around Us
2023 • Enterprise UX 2023
Gold
Carol Massa
Designing Health: Integrating Service Design, Technology, and Strategy to Transform Patient and Clinician Experiences
2024 • Advancing Service Design 2024
Gold
James Rampton
The Basics of Automotive UX & Why Phones Are a Part of That Future
2024 • Rosenfeld Community
Bria Alexander
Opening Remarks
2023 • DesignOps Summit 2023
Gold
Deanna Washington
Scaling Success: Paving the Path from DesignOps to VP
2023 • DesignOps Summit 2023
Gold
Sam Ladner
How Research Can Drive Strategic Foresight
2022 • Advancing Research 2022
Gold
Steve Sanderson
Discussion
2015 • Enterprise UX 2015
Gold
Kate Kalcevich
Designing inclusively with AI
2024 • Designing with AI 2024
Gold
Margot Bloomstein
Fostering Trust in Your Brand and Beyond
2020 • Enterprise Community
Llewyn Paine
[Demo] Deploying AI doppelgangers to de-identify user research recordings
2024 • Designing with AI 2024
Gold
Amy Brana Stuart
Rest in Peace Fly-in-fly-out Design
2022 • Design at Scale 2022
Gold
George Zhang
UX Research Excellence Framework
2021 • Advancing Research 2021
Gold

More Videos

Abby Covert

"Diagrams provide transparency in the face of uncertainty by showing what there is to know, even if the news is not good."

Abby Covert

Stuck? Diagrams Help

October 27, 2022

Kara Kane

"I’ve worked with international counterparts through 30 calls with designers around the world."

Kara Kane

Theme One Intro

November 16, 2022

Sam Proulx

"The secret is that accessibility isn’t hard if everyone takes their small piece of the pie."

Sam Proulx

Understanding Screen Readers on Mobile: How And Why to Learn from Native Users

October 2, 2023

Ben Reason

"Making the invisible visible makes things move forward and create alignments."

Ben Reason Aline Horta Majid Iqbal Fabiano Leoni

Making the system visible: The fastest path to better decisions

November 20, 2025

Jack Behar

"Component-driven prototyping means designing with coded UI components your development team already created."

Jack Behar

How to Build Prototypes that Behave like an End-Product

December 6, 2022

Ellie Krysl

"Planned right and managed right is the key to designing it right, not just designing the right thing and building it right."

Ellie Krysl Jon Fukuda

Planned Right. Managed Right. Designed Right.

June 6, 2023

Verónica Urzúa

"We need to break the dream and move from spectators to actors who create knowledge grounded in our reality."

Verónica Urzúa Jorge Montiel

The B-side of the Research Impact

March 12, 2021

Tricia Wang

"When infrastructure breaks down, it is human infrastructure — communities and organizers — that saves the day."

Tricia Wang

Spatial Collapse: Designing for Emergent Culture

January 8, 2024

Jackie Ho

"Everyone is looking for ways to build better products and go faster, breaking down silos between business and IT."

Jackie Ho

Lead Effectively While Preserving Team Autonomy with Growth Boards

January 8, 2024