Case Study Inclusive Design Initiatives
Project Summary
Led a company-wide effort to embed inclusive design practices into daily workflows resulting in a more accessible website and stronger foundation for future development.
Key Highlights
- Set a goal of achieving WCAG 2.1 AA compliance within one year
- Delivered training to a team of 15+ designers and developers
- Created and managed an accelerated accessibility roadmap tied to seasonal business deadlines
- Updated workflows to embed accessibility best practices from design through QA
- Wrote detailed acceptance criteria to bridge gaps between accessibility standards and developer implementation
Process
To support the company's goal of building a fully accessible website, I took on the role of accessibility lead. I began by creating training programs and introducing better tools to help designers and developers understand accessibility as a core design principle. We treated accessibility issues as high-priority tasks in our Kanban system, ensuring they were consistently picked up and addressed.
I contributed directly by writing acceptance criteria and translating WCAG standards into actionable tickets. To do this, I often had to dive into dev tools and our own codebase to validate solutions and provide clear guidance. My goal was to create momentum and confidence within the team, even while we were all learning.
Results
With a clear vision, stakeholder buy-in, and a focused roadmap, we made major strides toward full accessibility before the holiday season. Our efforts helped resolve key issues, improved usability across the board, and gave the team a repeatable model for inclusive design going forward. Embedding accessibility into everyday workflows not only improved our product, but also shifted how the team thought about inclusive experiences.