Table of contents

• Introduction
• Understanding accessibility and why it matters to me
• How I started getting more into accessibility design
• What I changed in my way of working
• Final words

est 10 min read

Introduction At Sitecore and Templafy, we worked with accessibility issues in our user interfaces implicitly our design system.

Although I don't claim expertise in designing for accessibility, I've gained valuable lessons to consider before starting designing a final outcome.

One important thing that I learned is that making a component accessible in your design system following the WCAG guidelines does not mean that your product will become more accessible. The second most important thing I learned is that accessibility design is a marathon and not a sprint.

Understanding accessibility and why it matters to me In one of my previous teams, we conducted a workshop on accessibility. The facilitator prompted us to share what accessibility meant to each of us and what came to mind when we heard or saw the word "accessibility." We discovered that everyone had different answers, none of which were alike. This highlighted how this topic can be interpreted broadly within an organization or a team.

For me, accessibility means making sure everyone can use products easily. It's not just about disabilities; it's about making better designs for everyone.

Design affects how people interact with and understand things. To make products valuable, design needs to be accessible to everyone. Accessible design is good design. Accessibility also sparks innovation in design and that is why it matters to me. Designers may balance accessibility with aesthetics and learn from diverse users, leading to more creative solutions.

From a values standpoint, ensuring a product is accessible to people with diverse abilities promotes equal access and opportunities. Ultimately, accessibility benefits everyone. Throughout our lives, most of us will encounter accessibility needs in various ways. It could be temporary, like recovering from laser eye surgery or wearing a cast for several weeks. It could also be situational; for instance, automated captioning, initially developed for users with hearing impairments, became valuable for those watching videos without audio while commuting.

How I started getting more into accessibility design In my past experiences, accessibility requirements were often handed to the design team unexpectedly, either to the design system team, sometimes even at the last minute. Despite advocating for accessibility considerations at the start of each sprint, none of our projects began with accessibility in mind. The following experiences below came at random moments in my workflow:

Theory level: