Leading a product to accessibility and compliance

This project was a year-long, cross-functional effort to make the product (a SaaS platform for product administration) accessible. It was a process that required strategy, persistence, and collaboration. Our work spanned education and awareness, accessibility audits, issue triage, re-design, development and ultimately delivering the first Accessibility Compliance Report for the product.

My role

Designed and led the accessibility program, ensuring engagement across the product team (UX designers, developers, technical writers, product management, and leadership).
Acted as accessibility point person, driving progress through project management, advocacy, and education.
Made the work actionable by turning spreadsheets into Jira tickets, guiding developers through fixes, and hosting cross-team sessions to resolve issues collaboratively.
Created and piloted an accessibility checklist for designers to build accessibility into the on-going design process.

Impact:

Shifted accessibility from a daunting goal to an integrated part of the software development life cycle.
Delivered compliance documentation and established a repeatable workflow for audits and compliance.
Elevated team expertise and created momentum for ongoing accessibility initiatives.
Beyond execution, I championed visibility by presenting progress to leadership and promoted our collaborative and practical approach to accessibility across the company through presentations and internal articles.