How to Improve Accessibility in Your Organization

💎 Accessibility For Designers Checklist (PDF: https://lnkd.in/e9Z2G2kF), a practical set of cards on WCAG accessibility guidelines, from accessible color, typography, animations, media, layout and development — to kick-off accessibility conversations early on. Kindly put together by Geri Reid. WCAG for Designers Checklist, by Geri Reid Article: https://lnkd.in/ef8-Yy9E PDF: https://lnkd.in/e9Z2G2kF WCAG 2.2 Guidelines: https://lnkd.in/eYmzrNh7 Accessibility isn’t about compliance. It’s not about ticking off checkboxes. And it’s not about plugging in accessibility overlays or AI engines either. It’s about *designing* with a wide range of people in mind — from the very start, independent of their skills and preferences. In my experience, the most impactful way to embed accessibility in your work is to bring a handful of people with different needs early into design process and usability testing. It’s making these test sessions accessible to the entire team, and showing real impact of design and code on real people using a real product. Teams usually don’t get time to work on features which don’t have a clear business case. But no manager really wants to be seen publicly ignoring their prospect customers. Visualize accessibility to everyone on the team and try to make an argument about potential reach and potential income. Don’t ask for big commitments: embed accessibility in your work by default. Account for accessibility needs in your estimates. Create accessibility tickets and flag accessibility issues. Don’t mistake smiling and nodding for support — establish timelines, roles, specifics, objectives. And most importantly: measure the impact of your work by repeatedly conducting accessibility testing with real people. Build a strong before/after case to show the change that the team has enabled and contributed to, and celebrate small and big accessibility wins. It might not sound like much, but it can start changing the culture faster than you think. Useful resources: Giving A Damn About Accessibility, by Sheri Byrne-Haber (disabled) https://lnkd.in/eCeFutuJ Accessibility For Designers: Where Do I Start?, by Stéphanie Walter https://lnkd.in/ecG5qASY Web Accessibility In Plain Language (Free Book), by Charlie Triplett https://lnkd.in/e2AMAwyt Building Accessibility Research Practices, by Maya Alvarado https://lnkd.in/eq_3zSPJ How To Build A Strong Case For Accessibility, ↳ https://lnkd.in/ehGivAdY, by 🦞 Todd Libby ↳ https://lnkd.in/eC4jehMX, by Yichan Wang #ux #accessibility

Making workplace support easy to find A recent LinkedIn poll I ran showed that 45% of people were unsure who to ask or where to go for assistance in gaining adjustments or support in their workplaces. This highlights a simple but powerful truth that it’s not just about whether support exists, but how clearly it’s communicated and how easy it is to access. You may have some really good support systems but they may not be obvious or easy to find. Too often, employees only discover support options when they’re already struggling. Clear signposting can prevent this, helping people to thrive rather than survive at work. Here are five practical ways organisations can make support and adjustments easy to find and use: 1. Create a single, visible ‘Support Hub’ Develop a central place (intranet page, Teams channel, or digital dashboard) where all information about adjustments, wellbeing, and accessibility support is stored. Include contact names, request forms, FAQs, and examples of adjustments others have used successfully. 2. Use your everyday tools effectively Make use of existing software such as Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, or Slack to share accessibility tips and tutorials. For example, highlight built-in accessibility features (dictation, screen readers, captioning) and how to activate them. 3. Map accessibility from door to desk Provide clear guidance about physical accessibility - good way marking such as how to find your way around buildings, quiet spaces, parking, toilets, and if there are sensory environments. Include visual maps and contact points for anyone who needs specific adjustments before visiting. 4. 'Normalise' asking for support - see it as optimisation tools for all. Train managers and HR teams to talk openly about adjustments as part of regular conversations for all and not only during crisis points. Build “adjustment check-ins” into one-to-ones or onboarding processes so support becomes a part of working life for all. 5. Share stories and examples Hearing from colleagues who have used adjustments helps to reduce stigma and increase uptake. Case studies, short videos, or internal blogs can demonstrate that getting support is positive and proactive not a sign of weakness and ideas can help us all. When employees know where to go and who to ask, they’re more likely to seek the help they need early. Call to action: 👉 How does your organisation show what support and adjustments are available and how easy is it to find? What helps you?

Think you have an accessibility program when you start running accessibility audits? Think again. An accessibility function is not mature just because someone is filing defects. There are several prerequisites that need to exist before the first bug is logged. 1) Governance must be reachable Decisions and priorities cannot live only in long meetings or dense decks. Staff with disabilities cannot follow decisions they cannot reach. Governance needs short forms, asynchronous access, and more than one way to find the signal. Following the "Amazon rule" of six page write ups is guaranteed to leave disabled staff in the dust 2) Workflow must be explicit If ownership and quality control live in private chats or tribal knowledge, staff with memory, processing, or fatigue disabilities are already being left behind. Documented roles, handoffs, and acceptance criteria make participation possible for everyone. 3) Remote participation must be treated as normal Programs that assume co-location or live attendance exclude people who rely on flexible schedules or alternate equipment. Remote participation for accessibility staff needs to be a first-order requirement, not a barrier. 4) Accessibility bugs need a defined place next to functional bugs When accessibility issues are always behind functional issues in triage, they never ship. When teams say “release it and fix it later,” later rarely arrives. A program is only real when accessibility defects move on the same clock as everything else and can block release when harm is predictably introduced. If the operations of the accessibility team are not accessible, the program will recreate the same exclusion it is meant to fix. Audits do not create maturity. Accessible governance, accessible workflow, equitable participation, and accountable prioritization do. #Accessibility #Equity #TechMaturity

Inclusive design is not just about the font you choose. It is about how your content behaves when it meets a different nervous system. Last week, we pruned your typography. This week, we are looking at the soil. We are auditing your media and structure. In our rush for "engagement," corporate communications often rely on visual shortcuts like flashing GIFs, color-coded alerts, and walls of emojis. Marketing calls these "hacks." I call them Barriers. When you rely on a color change to signal "danger," you lock out the colorblind. When you replace words with a string of emojis, you create chaos for a screen reader user (hearing "Face with tears of joy" five times in a row). When you post a video without captions, you tell the Deaf and Auditory Processing communities that they are not your audience. Accessibility is not a "feature" for a minority group. It is an indicator of Organizational Health. If your content requires perfect vision, perfect hearing, and neurotypical processing speed to understand... your content is flawed. Below is The Inclusive Content Audit (Part 2). We moved beyond fonts to look at media, structure, and interaction. Here are 9 Ways to Operationalize Inclusion in your content: 1. The Emoji Restraint ❌ Barrier: Emojis read aloud via screen readers as clunky descriptions. ✅ Fix: Use clear words to convey tone. Keep emojis at the end of sentences rather than in the middle. 2. The Caption Mandate ❌ Barrier: Audio/Video posted "naked." ✅ Fix: Burned-in open captions. (This helps ADHD brains like mine focus just as much as it helps Deaf users). 3. The Contrast Rule ❌ Barrier: Text over busy, semi-transparent backgrounds. ✅ Fix: Solid color backgrounds behind text blocks to reduce visual noise. 4. The "Color + Shape" Rule ❌ Barrier: Using only color to convey meaning (e.g., Red = Error). ✅ Fix: Pair color with a distinct shape or icon label. 5. The Alt-Text Discipline ❌ Barrier: Images with file names like "IMG_5920.jpg". ✅ Fix: Descriptive, concise Alternative Text. 6. The Header Hierarchy ❌ Barrier: Manually bolding text to look like a header. ✅ Fix: Using actual "Heading Styles" (H1, H2) so screen readers can navigate the structure. 7. The Motion Control ❌ Barrier: Auto-playing GIFs or flashing content. ✅ Fix: Static images or user-controlled "Play" buttons. (Protect your team from vestibular triggers). 8. The Data Summary ❌ Barrier: Complex charts with no text explanation. ✅ Fix: A simple text summary beneath the visual. 9. The Permanent Label ❌ Barrier: Form field labels that disappear once you start typing. ✅ Fix: Labels that remain visible above the field. (Reduces cognitive load and working memory strain). The Verdict: Low-friction content is high-impact content. Stop making your audience fight your design to get to your message. #Accessibility #InclusiveDesign #WCAG #Neurodiversity #Leadership #ClinicalStrategy

Are you an organization that would like to create a work environment that welcomes and allows everyone, including those with both visible and invisible disabilities, to thrive in 2025 and beyond? Here are 10 best practices for creating a disability-inclusive work environment: 1. Cultivate an inclusive culture: Foster a culture of respect, acceptance, and belonging where disability inclusion is championed by leadership and embraced by all. 2. Offer accessible hiring opportunities and processes: Ensure job postings, applications, interviews, and onboarding processes are fully accessible, with accommodations available upon request. 3. Provide disability awareness training: Educate employees and leaders about disabilities, inclusive language, and the importance of accessibility to reduce stigma and build understanding. 4. Ensure physical and digital accessibility: Design workplaces, tools, and technologies to be accessible, including ramps, assistive technology, and screen reader-compatible software. 5. Offer flexible work arrangements: Provide options like remote work, flexible schedules, and individualized accommodations to support diverse needs. 6. Create clear accommodation policies: Establish a transparent and responsive process for employees to request and receive workplace accommodations. Ensure the process of requesting and receiving reasonable accommodations is consistent, transparent, inclusive, interactive, and timely. 7. Engage disability employee resource groups (ERGs): Support and empower ERGs to provide insights, foster community, and advocate for inclusion initiatives. Ensure there is one (or more) ERG that advocates for accessibility and disability inclusion. 8. Incorporate universal design principles: Apply universal design to create environments, systems, and processes that benefit everyone, including people with disabilities. 9. Measure and monitor inclusion efforts: Track progress on disability inclusion initiatives through metrics like hiring rates, retention, and employee feedback. 10. Involve employees with disabilities in decision-making: Include employees with disabilities in policy development, product design, and workplace decisions—“Nothing About Us Without Us.” #DisabilityInclusion #Diversity #2025 #Accessibility #FutureOfWork #DEI #DEIA #Disability #Neurodiversity #Equity Image Text: Employees with disabilities can be productive and successful when the workplace is designed for everyone. @AsieduEdmund

Making your events more accessible for blind & visually impaired people really isn’t as hard as you think. Here are my top tips. 1. Provide precise venue information. Include things like clear drop off and pick up point information, what the key features of the building are, a rough description of where the toilets are, describe where the reception desk is, and let us know in advance if you’ll need a Personal Emergency Evacuation Plan completed. Bonus points for using a service like Euan's Guide or AccessAble to provide specialist access information. 2. Provide as much event information as possible. Share all key details in advance, ideally by email in an accessible format. Include timings, speaker names, attendee names, a brief agenda, and any known accessibility considerations. It helps us plan travel, support, and energy levels and it also helps us know who’s attending so when we’re surprised with a “Hey Robbie!” we can narrow it down to who it might be. 3. Food information is key. It sounds simple, but make sure menus are firstly available, then accessible - even for buffets. Relying on a fellow attendee to tell me something “looks chickeney” gives me the absolute fear. Include dietary details in an electronic format we can read with a screen reader, and avoid handwritten or printed-only menus. Tell us how food will be served so we can prepare (for example, buffet vs plated service). 4. Ask about adjustments - don’t assume you’ll know what someone needs. Just ask the question when people register. Keep it open and inclusive, such as “Do you have any access requirements you’d like us to be aware of?” 5. Provide complimentary +1 places as an adjustment - if someone needs a guide, PA, or support worker to attend with them, they shouldn’t be charged double. It’s an inclusion basic that makes a big difference. 6. Finally, provide training to your staff and event volunteers. Organisations like The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association and RNIB can help you here with things like sighted guide training. And most importantly - don’t wait until someone asks before you do this. It won’t help just blind people, it’ll help everyone. Think about this list - is there anything on here that genuine would help you as a sighted person? Build accessibility in from the start and everyone benefits. #DisabilityInclusion #Disability #DisabilityEmployment #Adjustments #DiversityAndInclusion #Content

If You're Struggling With Workplace Inclusion, Try This...   → Neurodiversity Integration Framework   Last week, I audited a Fortune 500 company's workspace. What I discovered was shocking. Their "inclusive" office was actually excluding 15% of their talent pool.   The bright fluorescent lights. The open office chaos. The rigid 9-5 schedule.   All of these were silent barriers keeping neurodivergent employees from performing at their best.   Here's what we implemented:   1.   Sensory Zones - Created dedicated quiet spaces - Installed adjustable lighting - Provided noise-canceling equipment   2.   Communication Flexibility - Introduced written and verbal instruction options - Implemented structured feedback systems - Added visual aids for complex processes     3.   Adaptive Scheduling - Flexible work hours - Remote work options - Designated decompression areas   Living with cerebral palsy taught me this:   When you design for accessibility, you create excellence for everyone. The most successful companies aren't just accepting differences - they're leveraging them.   The India Autism Center has been pioneering this transformation, offering guidance to companies ready to embrace change.   The question isn't whether to create autism-friendly workplaces.   It's why haven't we done it sooner?   #asksumit   #iac

I almost didn't post about today, which is International Day of People with Disabilities. Yes, disabled people live with disability every single day. Still, awareness days matter. They spark conversations and, ideally, actions. The difference lies in allyship: - Performative allyship: Companies post today, then go silent until next year. - Genuine allyship: Companies make progress every day. This year’s theme is “Fostering disability inclusive societies for advancing social progress.” True progress means disabled people must be seen as leaders, not just participants. Too often, we’re underestimated, told “it’s a lot of work,” or only considered for roles tied directly to our disability. I know this firsthand. I held many nonprofit PR, marketing, communications, and digital roles. It's more than enough experience for a VP role. No one asked. The one time I put my name forward, I didn’t get it. Fortunately, that changed recently! I was asked if I wanted to take on an officer role with a nonprofit board. That's why I devote much of my volunteer time with this organization more than any other. Another time, I applied to a committee addressing issues that affect all residents, including people with disabilities. The two chosen were leaders of nonprofits serving disabled communities. They didn't have someone with lived experience. That’s not inclusion, and it doesn’t advance social progress. Meanwhile, I’ve run a successful business for 20 years. Not by “resting on my laurels,” but by working hard. If companies want to foster disability-inclusive societies and advance progress, here are steps to start: 1. Normalize accessibility as part of culture, not an exception. Make accommodations seamless and proactive so disabled employees don’t have to fight for them. This fosters inclusion at the systems level. 2. Create pathways into leadership, not just entry-level roles. Mentoring and coaching should explicitly prepare disabled employees for management and executive positions, not stop at “support roles.” 3. Pairing with experienced colleagues should be reciprocal. Disabled employees bring lived expertise. Encourage two-way learning so inclusion advances social progress across the organization. 4. Invest in professional development with equity in mind. Training should be accessible, funded, and scheduled during work hours. This signals that leadership growth is valued for everyone. 5. Include disabled voices in decision-making, not just consulting. Representation must extend to strategy tables, boards, and leadership committees. Progress requires lived experience shaping policy and culture. 6. Measure and report progress. Track how many disabled employees are in leadership pipelines and roles. Transparency drives accountability and societal progress. #Accessibility #MerylMots Image: White generic person figure with a flourish around its top half and International Day of People with Disabilities

4 tips on allyship for disability inclusion at work: 1. Work on your own discomfort with disability. That's something that you can take accountability to work on yourself instead of bringing your discomfort to your disabled colleagues or expecting them to resolve it for you. 2. Meet people’s access needs without requiring them to directly disclose their disability or "prove" it. How refreshing it would be if your disabled colleagues could simply state their access needs without being asked why or for documentation. I should be able to request captions without naming a reason. I benefit from captions. It doesn't matter whether I benefit from captions due to my hearing disability or if I had another reason like an auditory processing disorder or being an English language learner. Creating this kind of environment is transformative not only for disabled employees but for everyone. 3. Once you know about an access need, keep advocating without naming names. A specific employee might have an access need like a fragrance free space, but there is no need to name them when advocating in the future. Sample script: "This isn't accessible for everyone. We need..." 4. Be the person who asks this question: "Have we considered disability + accessibility?" You don't have to know all the best practices to create change. You can be the conversation starter and the one who makes sure disability and accessibility aren't left out. Is this helpful? What other suggestions do you have? #DisabilityInclusion #Disability #WorkplaceInclusion

We’re doing to executives What inaccessible products do to users. I saw it happen in a design review. A designer said: “We need to improve accessibility to meet WCAG 2.2 AA.” I asked: “What exactly isn’t accessible?” They couldn’t point out the issue Leadership was in the room. No one asked a follow-up question. And I realized that we talk about accessibility In a way that decision-makers can’t understand. Think about it: - Inaccessible products confuse users - Inaccessible presentations confuse leadership Same problem. Different audience. So what happens? Decisions start sounding like: “I don’t fully get this… but it sounds important.” Or worse: “I don’t get this… so maybe we don’t prioritize it.” That’s how accessibility gets deprioritized Without anyone explicitly saying it. Here’s what accessible communication actually looks like: Instead of: “We need WCAG compliance.” Say: “Our checkout has 4 barriers preventing users from completing purchases. We estimate this is costing ~$47K/month in lost revenue.” One is compliance language. The other is a business problem. If you want accessibility to matter: - Define the problem clearly - Show who is affected - Quantify the impact - Estimate effort simply - Invite questions openly If leadership asks: “What’s a screen reader?” Good. That means they’re engaged. We say accessibility is about removing barriers. Then we create new ones in how we explain it. Stop presenting accessibility like a checklist. Start presenting it like a business problem no one can ignore. 👇🏽 What's your take on communicating accessibility to leadership? ♻️ Share and save this for your team. --- ✉️ Subscribe to my newsletter for accessibility and design insights here: https://lnkd.in/gZpAzWSu --- Accessibility note: The post has the same content as the attached image, titled "Leadership stops listening at WCAG." How to make accessibility decisions easy."