3 tips for building an accessibility program from accessibility research experts at Duo Security and Visa 

1. Start small

When you decide you want to start an a11y champions program, it can be easy to get caught up in the details. You may feel like you have to have all of your long-term goals and key performance indicators (KPIs) for your program in permanent marker. 

Things like structure, meeting frequency, goals, and even a name can pull you away from what matters most – making your time and expertise accessible to others around you. Whether you decide to name your initiative a champions program, a group or a guild, the most important efforts are the first steps that you will take. When you’re getting started, the most important thing to do is to set yourself up with quick wins and run with them. 

If you’re a subject matter expert (SME) of one, this might look like ad hoc office hours, as Jen Smith shared with us, “these tend to be one-hour sessions, that are informal calls where folks can come ask questions to experts. They’re low effort to set up. No one really needs to approve these to get started. You can cater them to various audiences if you have to. Maybe some for designers, or developers, or maybe non-technical folks. And I find the non-structured office hours tend to create the best flow for people to pop in and build conversation.”  

Whether you have dedicated drop-in style hours a week (or month, or quarter!), or an evergreen booking link, focus on making yourself available. You’ll want to ensure that you listen without judgement, ask the right questions, and share your expertise with those who are actively seeking it out. What you’ll likely find is the ripple effect you’ve been waiting for. Repeat “customers” will turn into more exposure cross-functionally, more exposure will turn into a11y issues getting fixed, and issues fixed will turn into proactivity for future projects and helping others build the muscle of practicing inclusive product development.  

If nothing else, smaller intentional efforts like this will help you find out who your greatest accessibility partners are and get an inside look at their priorities and how you can work together to drive change. 

2. Create space for conversation and curiosity 

Accessibility champions programs should be centered around shared learning and experiences. Creating a space for those with intrinsic interests in accessibility to show up as they are, with the questions that are top of mind for them, is one of the most important parts of any growing champions initiative.  

There’s a misconception that your efforts always need to be solution focused. There is a ton of value in lighter-weight options like inviting guest speakers, hosting watch parties of user interviews or interesting webinars, or collaborating together on design reviews.   

You can even encourage asynchronous conversation outside of meetings, by creating a dedicated channel using the internal messaging tool of your choice.  This allows folks to drop in their questions or “a-ha” moments in real time, fostering a discussion from there.  

For Kaush, building a sense of community by making knowledge accessible has been an important step in establishing Duo’s program. This can be anything from socializing quarterly learnings in large team meetings to peppering in best practices into discussion guides, templates for sharing results, and more. To Kaush, these efforts “help create a common language for the community you’re starting to build” which has proven to be critical for success.   

3. Align to company level objectives 

Whether you already have a champions group, or are looking to start one, one of the biggest success factors for any accessibility initiative is cultivating buy-in and executive support. Without these, you’re more likely to experience burnout, and be limited in terms of your scope and impact. As you are building your a11y champions program’s priorities and structure, be sure to keep your company level objectives top of mind. Can you demonstrate the value of any of your accessibility champion’s efforts towards common priorities like increasing revenue and brand loyalty (spoiler alert – you almost always can!)?  

Using a combination of data and storytelling, work with your champions to garner as much visibility and exposure to leadership as you can get. But be sure to speak their language! You’ll more than likely need to adapt your messaging based on the stakeholders you’re trying to reach, but that’s where diversity of thought from your fellow champions can be invaluable. Once you can master this art, the sky is the limit for you and your accessibility champions.  

Include people with disabilities in a meaningful way

As with any accessibility initiative, it’s imperative that you include the voices of people with disabilities at the center of your efforts. If you’re using Fable Engage to include people with disabilities at every stage of product development, there are many meaningful ways you can incorporate Fable into your accessibility champions program. Too often the responsibility of educating organizations on the importance of accessibility and inclusion falls on internal employees, in most cases outside of job descriptions, because they live with a disability.  

With Fable Engage, there are many meaningful ways accessibility champions can include people with disabilities, outside of your organization, to foster learning. All of the examples below will have two components with differing degrees of time commitment focused on:  

1.  Individual learning and skill development  
2. Collective learning and socialization of findings 

Level 1: Low lift 

Tasks

1. Conduct at least one unmoderated research study for your product. If you’re already a Fable Engage user, you can leverage a Self-Guided Task  
2. Create clips and embed findings in an accessible and high-traffic place for your team 

Expected outcomes 

• Exposure to assistive technology 
• Understanding of current usability for a core user flow 
• Introduction to quantifiable metrics like the Accessible Usability Scale score (AUS) 
• Practice identifying insights and opportunities for impact 

Level 2: Medium lift 

Tasks

1. Conduct at least one Informational User Interview 
2. Host a “watch party” with your team to review and discuss the Interview 
3. Circulate lessons learned for visibility

Expected outcomes 

• Experience facilitating an interview with an assistive technology user 
• Increased understanding of assistive technology 
• Increased confidence leading an accessibility focused discussion with a group 
• Cement learnings through sharing process

Level 3: Higher lift 

Tasks

1. Run a complete study on Fable Engage for your product area 
2. Support a member of your team to initiate next steps on Fable Engage 
3. Design review, validate fixes, etc.

Expected outcomes 

• Exposure to defining research and/or testing goals 
• Experience recommending research and/or testing methods based on desired goals 
• Confidence identifying meaningful next steps 
• Hands on coaching practice

Whether you’re a subject matter expert of one or responsible for scaling your organization’s accessibility efforts, we’ve talked about how a well-defined champions program will also help you to:  

• Free up your time to work on strategic initiatives 
• Reduce burnout by sharing the responsibility of accessibility with others 
• Provide meaningful learning and professional development opportunities for your teams 
• Scale your accessibility efforts effectively 

Both Kaush and Jen shared different approaches to framing their accessibility champions groups, but an undeniable theme from both was to not forget to acknowledge your wins! After all, accessibility is a journey meant to be shared and celebrated along the way.