Every so often, I work with a web designer who just gets accessibility. They have a gift for creating beautiful, accessible mockups with proper color contrast, clear focus states, and account for interactivity with assistive technology.
But what happens when the product manager requests a last-minute change? Maybe the developer makes the update quickly, ships it, and accidentally breaks keyboard navigation. Likely, no one will catch it until a user complains three weeks later.
The designer has the skills. The tools are there and working great, but the process had a gap. No one was checking accessibility after changes, only during initial development.
Process is what happens when no one’s watching. It’s the checkpoints, the accountability, the documentation that ensures accessibility doesn’t get skipped when deadlines loom, or requirements change.
Add accessibility checkpoints to your existing workflow. Don’t create a separate accessibility review process. Integrate checks into what already happens.
If you do design reviews, add an accessibility check. If you do code reviews, include accessibility as a requirement. If you have a QA checklist, add keyboard testing and screen reader spot checks.
Make someone accountable at each stage. Not an accessibility specialist who reviews everything. Make the people doing the work accountable for accessibility in their domain.
Designers are accountable for contrast, and focus states in mockups. Developers are accountable for semantic HTML and keyboard access in implementation. QA is accountable for testing with actual assistive technology.
Process doesn’t have to be heavy to be effective. A two-minute keyboard test in code review catches more than an hour-long audit after launch. Small, consistent checks beat infrequent comprehensive reviews.
You can have great tools and skilled people, but without process, accessibility becomes optional. Process makes it required.
Don’t Miss Out
Get practical accessibility tips in your inbox every week.