Config 2024: Pitching accessible design like a pro | Figma

Summary

In this insightful talk, Frank, the co-founder and CEO of Divinate, emphasizes the importance of accessibility in product design. He shares strategies for pitching accessibility to stakeholders, highlighting the legal, business, and ethical reasons for its necessity. Frank's personal experience with colorblindness fuels his passion for the topic, as he navigates the challenges of convincing teams about accessibility's value. The talk provides actionable advice on understanding goals, knowing facts, speaking the right language, and ultimately, doing the work to make products accessible to all.

Takeaways

• 🎤 Speaker Introduction: The speaker, St. Frank, is the co-founder and CEO of Divinate, a tool designed to help make sense of user research, customer feedback, and product analytics quickly for better product decisions.
• 🌟 Personal Connection: St. Frank is deeply invested in accessibility due to his personal experience with severe deuteranopia, a form of color blindness, which has driven his interest in the topic.
• 📢 Accessibility Definition: Accessibility is about ensuring that all customers can perceive, understand, navigate, and interact with the products we build.
• 📚 Legal and Ethical Importance: Accessibility is not only legally required but also a moral imperative and good for business, as it improves the overall quality of products.
• 🤝 Empathy as the Core: The secret to pitching accessibility effectively is empathy, understanding the goals and language of stakeholders, and demonstrating the value of accessibility to them.
• 🎯 Goal Alignment: Understanding the goals of stakeholders is crucial for pitching accessibility, as it allows you to align the benefits of accessibility with their objectives and motivations.
• 📈 Business Benefits: Accessibility can lead to increased conversion rates, expanded market reach, and improved customer loyalty, which are all beneficial to business growth.
• 💼 Stakeholder Engagement: It's essential to engage with stakeholders like CEOs, CTOs, engineers, and designers by speaking their language and demonstrating how accessibility can enhance their work.
• 🔢 Facts and Figures: Presenting facts about the large market potential of accessibility, such as the 1.3 billion people with disabilities globally, can help make a compelling case for investment.
• 🛠️ Start Small, Think Big: Focusing on the six most common accessibility issues can significantly improve a product's accessibility, addressing 96.4% of issues found in a major study.
• 🚀 Action Over Perfection: Encouraging taking action on accessibility, starting with small improvements and gradually working towards a more accessible product, rather than waiting for the perfect solution.

Q & A

What is the main topic of the talk given by St. Frank?

The main topic of the talk is pitching accessibility to stakeholders and teams, and how to convince them of its importance in product development.

What is Divinate, and what does it do?

Divinate is a tool that helps make sense of user research, customer feedback, and product analytics quickly, enabling better product decisions. It is currently under development by St. Frank's team.

Why is St. Frank particularly interested in accessibility?

St. Frank is particularly interested in accessibility because he is severely colorblind, which has been a significant factor in his life and career.

What are the four key things to understand when pitching accessibility to different stakeholders?

The four key things to understand are the goals of the stakeholders, the facts about accessibility, speaking the target audience's language, and showing up to do the work.

What is the secret to the entire talk according to St. Frank, and why is it important in pitching?

The secret to the entire talk is empathy. It is important in pitching because it helps in understanding the product and the customer or stakeholders very well, which is essential for a successful pitch.

Why is it important to understand the goals of the stakeholders when pitching accessibility?

Understanding the goals of stakeholders is important because it allows you to align accessibility with their objectives, making it more compelling and relevant to their interests.

What is the significance of the statistic that 1.3 billion people in the world have a disability?

The statistic signifies that by making products accessible, businesses can expand their market to the size of China, which is a huge potential for growth and revenue.

What is the legal requirement for accessibility in the European Union according to the Europe Accessibility Act?

According to the Europe Accessibility Act, by 2025, products must be accessible if businesses want to operate in Europe, affecting both the private and public sectors.

What is the cost implication of making a product accessible later in the development process?

Making a product accessible later in the development process is 100 times more expensive than addressing it upfront, highlighting the importance of early consideration for accessibility.

What are the six most common accessibility issues found in the WebAIM Million Study?

The six most common issues are contrast problems, missing alt text, missing input labels, empty links, empty buttons, and missing document language.

How does St. Frank suggest approaching engineers when discussing accessibility changes?

St. Frank suggests approaching engineers as equal partners, acknowledging the workload, and offering support throughout the process to minimize the disruption and make the collaboration more effective.

What is the final 'hot take' or key takeaway from St. Frank's talk on accessibility?

The final takeaway is that accessibility is not separate from user experience; it is a fundamental part of good design, underpinned by empathy for all users, including those with disabilities.

Outlines

00:00

🎙️ Introduction to Accessibility and Pitching

St. Frank, the co-founder and CEO of Divinate, introduces himself and sets the stage for a discussion on pitching accessibility. He highlights his personal interest in accessibility, stemming from his experience as a colorblind individual. Frank emphasizes the importance of understanding the goals of stakeholders, knowing the facts about accessibility, speaking their language, and doing the work. He also teases the central theme of his talk: empathy, which he argues is crucial for effective pitching and for making products truly accessible.

05:00

💼 Understanding Stakeholder Goals and Sales Mindset

Frank delves into the first step of pitching accessibility: understanding the goals of stakeholders, such as CEOs, CTOs, and engineering managers. He stresses the importance of aligning accessibility with these goals, such as increasing conversion rates or improving business metrics. Frank also challenges the negative perception of sales, reframing it as an empathetic process of understanding the product and the customer. He encourages designers to adopt a sales mindset to effectively communicate the value of accessibility.

10:03

🔍 Identifying Stakeholder Concerns and Positioning Accessibility

In this segment, Frank addresses the concerns of various stakeholders, including engineers, clients, and other designers. He suggests that understanding their motivations and fears is key to convincing them of the importance of accessibility. For instance, engineers might be worried about rework, while clients might be concerned about lawsuits or brand image. Frank advises positioning accessibility as a solution that can enhance business outcomes, such as increasing market share or improving customer loyalty.

15:03

📈 Presenting Accessibility as an Investment and Opportunity

Frank discusses the financial implications of accessibility, arguing that it is an investment that can yield significant returns. He presents statistics to show the potential market expansion and cost savings associated with accessible design. He also highlights legal requirements in the EU and the US, emphasizing the business risks of ignoring accessibility. Frank encourages focusing on the most common accessibility issues to make tangible progress and stresses the importance of speaking the stakeholders' language to effectively communicate the value of accessibility.

20:04

🌟 Empathy and the Ethics of Accessibility

Frank emphasizes the ethical dimension of accessibility, arguing that it is not just a legal requirement but a moral imperative. He criticizes the tendency to villainize stakeholders who are resistant to accessibility, urging instead a more empathetic approach. Frank advocates for assuming good intentions and focusing on the benefits of accessibility, such as brand risk reduction and customer loyalty. He also underscores the importance of taking action and doing the work, rather than just talking about the importance of accessibility.

25:06

🚀 Conclusion: Accessibility as Part of Good Design

In his closing remarks, Frank reiterates that accessibility is not just a separate concern but an integral part of good design and user experience. He summarizes his key points: understanding stakeholder goals, speaking their language, knowing the facts, and doing the work. Frank encourages designers to take initiative and make accessibility a priority in their work, reminding them that empathy is the driving force behind effective change.

Keywords

💡Accessibility

Accessibility refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. It is about ensuring that everyone, including those with visual, auditory, cognitive, or physical impairments, can perceive, understand, navigate, and interact with the things that are built. In the video, the speaker emphasizes the importance of accessibility not just as a legal requirement but also as a business opportunity and a moral imperative, highlighting that 1.3 billion people, or 16% of the world's population, have a disability.

💡Stakeholders

Stakeholders are individuals or groups that have an interest or a stake in a business or project. In the context of the video, the speaker discusses the importance of understanding the goals and concerns of various stakeholders, such as CEOs, CTOs, engineers, and designers, when pitching the concept of accessibility. The goal is to align accessibility initiatives with the stakeholders' objectives to ensure buy-in and support.

💡Empathy

Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of others. The speaker argues that empathy is the secret to pitching accessibility effectively. It involves understanding not only the needs of users with disabilities but also the perspectives and goals of team members and stakeholders. The speaker suggests that designers often lack empathy for their colleagues, which hinders the creation of accessible products.

💡Sales

In the video, sales is reframed as a process of empathy, where understanding the product and the customer is key to successful persuasion. The speaker challenges the negative perception of sales among designers and encourages them to view it as an essential skill for advocating for accessibility. The pitch for accessibility is essentially a sales pitch that requires designers to 'sell' the benefits to various stakeholders.

💡Design Systems

Design systems are a set of reusable design components, guidelines, and practices that ensure consistency and efficiency in product design. The speaker mentions Design Systems teams as one of the stakeholder groups that need to be convinced about the importance of accessibility. A well-thought-out design system can incorporate accessibility from the start, making it easier to create products that are usable by everyone.

💡Colorblindness

Colorblindness is a condition where an individual has reduced sensitivity to certain colors, often red and green. The speaker discloses being severely colorblind, which has been a significant reason for their interest in accessibility. This personal connection to the issue illustrates the importance of designing for a diverse range of users, including those with visual impairments.

💡Legal Requirements

Legal requirements refer to the mandatory standards and regulations that must be met to ensure accessibility. The speaker mentions that accessibility is not only about doing the right thing but also about complying with laws such as the European Accessibility Act and Section 508 in the US. These laws impose accessibility standards on products and services to protect the rights of people with disabilities.

💡Business Benefits

The business benefits of accessibility include expanding the market, increasing customer loyalty, and reducing the risk of legal action. The speaker argues that making products accessible can open up a market the size of China, which represents a significant business opportunity. Additionally, accessible products can lead to higher user satisfaction and reduced costs associated with retrofitting accessibility features.

💡User Research

User research is the process of gathering information about users to inform and validate design decisions. The speaker emphasizes the importance of user research in understanding the needs of people with disabilities and incorporating those insights into product design. This research can reveal accessibility issues and provide opportunities to improve the user experience for all users.

💡Product Analytics

Product analytics involves the measurement and analysis of user interactions with a product to improve its design and functionality. The speaker mentions that their company, Divinate, is building a tool to help make sense of user research, customer feedback, and product analytics quickly. This tool can help designers and stakeholders understand the impact of accessibility on product performance and user satisfaction.

💡Prototyping

Prototyping is the process of creating a sample or model of a product to test and refine its design. In the script, the speaker suggests making new versions of design components with improved accessibility as a form of prototyping. This iterative process allows designers to experiment with different solutions and demonstrate the benefits of accessible design to stakeholders.

Highlights

Speaker T Frank emphasizes the importance of pitching accessibility as a critical aspect of product development.

T Frank, co-founder and CEO of Divinate, discusses the significance of accessibility in enhancing product decisions through user research and analytics.

Personal motivation for accessibility advocacy stems from T Frank's experience as a severely colorblind individual.

The talk introduces four essential elements for pitching accessibility: understanding goals, knowing facts, speaking the target audience's language, and doing the work.

The core message of the talk is the importance of empathy in design, particularly in the context of accessibility.

A call to action for designers to practice empathy not just with users but also with colleagues and stakeholders.

The necessity of reframing sales in design as an empathetic process of understanding and meeting the needs of both the product and the customer.

Identifying and aligning with the goals of stakeholders such as CEOs, CTOs, and engineering managers to successfully pitch accessibility.

The impact of accessibility on business metrics like conversion rates and customer loyalty.

Legal requirements and the financial benefits of accessibility, including avoiding lawsuits and expanding the market.

The potential market expansion due to accessibility, with 1.3 billion people having a disability globally.

The cost-effectiveness of incorporating accessibility from the start versus retrofitting it later, with a 100-fold increase in cost.

Common accessibility issues identified in web design and their prevalence, highlighting areas for immediate improvement.

A focus on the top six web accessibility issues that account for 96.4% of problems, providing a tangible starting point for improvement.

The importance of speaking the stakeholders' language and avoiding condescension when advocating for accessibility.

The role of designers in taking initiative and doing the work to integrate accessibility into the design process without waiting for permission.

Accessibility as an integral part of user experience and good design, not a separate entity.

The conclusion that empathy is the foundation for pitching and implementing accessibility in product development.

Transcripts

[Music]

config 2024 how we

doing uh they just told me backstage

that I'm not supposed to Stage dive or

do crowd work so you all are good you

can chill uh how's it going my name St

Frank I'm going to talk about pitching

accessibility like a pro basically how

to convince your stakeholders your team

that it's worth working on in the first

place my name is t Frank co-founder CEO

and designer of divinate divinate is a

tool that helps you make sense of user

research customer feedback and product

analytics which is what we're building

right now uh helps you make sense of all

that stuff really fast so that you can

make better product decisions it's the

kind of tool that I as a designer have

always wanted so we're building it uh

shout out Tyler

uh before this I worked at Stark Stark

is a set of tools for designers and

developers to make their products

accessible and fun fact about myself I

am severely duter ropia colorblind if

you don't know that's red green color

blind um it's a big reason thank you

I've been it my whole life uh it's a big

reason why I became interested in

accessibility in the first

place so before we get to into the weeds

what is accessibility

why does it matter why am I pitching it

to my team it's super possible that a

friend dragged you here maybe a coworker

said sign up for this slot maybe you

wanted to see the talk before mine and

you're stuck here welcome everyone's

welcome uh so accessibility what is it

accessibility is about ensuring that uh

our customers can perceive understand

navigate and interact with the things

that we build that sounds like a good

thing right why does it matter well for

one it's legally required

um it's also good for business it makes

our products better uh and ultimately

it's the right thing to do but we're

going to talk about that we'll get there

so the

pitch if you tuned out right now don't

don't do that but if you tuned out right

now these four things are the four

things you have to know whether you're

pitching to a CEO your engineering team

Design Systems team whoever it is these

four things you have to understand their

goals very very well you have to know

the facts about accessibility speak your

target audience's language and show up

and do the work so you can tune out if

you want but don't tune out I think I

think that there's value in here so bear

with

me spoiler alert the secret to this

whole entire talk is empathy and I know

you're thinking every single design talk

literally ever talks about empathy

you're correct we talk about it all the

time but there with with me I just got a

microphone but bear with me uh yeah so

uh empathy we talk about all the time

bear with me because I think that it's

different than you might

think designers aren't as empathetic as

we say we

are I know I literally just said that

the secret is empathy and we talk about

empathy all the time and it's true but

if we were as empathetic as we say we

are our products would be accessible

usability across the entire industry

would be better and honestly we'd be

doing a lot more user research design

Twitter would be a beautiful peaceful

awesome place and it's not is

it we talk a big game I mean look at

these user centered human centered

empathy mapping empathy is in the name

we talk about it so much but what about

empathy for the people that we work with

for our Engineers for our product

managers love you guys for our

stakeholders other designers with

different skill sets than us people who

are newer in their career people who

work at smaller companies than ours

bigger companies than

ours we lack empathy for one another to

an extreme degree and that's required

for a good pitch like I said the secret

is empathy it's empathy for the people

that we work with without that we won't

have a strong pitch

because pitching is

sales so many of us designers think

about sales in a negative way we picture

used car

dealers we we think about the the slack

Channel with the hooting and the

hollering and we get scared and we close

the tab and we go back to The Design

Channel where everyone's

cool we need to be able to sell as

designers to be able to sell to clients

to be able to sell internally to create

products that can be sold and to

understand how the products are sold

that we create because sales is about

understanding the product in this case

accessibility and the customer or

stakeholders very very well now if you

don't understand the product and you

don't understand the customer you'll

find that you struggle to convince

people of much of anything if you

believe in the product accessibility and

you understand it hey and you're

speaking to the things that people care

about you'll find that it's much easier

to convince people of things we have to

reframe the concept of sales no more

used car dealerships stop thinking about

the earpieces ping forth in the the loud

office no more Wolf of Wall

Street sales is empathy hot take the

first step in this process

was understand their goals why is that

because when we speak to the things that

people care

about they listen and that is a practice

in

empathy so let's get into it step one

understand their goals you have to

figure out who you're going to talk to

identify the stakeholder whether it's

like a CEO CTO engineering managers

Design Systems team other designers

again whoever it is identify that person

and how their job is measured

what does success look like for them

often the answer to this question is

like business numbers going up and to

the

right how do you get them promoted how

do you make them look so good at their

job that when they make movements

towards accessibility they get promoted

they move up through the corporate

ladder we have to remember that when

we're selling something we're not just

selling the literal thing we're selling

who you're becoming now I know this is

like a basic reductive example Apple

does this when we buy airpods we're not

buying airpods cuz they have the best

sound quality we're buying

airpods we're buying airpods because we

want to look like the type of people who

wear airpods right now again reductive

it's basic but we have to think when

we're pitching accessibility who are

they becoming when they make movements

towards accessibility who are our

stakeholders becoming we have to

position accessibility to serve those

things how is their job measured how do

you get them promoted who are they

becoming let's take an example like

conversion rate people like when people

buy their stuff that's good let's say

that your team measures conversion

pretty actively and you have a button in

your flow that doesn't have good

contrast ratios basic example right when

we talk about changing that button don't

say this isn't accessible we're doing

bad things say I think it would be

better if people could read this button

what if we increase the contrast here

are some examples and when you ship that

my bet is you do see a lifting

conversion and you can tell people look

I helped the business I made my

stakeholder look good and a trojan horse

made accessibility

better so if you don't

know what people care about you don't

know how they're measured you have no

idea we can ask them if you're afraid of

asking your stakeholders how they're

measured what they care about we can

guess what do your product managers care

about well you've probably heard the

phrase what gets measured gets managed

another way people say this is like the

purpose of a system is what the system

does that's my co-founder's favorite um

whatever your organization is

outputting that is what is being

rewarded and measured internally right

so if your team likes to Output as many

features as possible as quickly as

possible your product managers are

probably measured on out output when

they ship something they get promotions

so we have to position accessibility to

speed us up right if we make something

accessible now we don't have to come

back later and retrace our steps and

redo all this work that makes us save

time accessibility also makes our

products better for everyone really

simple quick example when you're

designing a screen reader experience

you're often thinking about the keyboard

navigation keyboard navigation helps

power

users so it helps everyone right people

use products that are better more often

and this can serve things like

activation retention churn time spent on

the platform people use products that

are good more often right what about

your SE Suite what does your seite care

about it is really really easy for us to

forget that people with our CET acronym

CEO CTO they are human beings they're

people so they have wants needs desires

hopes dreams they probably care about

profits Market

expansion they want their business to do

well they probably have good

intentions again hopes dreams desires if

your company's small enough you can

literally just ask

them hopefully you know their goals but

you can ask if your company's really

really big and you have stated goals for

the year you have okrs level

accessibility up to those things talk

about how accessibility serves your

okrs what about your engineer

what do your engineers care about what

are their concerns uh in my experience

Engineers really don't like when you

change things and make them redo work

over and over they don't they don't like

that especially when it's like halfway

through being built they hate that

accessibility can mean having to do a

lot of rewrites a lot of rework that can

be painful so what do we do for one we

establish the process

early but also we approach them

gracefully as equal Partners we say hey

I know this is a lot of work but I'm

going to be with you every step of the

way working through this we're going to

chip away okay ask your engineers how

they're measured hopefully the answer

isn't like lines of code hopefully the

answer is like quality of thought good

code output business metrics things like

that what about your clients agencies

Freelancers this one's for you um

honestly the answer is kind of the same

as the seite uh they want their business

to do well they don't want to be sued

food they probably don't want to make a

product that harms people I hope don't

work for those clients um if you're

doing freelance if you're working with

clients never sell accessibility as an

upsell it's not it's part of the process

so if they ask you why are we working on

accessibility you say I don't want you

to be sued uh I don't put my name on

things that aren't accessible and it's

part of the

process what about other designers what

do us designers care about the common

objections that I hear to accessibility

are the time it takes it's a lot of work

it's kind of hard accessibility can be

ugly what about our established brand or

established design system honestly a

lack of understanding and feeling like

it's really

technical if you reverse it these reveal

a ton about what designers care

about we like to have time to work on

the things we're working on so we can

ensure that they're good having a

manageable workload means our product

can be better

right we don't want to step on the toes

of the brand we know that brand is

important and when a complicated design

system is in play our jobs are more

complicated and the product feels more

complicated right and yeah accessibility

can feel really Technical and that can

make us as designers feel kind of

insecure I felt that

often you know what's worse for your

brand than a new color

being sued it's way worse um it's like

really bad for it also there are many

beautiful accessible products there's a

ton of

them apple has a bunch so we have to

understand the people we're talking to

and their goals right the things that

they care about their motivations their

fears understand those things really

well talk to them

ask so if you're taking

notes take your pen and pencil out

there's some stuff to write down there's

cool numbers in here you got to know the

facts

okay before we get to numbers remember

that accessibility is an

investment it is and this looks like a

smart crowd so you probably intuitively

know this but organizations want a

return on their investment this

transcends the Spectrum from private to

public sectors tiny little startups to

Giant Enterprises every organization

wants a return on their investment when

you put time money and resources into

something you want to see that come back

in some measurable

way so we have to show that

accessibility can return on that

investment the good news is we can do

that through things like expanding your

Market companies love this kind of thing

if you can sell your product to more

people you can make more money it's a

good thing but like how how much can you

expand your market right 1.3 billion

people in the world have a disability

that is 16% of all of humans for context

China's population is 1.4 billion that

means when we make our products

accessible we open up our product to a

market the size of

China now Counterpoint if we're actively

ignoring accessibility today that means

we're ignoring a market the size of

China but here's something to keep in

mind there is no demographic for

disability that means you can't exclude

disability in your segmentation there's

no such thing as saying but our users

aren't disabled you can't know that it's

never going to be a thing it's never

going to be true don't be a liar every

demographic has disabled people every

single one you can't segment away

disability okay so the

numbers you want to do business with

Europe you have to be

accessible in 2022 the EU passed the

Europe accessibility act that says by

2025 that's coming up by 2025 your

product has to be accessible if you want

to do business in Europe whether it's

the private or the public sector

so make your product accessible if you

want to do business in Europe what about

the public sector in the US section 508

in uh 1998 Congress amended the

Rehabilitation Act of 1973 with Section

508 ignore all that section 508 is what

you need to know this says that if you

take Fe Federal funding at all your

organization needs to be accessible

inside and out the implication of that

is if you buy from a software vendor

that software needs to be accessible or

else you run the risk of losing Federal

funding that means schools nonprofits

government organizations need to be

accessible This Is Us selling Revenue

potential to our companies a market the

size of China Europe and the public

sector in the US us billions of dollars

of value

billions we can also save money

obviously like I've said we're trying to

avoid

lawsuits but starting with accessibility

up front could save us a bunch of money

but how much money this seems fake

because it's an even 100 this is a real

stat this is real making something

accessible later is 100 times more

expensive if I spend $1 today I saved my

s $100

tomorrow that's wild what do you do you

make it accessible now right save

yourself some money

start but where where or where do you

begin there's so much to do right yeah

it can feel that way I have not even

lightly scratched the surface of

accessibility today there's so much but

let's take one step back and remember

that

95.9% of homepages on the internet are

not accessible and yes that is a lot and

yes this means the internet is an

inhospitable Wasteland for people with

disabilities but let's reframe that

4.1% don't you want to be in the 4.1% of

products that are accessible to be a

front runner to show that you you care

about your customers to that degree to

build that Customer Loyalty I think this

is a huge

opportunity so here's where you focus

these six things let me run out of the

way these six things um this is from the

web aim million study a study looks like

at the top 1 million web pages on the

internet and these are the six most

common issues okay

81% 81% of websites have contrast issues

hey designers that's us we can fix that

in fig

mode the other ones are uh alt text

missing alt text missing input labels

empty links empty buttons missing

document language

54.5% are missing alt text if you don't

know alt text is the description of an

image for a screen reader we control

that too we can make suggestions in our

design tool when we QA when we check our

Engineers work we can say hey I noticed

this doesn't have alt text on it what if

it said

this now if we focused on these six

issues we will have made massive

progress but again how much progress

really these issues make up 96.4% of all

accessibility issues found in the study

to me that makes it way more

tangible now it's so possible that your

product your website have some deepr

rooted hard-to fix accessibility issues

like misuse of Arya maybe you have

heading levels out of order maybe you

designed an IOS app and you didn't use

voiceover maybe you have no landmarks

aggressive animations that can't be

turned on and off those are real hard

problems but it's important to remember

that accessibility is a journey you have

to start chiseling away at the Block one

chip at a time

time all right you got to speak your

stakeholders language designers

accessibility Advocates I love you you

have good intentions but I'm speaking

directly to some of you okay with the

way you speak today you're acting like

your stakeholders are

villains you got to stop that just stop

we can't speak down to people we can't

talk to people like they're actively

trying to harm people with disabilities

it's not how convince people to change

their

behavior just not you can't shame people

into agreeing with you people stick

their head in the standing they stop

listening you have to assume good

intentions with your stakeholders we

have to assume that they're on the same

team as us they probably just don't know

anything about accessibility they may

have never been exposed to it they might

have a different value system than you

and that's okay we just can't condescend

we can't act like we're better than our

stakeholders because we know about

accessibility because we think we're in

the moral

right oh about the ethics yes the ethics

yes this is the right thing to do it is

but you have to remember that selling an

ideology is really really hard and yes

Society it is the problem here and yes

the way things have been built and

designed for years have created

institutional problems for people with

disabilities and yes people with dis

abilities are tired of being ignored but

that doesn't mean that we get to skip

the pitch does it feel icky to have to

feel like you're selling accessibility

maybe it doesn't matter because at the

end of the day Optics and signaling

don't make our products accessible

doesn't matter how good we are or how

smart we are or how much we think we're

in the moral right or how much we think

we know if we haven't made any

measurable change for people with

disabilities all we've done is inflate

our own Egos and that doesn't do

anything positive for disabled people

[Applause]

so how do you talk to your stakeholders

through things like brand risk these are

words they know okay use these things

brand risk if you get sued it's bad for

your brand it's really expensive not

good I said it like a ton of times do it

elevated craft if you're organization

measures this that's really cool when

you make your product accessible make it

better for everyone customer loyalty

when something feels like it's made for

me I love that thing and I'm going to

tell people about it and we talked about

expanding your Market that's a good

thing at the end of the day these all

boil down to having more money in the

bank either uring more or keeping the

money you have pretty

straightforward but let's say you do all

this you understood their goals you even

asked them what are your goals you you

came with facts you spoke their language

and no one cares what do you do

you do the work you just do it just

start just start doing the work you

catch a color combination that's not

accessible make a suggestion make a new

version of that component maybe multiple

iterations you show your team and you

just

go you got to start indexing all of the

issues across your product look for all

of your accessibility issues and write

them

down stop asking permission stop waiting

around you have to be the person who is

constantly but graciously raising your

hand to remind your team to think about

accessibility when we QA we need to Q QA

for accessibility we need to flag the

issues we find with our Engineers flag

our issues with our PMS when we design

we need to design things that are

accessible from the beginning we need to

document the intended assisted

technology experiences our jobs aren't

done when we do desktop tablet and

mobile if we haven't even thought about

how a screen reader or voiceover or

TalkBack listens to our designs we're

leaving out a massive portion of the

experience we're leaving it up to chance

at best and other people at worst in

Design Land we have the power to make so

much change to suggest this stuff to

think about it up front you just got to

start you have to be high agency you

have to stop waiting for a seat at the

table and to pull up the chair make the

changes do the work also find out the

problems that your product has in the

first place you need to be talking to

your customers more research will reveal

so much about your product about

usability problems mental model problems

all of that but accessibility comes up

naturally you can test for accessibility

specifically and that's important but it

comes up I've had people in research

sessions tell me I can't read this text

it's too small or the contrast is too

low that's an accessibility issue that I

can fix talk to your customers all right

I have one more molten lava hot take you

ready

brace

yourselves accessibility is literally

just user

experience it's true the deeper you get

into the space the more you'll realize

that it's just good design these four

steps understand their goal speak their

language know the facts do the work

those things are the same things you'll

do when you're pitching good design to

do research and accessibility

because at the end of the day the thing

underpinning all of it is having empathy

for the people that we work with and

speaking their language in order to

affect change thank you very much my

name is Dr Frank go try divinate d.

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