Part 4: Bringing Accessibility into the Day-to-Day

Making your digital products more accessible doesn’t necessarily require a massive overhaul overnight.

It can start with small, intentional steps, and a shared commitment across your team. You don’t have to be an expert to start creating change. You just need curiosity, care, and a willingness to look beyond your own default experience.

Start Small, But Start Now

Here are just a few simple ways to start integrating accessibility into your company's everyday design and development workflow:

Designers:

• Use accessible color palettes and test contrast ratios (try WebAIM’s Contrast Checker)
• Write clear, descriptive alt text for images* *Warning: It's important to be careful with using tools like AI for generating alt text for images as it can often fail to understand critical context; i.e. mistaking an image of a protest for a parade.
• Ensure forms have proper labels and field instructions (and error states clearly explain what the error is and how to resolve)
• Build and test keyboard navigation for all interactive elements

Developers:

• Use semantic HTML and proper heading hierarchy
• Ensure all interactive components are operable via keyboard
• Add ARIA labels where needed—but don’t overuse them
• Use tools like axe DevTools or WAVE to audit your pages

Writers & Content Creators:

• Use plain, readable language
• Structure content with headings and bullets for clarity
• Avoid vague “click here” links—make them descriptive

Bake It Into Your Culture

By now, hopefully I've instilled in you that accessibility shouldn’t be one person’s responsibility; it should be a team value. This means:

• Adding accessibility checks to your QA or design review process
• Prioritizing inclusive research and usability testing with people with disabilities
• Including accessibility in onboarding, training, and documentation
• Rewarding and celebrating accessibility efforts across the org

If your team can make accessibility a default behavior vs. an afterthought, I guarantee you’ll build stronger, more resilient, and more inclusive products.

Helpful Tools to Explore

• WAVE by WebAIM
• axe DevTools
• Google Lighthouse
• Microsoft Inclusive Design Toolkit
• The A11Y Project

The Bottom Line

Accessibility isn’t just a checklist. It’s a mindset—and a long-term investment in the kind of world we want to build.

Every decision you make in your digital products—every label, every contrast ratio, every interaction—is either creating a barrier or removing one. And while it may feel overwhelming at first, you don’t have to be an expert to get started. You just have to care enough to take the first step.

Start small, stay curious, and make accessibility a shared responsibility on your team.

Because when we design for inclusion from the beginning, we don’t just create better products—we create better outcomes for users, businesses, and society as a whole.

You’ve now got the knowledge. The laws. The benefits. The tools.

What you do next is up to you.

Let’s build a digital world where everyone gets to belong.