JENNIFER BECKER
CASE STUDY
Building a Culture of Accessibility from the Ground Up
Lead, Accessibility Team
Project Overview
As the Lead of the Accessibility Team, I was tasked with transforming accessibility from a compliance afterthought into a shared, strategic priority. Though we had two full-time accessibility testers on contract, there was little organizational alignment, limited documentation, and fragmented awareness — especially across leadership, Sales, and Marketing.
This was more than a design problem. It was a cultural one.
The Challenge: Misalignment and Missed Opportunities
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Accessibility wasn’t embedded into business workflows.
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Teams weren’t aware of our internal expertise.
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Sales struggled with customer inquiries and RFPs.
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Marketing overlooked basics like event accommodations or accessible slides.
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Even VPATs were outdated or missing.
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Without a system or sense of ownership, accessibility was reactive — often too late to make a difference.
Our Mission: Make Accessibility a Strategic Advantage
Vision: Normalize accessibility as a core part of design, development, legal, and customer experience —
not just an afterthought or technical checklist.
Process & Collaboration
Research
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Interviewed internal teams across Sales, Marketing, Product, and Legal
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Audited accessibility maturity across org and tools
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Steering member of the DEI group to surface lived experiences and barriers
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Led empathy workshops with internal audiences
Define
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Identified gaps in org awareness, policy, and technical ownership
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Documented issues across VPAT, training, legal risk, and customer experience
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Aligned with Compliance on WCAG, ACA, and Section 508 requirements
Ideate
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Co-designed training programs with Deque and external experts
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Structured support sessions to meet teams where they are
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Proposed design system & dev tooling upgrades to close accessibility gaps
Prototype
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Embedded accessibility into design system components and React library
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Annotated Figma files with accessibility requirements
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Created internal templates for VPAT, planning, and compliance processes
Test
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Standardized GAP reporting and validation protocols
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Piloted weekly open sessions (300+ attendees across roles)
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Collected feedback from internal teams, customers, and testers to evolve approach
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Used real escalations as learning and iteration moments
Key Initiatives
1. Education & Culture Shift
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Launched weekly Accessibility Support Sessions, creating a safe, collaborative space for devs, designers, and testers — now attended by 300+ participants across teams.
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Partnered with Deque University and used gamified learning to boost engagement.
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Led three and co-led two presentations across internal and external audiences, including “The Imperative of Accessibility and Inclusion in Business” at our company’s Engage conference.
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Serve on the steering committee of our Abilities DEI group, where I co-led empathy-building workshops that helped reframe accessibility as a core pillar of inclusion.
2. UX + Dev Integration
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As manager of the Neo Design System, ensured all components were accessible, documented, and tested.
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Led development of a reusable React component library with built-in accessibility patterns.
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Introduced RTL icon switching and built-in localization support.
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Required accessibility annotations in Figma as part of the design-to-dev handoff.
3. Testing & Technical Trust
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Introduced GAP reports and standardized accessibility testing protocols.
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Despite team downsizing (from 22 → 7), our hands-on testing work increased through closer integration with product teams.
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Testers flagged critical implementation issues that would have gone unnoticed in post-launch audits.
4. VPAT & Policy Overhaul
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Audited our VPAT library of 303 documents — only 3 were valid. We cleaned the archive, updated critical entries, and rebuilt a sustainable review pipeline.
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Partnered with Legal and Compliance to create accessibility planning templates aligned with WCAG 2.2, Section 508, and the Accessible Canada Act.
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Supported consultants with compliant VPAT documentation for enterprise customers.
5. Inclusive Customer & Brand Experience
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Collaborated with Marketing to improve event accessibility, onboarding docs, and external-facing materials.
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Created new onboarding playbooks to embed accessibility into early-stage planning.
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Handled all accessibility customer support escalations, ensuring feedback loops reached product teams and influenced fixes.
Section 508 Telecommunications (In Progress)
To meet new Section 508 telecommunications standards, we are actively exploring solutions for supporting Deaf and hard-of-hearing users, including investigating RTT (Real-Time Text) and RFC-4103 protocols. One of our testers — a patent-holding innovator — is leading this technically complex but critical research effort.
Results & Impact
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Accessibility now discussed early in product planning.
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Sales, Legal, and Marketing consistently engage our team.
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Streamlined and validated VPAT documentation across offerings.
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Developers seek our input proactively — not reactively.
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A lasting shift from “compliance obligation” to shared responsibility and competitive differentiator.
Reflection
This work went far beyond checking boxes or auditing color contrast. It was about changing mindsets, reshaping organizational habits, and building empathy into how we create technology.
Even through downsizing, shifting priorities, and compliance pressure, we built a lasting foundation for inclusive product design—and elevated accessibility as a core business value and competitive differentiator.
I’m deeply proud of what we built: not just tools, but a culture. One that sees accessibility not as extra work—but as essential to excellent design.