The process for crafting an accessibility program from the ground up needed cross-functional collaboration
Tackling our product's accessibility began as a side project for me and slowly became a part of my role, and I became the "accessibility person" cross-functionally I assembled a small working group of Engineers, Product Owners, and Designers to plan and tackle this work. We defined high-level goals for the group and agreed on a phased approach to roll out the program. As a team we: -Hired on a contract Accessibility Consultant to help guide our efforts -Improved our own accessibility knowledge base -Hosted several accessibility training opportunities across Rocket -Created a resource guide in Notion for all things accessibility -Developed and launched a framework and program for incorporating accessibility practices, checks and balances throughout our development lifecycle -Monitored the the accessibility program to ensure its effectiveness through gathering team feedback and product audits
Wins and a plan for continued success
2 months after launching the accessibility program with three product teams, our next audit showed an approximate 24% reduction in critical and high accessibility issues. Although the working group disbanded after launching the program, I continued the monitoring of the program by gathering feedback each quarter, working with our third-party accessibility auditor on future audits and utilizing W3C's maturity framework to document our growth.
