How to integrate digital Accessibility in your Organization

This article is about how digital accessibility can be sustainably integrated into the corporate structure. We often see clients implement accessibility only once: They receive a report, optimize the website, and then nothing else happens.

This is not a sustainable strategy. During the next optimization or redesign of the website, the topic of accessibility often falls by the wayside, and in two years at the latest, they have to start all over again. This leads to wasted resources and increases the risk of complaints from market surveillance or other regulatory bodies because accessibility has not been permanently embedded. Today, I would like to present strategies for permanently embedding the topic within the organization.

The focus is primarily on large organizations that require a systematic strategy. For smaller companies, it is often sufficient for an internal person or an external consultant to take care of the issue. In larger organizations, however, accessibility must be embedded in the company's organizational structure—that is, it must be integrated into the company in such a way that it is sustainably considered in all relevant areas.

Summary - TLDR

Many companies only address accessibility for a short period (e.g., after an audit) instead of integrating it permanently into their processes. This leads to wasted resources and legal risks. To sustainably embed accessibility in the organization, a systematic strategy is needed, especially in large organizations.

  1. Responsibilities
    • A dedicated contact person or a specialized team is necessary.
    • "Everyone is responsible" rarely works in practice → risk of responsibility diffusion.
    • Adequate expertise, resources, and training measures are crucial.
  2. Measurable Goals
    • Document progress using key performance indicators (e.g., number of errors, complaints).
    • Regular reporting for visibility and management acceptance.
  3. Integration into the Development Cycle
    • Accessibility must be part of every development and optimization process.
    • All changes to digital products must be checked for accessibility check.
  4. Cross-departmental coordination
    • Avoid silos and ensure consistent implementation.
    • Centralized control and exchange between teams are necessary.
  5. Knowledge management & documentation
    • Collect and distribute information on standards, tools, and best practices.
    • Ongoing documentation and reporting are mandatory.
  6. Continuing education & awareness-raising
    • Continuous training and resource provision.
    • Onboarding of new and external employees must include accessibility.
    • Raising awareness of legal and societal significance.
  7. Tools & Design Libraries
    • Provide and update appropriate tools.
    • Make design and component libraries accessible.
  8. Regular Audits
    • Annual review of all products.
    • Monitoring of new standards (e.g., WCAG updates).
  9. Community & Maturity Model
    • Build a community of practice and involve stakeholders.
    • Use the maturity model to make progress measurable.

Sustainable accessibility can only succeed if it is anchored as a permanent process in structures, responsibilities, and culture – with clear responsibilities, measurable goals, continuous training, appropriate tooling, and regular audits.

The Accessibility Manager

The first step is to name a responsible person or team to manage accessibility. The size of this team depends on the organization and the number of digital products. For example, if there is only one web shop and one app, a single person can often be sufficient – ​​including a substitute to cover absences due to vacation, illness, or employee turnover.

In an organization with many digital products, it can be useful to have a team dedicated to accessibility and actively driving the issue forward within the organization.

You often hear, "Everyone is responsible for accessibility – developers, designers, product owners, and so on." This is correct in theory, but it rarely works in practice. Almost all organizations demonstrate that when everyone is responsible, ultimately no one is truly responsible. The issue diffuses – in technical terms, this is called "diffusion of responsibility."

This means that, in the best case scenario, everyone does a little bit in their own area. Normally, and unfortunately, this is often the case, everyone thinks, "The others will take care of it, not me." According to Murphy's principle, exactly what can go wrong will go wrong – and unfortunately, a lot often goes wrong in accessibility.

The "everyone is responsible" model can only work if everyone involved is motivated, has sufficient experience with accessibility, and regularly works with it in sprints or other formats. In most cases, however, this is not the case.

That's the reason why you always need a central contact person or a team that actively drives the issue forward. These people must be technically competent – ​​you can't just deploy anyone who has no experience, is unmotivated, and merely formally fulfills the role. This approach won't produce sustainable results.

This also means that the responsible person must be appropriately trained if they don't yet have sufficient knowledge. They must also have the necessary resources. If, for example, only 10% of working time is allocated to accessibility and the rest of the tasks are done elsewhere, in my experience, this doesn't work – the topic falls by the wayside. At least 50% of working time should therefore be devoted to digital accessibility.

Measurable Goals

So what does it take to truly advance accessibility in an organization? A key aspect is measurable goals. Without such metrics, you'll hardly make any progress. There are various indicators: for example, the number of accessibility errors found or complaints received. These metrics help measure progress and make successes visible.

For example, you can set a goal to fix a certain number of bugs in digital products. It's important to document this so you can track how many problems have been resolved and ensure that it's a continuous improvement process. This is one of the key aspects for sustainably embedding accessibility in the organization.

Integration into the development cycle

Another important point is the integration of accessibility into the product lifecycle. Digital products such as websites or apps typically have a development cycle. It is crucial that accessibility is integrated into this cycle from the very beginning – not just as an afterthought, but as an integral part of product development.

For example, in a development cycle, issues are identified, these issues are resolved, tested, and the new product is released. After that, the cycle begins again: You check for errors or optimization needs again, implement adjustments, test them, and release them again.

Various people are involved within this cycle: designers, UX teams, developers, test managers, and often also product owners. Accessibility must be consistently considered throughout this process. As soon as an iteration takes place – that is, when something is added or removed – it must be assessed whether this has a positive or negative impact on accessibility.

This is particularly important in e-commerce or online banking, where many services run in the background: Integrating or removing a payment service, adjusting a cookie banner, or adding a security certificate can impact accessibility. Every change to the system should therefore be reviewed for its impact.

To make thisw work, everyone involved must know what to look for to ensure accessibility. In practice, the product owner should keep this in mind, but they often lack sufficient accessibility expertise. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the accessibility expert or team within the organization to continuously check that the topic remains anchored in the development cycle and is implemented accordingly.

Furthermore, all accessibility activities and measures within the company must always be documented and verifiable to ensure a sustainable process.

Cross-company coordination

Accessibility activities must also be coordinated across teams. If a company has multiple digital products, several teams are usually working on them. In my experience, collaboration between these teams is often poor in larger companies. Often, silos exist that work in isolation from one another and develop their own solutions.

This problem occurs both in companies that have emerged through mergers or acquisitions – and therefore have different working methods and philosophies – and in companies that have evolved over time. In both cases, it becomes apparent that teams often operate independently and lack consistency, for example, in UX or UI design. Corporate design is often implemented only rudimentarily, and accessibility easily fades into the background.

Therefore, a central person or team is needed to ensure that accessibility is considered across all teams. This task includes not only implementation but also communication between teams and ensuring a consistent approach.

Knowledge Management

An important task of accessibility consultants is the acquisition, securing, and dissemination of information. This includes, for example, informing about new standards such as B.C.R.G. 2.2, new versions of EU standards, tools, or new procedures for certain UI elements. This information must be collected and distributed to the teams – whether via Slack, intranet, or other channels. This is crucial, as most employees work in their own areas and otherwise have little to no knowledge of current developments in accessibility.

Documentation

Another crucial point is the topic of key performance indicators and reporting. As already mentioned, measurable goals are extremely important. This particularly includes creating reports for line managers. Organizations today operate according to the principle: If it can't be measured, it won't be implemented. Reporting is therefore an essential tool for making progress visible. Managers may be less interested in the level of accessibility itself than in the progress achieved. Regular reporting allows for transparent measurement and management of progress.

Continuing Education and Awareness Raising

Continuing education and the provision of materials are often underestimated. When new literature or resources become available, they should be made accessible to employees and project participants so they can continuously expand their knowledge.

When new resources become available, they must be made easily accessible to employees – for example, via the intranet, libraries, or internal knowledge platforms. The same applies to continuing education. This topic is unfortunately often underestimated: It is often said that consultants already exist, so why invest thousands more in continuing education?

Yet continuing education is essential today. In principle, all departments should engage in continuous education and stay up to date with their knowledge. This is particularly important for accessibility, as standards and tools are constantly evolving. The appropriate resources must also be provided for this, as not everyone can familiarize themselves with the topics.

Optimizing the tool stack

Another key issue is tooling. Unfortunately, it is often difficult to introduce new tools in large organizations – for security reasons or due to organizational restrictions. Installing software is often problematic in areas such as public, retail, finance, insurance, or healthcare. Developers, UX teams, or external partners have a little more flexibility here, but it is still important to ensure that everyone can use the tools they need for their work.

In the web sector, this is somewhat easier: Many tools are available for free or already exist, such as browser development tools or web developer toolbars like Firefox. Development environments often also include testing tools. Nevertheless, it is important to also introduce new tools that better suit working methods or offer additional features. Especially in the app sector, new tools that make work easier or improve accessibility testing are regularly appearing.

There are also paid tools, but these may be necessary to better consider accessibility.

Improving Design and Component Libraries

Another key issue is the acquisition and optimization of frameworks and libraries commonly used in large organizations. In addition to the design specifications from the corporate design, there are development libraries and frameworks that have been adapted to the organization's own infrastructure or working methods. These must be checked for accessibility and optimized accordingly so that they can be used effectively. This is a long-term task, but it cannot be postponed and should be continuously developed.

Another very important point is the creation and maintenance of knowledge databases. Essentially, this means collecting experience and knowledge from the organization and preparing it so that it is accessible to all employees – for example, via internal wikis. Employees can enter information themselves, which is useful, but someone needs to review the content: Is it correct, well-structured, and up-to-date? This task is ideally handled by an internal accessibility consultant with specialist expertise.

Knowledge Management

An important task of BF consultants is the acquisition, securing, and dissemination of information. This includes, for example, informing about new standards such as B.C.R.G. 2.2, new versions of EU standards, tools, or new procedures for certain UI elements. This information must be collected and distributed to the teams – whether via Slack, intranet, or other channels. This is crucial, as most employees work in their own areas and otherwise have little to no knowledge of current developments in accessibility.

Documentation

Another crucial point is the topic of key performance indicators and reporting. As already mentioned, measurable goals are extremely important. This particularly includes creating reports for line managers. Organizations today operate according to the principle: If it can't be measured, it won't be implemented. Reporting is therefore an essential tool for making progress visible. Managers may be less interested in the level of accessibility itself than in the progress achieved. Regular reporting allows for transparent measurement and management of progress.

Continuing Education and Awareness Raising

Continuing education and the provision of materials are often underestimated. When new literature or resources become available, they should be made accessible to employees and project participants so they can continuously expand their knowledge.

When new resources become available, they must be made easily accessible to employees – for example, via the intranet, libraries, or internal knowledge platforms. The same applies to continuing education. This topic is unfortunately often underestimated: It is often said that consultants already exist, so why invest thousands more in continuing education?

Yet continuing education is essential today. In principle, all departments should engage in continuous education and stay up to date with their knowledge. This is particularly important for accessibility, as standards and tools are constantly evolving. The appropriate resources must also be provided for this, as not everyone can familiarize themselves with the topics.

Optimizing the tool stack

Another key issue is tooling. Unfortunately, it is often difficult to introduce new tools in large organizations – for security reasons or due to organizational restrictions. Installing software is often problematic in areas such as public, retail, finance, insurance, or healthcare. Developers, UX teams, or external partners have a little more flexibility here, but it is still important to ensure that everyone can use the tools they need for their work.

In the web sector, this is somewhat easier: Many tools are available for free or already exist, such as browser development tools or web developer toolbars like Firefox. Development environments often also include testing tools. Nevertheless, it is important to also introduce new tools that better suit working methods or offer additional features. Especially in the app sector, new tools that make work easier or improve accessibility testing are regularly appearing.

There are also paid tools, but these may be necessary to better consider accessibility.

Improving Design and Component Libraries

Another key issue is the acquisition and optimization of frameworks and libraries commonly used in large organizations. In addition to the design specifications from the corporate design, there are development libraries and frameworks that have been adapted to the organization's own infrastructure or working methods. These must be checked for accessibility and optimized accordingly so that they can be used effectively. This is a long-term task, but it cannot be postponed and should be continuously developed.

Another very important point is the creation and maintenance of knowledge databases. Essentially, this means collecting experience and knowledge from the organization and preparing it so that it is accessible to all employees – for example, via internal wikis. Employees can enter information themselves, which is useful, but someone needs to review the content: Is it correct, well-structured, and up-to-date? This task is ideally handled by an internal accessibility consultant with specialist expertise.

Regular audits

Equally essential is the regular audit of all relevant content for accessibility. If multiple websites or applications exist, the responsible person should check at least once a year for any deterioration and initiate appropriate measures.

The responsible person or team must also monitor changes and deterioration in digital products and report the relevant information back to the responsible parties. For example, there are new standards such as BCRG 2.2, which will likely soon be integrated into EU standards. Aspects such as target size must then be considered during optimization.

Another key point is employee training. It is not possible to expect everyone to familiarize themselves with accessibility completely independently. Employees should be able to analyze individual problems in a structured manner and find solutions – this is a basic prerequisite for digital work. In addition, however, systematic training in accessibility must be provided, at least for a sufficient proportion of employees, to ensure that the topic progresses within the organization.

Raising awareness is also very important. It should be communicated why accessibility is important – both from a legal perspective and from an inclusive and human rights perspective. Not everyone will be convinced, but it is crucial that employees understand the purpose of their work.

Onboarding new employees is also a key issue. New team members often join the company without prior knowledge of accessibility and do not receive adequate training. This also applies to external employees, who are often involved on a project-related basis. They, too, must understand which accessibility standards and procedures apply within the company, how the topic is addressed, and what role they play in it.

Within the corporate structure, it is also important that external or new employees receive the relevant information in a way that they can understand and actively use it.

A powerful tool for integrating accessibility is the Community of Practice. This brings together all those interested in the topic of accessibility on a regular basis. Such meetings must be moderated, structured, and take place regularly. The involvement of people with disabilities, who can provide feedback and answer questions, is particularly valuable. This is crucial for breaking down the silo mentality that often exists in large organizations. Teams often work in isolation, unaware of what the others are doing. Structured communication ensures that accessibility is implemented uniformly and consistently across all teams.

Another important tool is the maturity model. As mentioned at the beginning, metrics are crucial for making progress in accessibility visible. The maturity model makes it possible to systematically record the status of accessibility within the organization, define indicators, and measure progress. It is therefore an indispensable tool for continuously embedding accessibility and for preparing reports for line managers.

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