Your Accessibility System
Assemble everything into a sustainable accessibility program — with organizational structures, team practices, content workflows, and continuous improvement processes that embed accessibility into every stage of development.
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Everything Together
🔄 Quick Recall: Over seven lessons, you built individual skills: understanding assistive technologies, auditing for WCAG compliance, creating accessible content, designing for cognitive differences, building inclusive interactions, and testing with real users. Now you’ll connect them into a sustainable accessibility program that keeps improving over time.
The goal isn’t to achieve perfect accessibility once. It’s to build systems where accessibility is part of how your organization builds things — as natural as version control, code review, and performance monitoring.
Your Accessibility Program
Here’s how every component connects:
| Component | What It Handles | Lesson |
|---|---|---|
| Assistive Technology Knowledge | Understanding what your users need and what tools they use | Lesson 2 |
| WCAG Compliance | Automated audits, remediation, CI/CD integration | Lesson 3 |
| Content Accessibility | Alt text, captions, documents, plain language | Lesson 4 |
| Cognitive Accessibility | Neurodiverse design, executive function support | Lesson 5 |
| Inclusive Interactions | Forms, navigation, error states, complex components | Lesson 6 |
| Testing Program | Automated + manual + user testing, continuous improvement | Lesson 7 |
| Organizational Program | Culture, workflows, sustainability | This lesson |
Building the Accessibility Workflow
Help me design an accessibility program for my organization.
Organization size: [small/medium/large]
Product type: [website/app/SaaS/e-commerce/content site]
Current state: [no accessibility work / some / established program]
Team: [X developers, X designers, X content creators]
Budget for accessibility: [limited / moderate / significant]
Design a phased program:
PHASE 1 — FOUNDATION (Month 1-2):
- Automated scanning in CI/CD pipeline
- Fix critical issues on top 5 user paths
- Basic team training (2-hour workshop)
- Establish accessibility checklist for code review
PHASE 2 — CONTENT (Month 3-4):
- Audit and fix all image alt text
- Add captions to video content
- Establish content creation guidelines
- AI-assisted content accessibility workflow
PHASE 3 — COMPREHENSIVE (Month 5-6):
- Full-site manual audit
- Keyboard navigation fixes across all features
- ARIA implementation for complex components
- First user testing session with AT users
PHASE 4 — SUSTAIN (Ongoing):
- Quarterly manual audits
- Bi-annual user testing
- New hire accessibility onboarding
- Continuous automated monitoring
- Annual accessibility statement update
For each phase: deliverables, estimated effort, and
success metrics.
The Definition of Done
The most powerful tool for sustaining accessibility is adding it to your team’s definition of done — the criteria every feature must meet before it ships.
Accessibility Definition of Done
| Check | Who Checks | When |
|---|---|---|
| Automated scan passes (0 critical/serious issues) | CI/CD pipeline | Every PR |
| Keyboard navigable (all functions work without mouse) | Developer | Before PR |
| Screen reader tested (logical reading, proper announcements) | Developer or QA | Before merge |
| Alt text on all informative images | Content creator | Before publish |
| Color contrast meets 4.5:1 for text, 3:1 for UI | Design tool check | During design |
| Focus indicators visible on all interactive elements | Developer | Before PR |
| Error messages accessible (field name, explanation, announcement) | Developer | Before PR |
✅ Quick Check: Why is “automated scan passes” necessary but not sufficient as a definition of done? Because automated scans catch only ~30% of accessibility issues — the structural, binary pass/fail checks. A feature can pass every automated check while having an illogical tab order, meaningless screen reader experience, or confusing error handling. The definition of done must include both automated checks (fast, consistent) AND manual verification (keyboard test, screen reader check) to cover the full accessibility spectrum.
Team Roles and Training
Help me design accessibility roles for my team.
Team structure:
- [X] developers
- [X] designers
- [X] content creators
- [X] product managers
- [X] QA testers
Define responsibilities by role:
DEVELOPERS:
- Semantic HTML, ARIA patterns, keyboard interaction
- Write automated accessibility tests
- Fix issues flagged in audits
- Training needed: WCAG for developers, ARIA patterns
DESIGNERS:
- Color contrast in design tokens
- Touch target sizes, focus state design
- Cognitive load in layouts
- Training needed: inclusive design principles
CONTENT CREATORS:
- Alt text, heading structure, plain language
- Caption workflows for media
- Document accessibility (PDF, Word)
- Training needed: content accessibility, AI tools
PRODUCT MANAGERS:
- Accessibility in requirements and user stories
- Budget for user testing with disabled users
- Accessibility as a priority alongside features
- Training needed: business case, legal requirements
QA TESTERS:
- Manual keyboard and screen reader testing
- Accessibility test cases in test plans
- User testing coordination
- Training needed: assistive technology basics
For each role, recommend specific training resources
and a 1-hour workshop outline.
Handling Organizational Pushback
Common objections and evidence-based responses:
| Objection | Response |
|---|---|
| “It’s too expensive” | Proactive accessibility costs ~5% of development; retrofitting costs 5-10x more |
| “Our users don’t have disabilities” | 26% of US adults do; plus temporary and situational impairments |
| “We’ll do it later” | Every day of inaccessible content accumulates technical debt — and legal risk |
| “Automated tools say we pass” | They check 30%. Would you ship with 70% of your code untested? |
| “We have an overlay widget” | Overlays don’t fix underlying code and courts reject them as compliance |
The Accessibility Statement
Help me write an accessibility statement for our website.
Our current state:
- WCAG conformance level: [A / AA / partial AA]
- Known issues: [list any known accessibility gaps]
- Testing methods: [what testing we do]
- Feedback mechanism: [how users can report issues]
The statement should include:
1. Our commitment to accessibility
2. Standards we follow (WCAG 2.1 Level AA)
3. Current conformance status (honest assessment)
4. Known limitations and timeline to fix
5. How to contact us about accessibility issues
6. How to request accessible alternatives
7. Date of last review
Tone: professional, honest, committed. Don't overclaim.
If we have known issues, acknowledge them with
a timeline to address.
Implementation Roadmap
Week 1-2: Quick wins
- Add automated accessibility scanning to CI/CD
- Fix missing alt text on top 10 pages
- Add skip-to-content link
- Check and fix color contrast on primary UI
Month 1: Critical paths
- Audit and fix top 5 user journeys for keyboard + screen reader
- Establish code review accessibility checklist
- Train development team (2-hour workshop)
Month 2-3: Content
- AI-assisted alt text for all product/service images
- Add captions to all video content
- Implement plain language guidelines for public content
Month 3-6: Comprehensive
- Full manual audit by accessibility specialist
- First user testing session with AT users
- Fix all critical and high-priority issues
- Publish accessibility statement
Ongoing: Sustain
- Automated testing on every PR
- Quarterly manual spot-checks
- Bi-annual user testing
- New hire accessibility onboarding
- Annual full audit and statement update
Key Takeaways
From this course, you now know how to:
- Understand the assistive technology landscape and what users with different disabilities need from digital experiences (Lesson 2)
- Audit websites and documents for WCAG compliance using AI-powered tools and generate prioritized remediation plans (Lesson 3)
- Create accessible content at scale — meaningful alt text, accurate captions, structured documents, and plain language (Lesson 4)
- Design for cognitive accessibility — supporting neurodiverse users with executive function aids, simplified content, and adaptive interfaces (Lesson 5)
- Build inclusive interactions — accessible forms, navigation, error states, and complex components with keyboard and screen reader support (Lesson 6)
- Test accessibility continuously across three layers: automated scanning, manual expert review, and user testing with assistive technology users (Lesson 7)
- Sustain an accessibility program through organizational culture — definition of done, team training, and continuous improvement processes (This lesson)
The most important takeaway: Accessibility isn’t a feature you add — it’s a quality dimension of everything you build. AI makes it dramatically more practical to achieve accessibility at scale, but the foundation is a team that considers every user from the start, not as an afterthought.
Congratulations on completing the course! Claim your certificate and start with the highest-impact first step: audit your top 3 user paths for keyboard and screen reader accessibility this week.
Knowledge Check
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Lesson completed!