AD Writing
Implementing accessibility as a product capability
A client needed to address accessibility in an existing mobile application under regulatory time pressure. Because I already knew the product and its delivery environment, I approached the work as more than a one-off accessibility audit.
From a one-off audit to an operating model
I designed an implementation model that combined audit, remediation, team education, sprint implementation, retesting and long-term accessibility standards. Audit findings were documented with severity, testing criteria and implementation guidance so they could move directly into development.
This allowed remediation and knowledge transfer to happen in parallel rather than treating education as a separate phase.
The work covered key Android and iOS journeys and included screen readers, voice control, keyboard navigation, contrast, text scaling, semantics, accessibility labels and focus behaviour.
Making accessibility actionable for developers and QA
An accessible handoff needs to communicate more than flows and visual mock-ups. It also needs to describe roles, labels, focus and reading order, semantics and expected behaviour for assistive technologies.
I later researched the BrowserStack Accessibility Design Toolkit for Figma as a way of bringing this information closer to the design and developer handoff. The solution was researched and evaluated but not implemented, so I do not attribute product outcomes to it.
Accessibility needs validation and ownership
The organisational model also proposed a permanent expert group of people with disabilities and users of assistive technologies to validate existing and new functionality.
WCAG-based audits can identify technical accessibility problems. They cannot replace validation by people who depend on those interactions in everyday use.
Audit → remediation → education → implementation → retesting → standards → continuous validation.
My role: accessibility strategy and implementation model, mobile accessibility auditing, testing framework, team knowledge transfer, developer and QA handoff, and research into scalable accessibility practices.