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DesignOps for Inclusive Design and Accessibility
Summary
A lot of folks talk about accessibility and inclusive design, but have no clue how to bring it into product development practice. Join us for a conversation about different approaches to building operational support for inclusive design and accessibility practices. Panelists include Elliott Polette and Attiyya Akinwole from The Home Depot, Kalee Dankner and John Davenport from LinkedIn, and Mara Sohn who led on Pinterest’s accessibility efforts. Saara Kamppari-Miller, Inclusive DesignOps Program Manager at Intel, will host this panel.
Key Insights
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Inclusive design is a process focused on recognizing exclusion, learning from diversity, solving for edge cases, and then scaling to many users, rather than a fixed result.
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Leadership buy-in is crucial for prioritizing accessibility and securing resources for inclusive design initiatives.
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Embedding accessibility specialists within design operations teams fosters consistent integration and education throughout the product lifecycle.
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Quantifying accessibility through bug tracking dashboards, compliance scorecards, and peer review programs helps measure progress and raise awareness.
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Peer reviews by accessibility-trained designers can elevate design quality and reduce engineering rework around accessibility issues.
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Design systems with pre-approved accessible components streamline implementation but do not replace continuous training and education.
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Grassroots efforts, including hackathons and empathy-building exercises, can launch accessibility programs in the absence of funding or dedicated staff.
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Risk communication and competitive benchmarking are effective strategies to persuade leadership to invest in accessibility.
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Accessibility ownership must be shared across product management, design, engineering, legal, and operations—not isolated to one group or individual.
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Emerging accessibility areas needing attention include haptics and tactile technologies to support users with combined sensory disabilities.
Notable Quotes
"By designing products through the lens of edge cases like disabilities first, they often become better products for everyone."
"Accessibility is more of a process than a result; it starts at the very beginning of product development with research including disabled users."
"Leadership needs to be just as behind accessibility as the designers and professionals doing the work."
"One superpower of ops humans is making problems and gaps visible to build awareness and drive change."
"Tools are great, but they do not solve all problems; training and understanding the why behind accessibility is essential."
"Meeting designers where they spend their time, like integrating accessibility plugins into Figma, is the most effective way to make progress."
"Accessibility is a program, not just a single project; starting small and scaling efforts builds momentum."
"Nothing about us without us is the mantra we embrace when doing inclusive design operations."
"If you don't have dedicated accessibility people, start grassroots by building empathy and rallying teams around user stories."
"Accessibility ownership should never fall on just one person but be understood and shared across entire product teams."
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