Laying the Foundation: Building Awareness and Buy-In with Leadership

The first step in launching an accessibility practice was education. Many teams—from engineering to product management—had limited exposure to accessibility principles. To bridge this gap, I focused on three key areas:

• Framing the Why – I positioned accessibility as a usability improvement for all users, not just those with disabilities. I shared real-world examples, such as how captions benefit non-native speakers and how keyboard navigation improves efficiency for power users.

• Telling Stories – Data and compliance matter, but human stories resonate. I highlighted the struggles of real users navigating inaccessible interfaces and showed the business impact of inclusive design.

• Finding Quick Wins – Instead of overwhelming the team with WCAG guidelines upfront, I focused on small, high-impact changes—like improving color contrast and adding alt text—that delivered immediate value.

Step 1: Getting Leadership on Board

No meaningful change happens without executive buy-in. While accessibility is the right thing to do, in a private equity-backed company, decisions need a business case. The reality is that most leaders aren’t against accessibility—they just need to understand its impact in concrete terms. I positioned accessibility as a strategic advantage by:

• Highlighting Legal and Financial Risks – I presented case studies of companies facing lawsuits over inaccessible platforms, emphasizing the importance of proactive compliance. In our industry, this was a real threat—universities using our products could be sued if we failed to provide accessible solutions.

• Tying Accessibility to Revenue Growth – I showed how accessibility could expand our market reach, particularly in industries with strict compliance requirements like higher ed and government. Our largest customers were increasingly asking for VPATs, and we risked losing deals due to non-compliance.

• Emphasizing Competitive Differentiation – Prioritizing accessibility could set us apart in the e-learning space, making our products more appealing to institutions with accessibility mandates.

• Revealing Our Current Accessibility Gaps – To make the issue tangible, I ran an automated AXE scan on our higher ed LMS homepage. It flagged 33 accessibility errors—seven of them severe. Presenting these numbers to leadership made it impossible to ignore the problem.

• Present a Plan for a Path to Compliance – Leaders don't just present a problem. They also provide a solution. I presented a plan, including costs to implement to the ELT. Focusing on the markets where we faced the most risk of lawsuits and losing customers first, and then expanding out from there.

• Request Top-down Support – This was a major endeavor for our company to embark on, and I knew that I was likely to face substantial resistance from engineering and marketing because it was going to require change and effort on their parts in order to successfully improve our products. Having buy-in and support from the CTO and CMO was incredibly helpful.

  
  

Next Steps

Interestingly, leadership was quick to support accessibility and asked for a plan to integrate it into our products. The resistance came from branding and engineering. I detail that experience in another blog post:

Final Thoughts

Starting an accessibility practice at a company that had never prioritized it was both challenging and rewarding. By focusing on education, securing leadership buy-in, and embedding accessibility into our processes, we’ve laid the groundwork for long-term success.

My hope is that our journey can serve as a guide for other UX leaders facing similar challenges. Accessibility isn’t just about compliance—it’s about designing for everyone. And when we do that, we create better experiences for all users.