Accessibility

I’ve been interested in accessibility long before I knew that UX was a field. When I was seven years old, my father, an electrical engineer, asked me for help hooking up the component cables to the television. Why would a tech-savvy electrical engineer need the help of a seven year old hooking up some cables to a tv? Well, he’s red-green colorblind. It was at that moment that I became aware of the ways in which the world has arbitrarily and carelessly excluded certain groups from using products that should be widely usable. I would pay attention to how video games would handle colorblind or high-contrast modes. I found that accessibility settings would help me continue to use technology when I got headaches. I became fascinated with innovations like the Xbox Adaptive Controller.

When I started working in UX in 2013, that passion found its place nicely in my career.

Championing Accessibility from Day One

When I got to Edward Jones, the UX department had been around for a little while, but it had opportunities to grow in maturity. I was a member of the Accessibility Working Group at Edward Jones before they had a full team of dedicated specialists. I had a hand in getting buy-in from the company to create a full team with over a dozen accessibility specialists.

  • Collaborated on the founding Accessibility Working Group at Edward Jones before a formal team existed

  • Advocated for accessibility as a business imperative—secured funding and executive buy-in

  • Helped shape internal accessibility standards and workflows

Research & Discovery

  • Conduct inclusive user research, including participants with disabilities

  • Identify potential barriers early by reviewing personas and scenarios through an accessibility lens

  • Run accessibility audits on legacy systems to inform redesigns

Design with Inclusion in Mind

  • Design using WCAG 2.2 AA as a baseline, with a mobile-first and keyboard-first mindset

  • Create high-contrast, scalable, and flexible UI patterns

  • Ensure sufficient color contrast, logical heading structures, and clear focus states

  • Use semantic components and accessible variants in design systems (e.g., buttons vs. links, modals with ARIA labels)

Prototyping & Documentation

  • Annotate Figma files with accessibility notes for developers

  • Use plugins (Able, Stark, Contrast) for early checks

  • Deliver accessibility checklists alongside specs

Developer Collaboration

  • Host accessibility handoff reviews and QA walkthroughs

  • Provide support on semantic HTML, ARIA roles, keyboard interactions, and screen reader behavior

  • Partner with engineers to implement accessible components in React/Angular/Vue

Validation & Testing

  • Conduct manual testing with screen readers (JAWS, NVDA, VoiceOver) and keyboard navigation

  • Use tools like Axe DevTools, Lighthouse, and WAVE for validation

  • Collaborate with QA and a11y specialists for audits and fixes

Advocacy & Education

  • Co-led accessibility workshops and office hours for design/dev teams

  • Created internal accessibility guides and contributed to onboarding materials

  • Fostered a culture of inclusion by embedding accessibility into design ops and sprint rituals