UX Accessibility Designer

Accessibility design

Accessibility – want to be given the designs, give you the reqs for how to make it accessible; Have to be comfortable designing with them
How good their designs are is more important than level of exp
Accessibility engagement throughout the entire design cycle (pretty structured); need to be comfortable in design space
Try not to waterfall designs
Formalized sprints including a design reconciliation (reviewing the components for new build or modifications of existing components)
Take whatever the team is designed for feature
Look at it and say – is this component that they have here, do we have a similar component that is already built that would be better suited for the design? Or is it a new component we need to add to Fidget library?
They have Accessibility Engineers (Ryan) that also partner with the team
Design sprints are really structured after the Google Venture model
Want them to be design-first with a passion for accessibility


Kite was created by the agency (design system)

Loosely created by material design; Modified that for their needs and for foundation
Geared towards customer facing and web/mobile
Variations occurred there; Client wasn’t scalable enough – modified it for Fidget
Variation that has been built called Fidget that is a pretty robust design system

Deal with a lot of info density; their systems are info-dense and agency-facing
Relatively mature; doesn’t require an overhaul
AA (double A) Compliance
Not building websites, building web based apps (very structured)

Only so many ways to build a table


Overall Project/Initiative

Works within Digital Platforms - AgentOS initiative (CRM)
Allows the company to understand accounting, billing, packaging, etc.
Aspiring to hire people with disabilities
AgentOS is being designed to be able to hire people with disabilities
They pass along what the content provider provides them. They work within the framework of device
Most work is based off consumer research
Used to do BRD, research, testing - trying to get away from BRDs and focus more on Research & Development
Team is also involved after production to make sure it all gets built
Focused on chat features, revamping sales, future of retail (stores)


Portfolios

Color contrast, font sizing is important
Can’t always to alt tags for images depending on portfolios
Is your portfolio reflecting what you believe?
If accessibility is important, you’d think their portfolio would reflect that


Tech stack: Use Figma, Prototype in azure



Must Have Skills/ Requirements: (Top 3-5 or more)

Culture fit is top consideration
Described as empathy-driven, research-driven, collaborative, solving for their users. They believe in empowerment of their designers (the team puts together the solution and they trust their teams; don’t design from perspective of ideas, they all own the solution)
8+ years of professional experience in user experience and digital design
Experience in the inclusive design or accessibility space, or with design language systems
Proficiency designing across multiple platforms (iOS, Android, Desktop, Mobile Web)
Understanding of how different assistive technologies (like screen readers or speech recognition software) behave, and how users of assistive technology may be impacted by different design choices
Accessible Portfolio (we flag all WCAG 3 contrast ratio fails as “non-starters”)


About the team: (Culture/Dynamic, team make up, SPI’s)

Full stack design teams

Researchers: 8-10
Designers: 12, looking for 2 accessible ones
Accessibility engineer
4 content designers