Baking Accessibility into Design at Workday
Workday has made strides baking accessibility into our products, starting with design. See what we’ve accomplished and where we’re going.
By Erica Ellis, Emma Siegel, and Sam Smith
Digital accessibility is often seen as an afterthought, something that is added in by development just before a product ships. However, true accessibility — an experience that is usable by everyone — begins in the design stages of the product development process. Workday has begun to make strides in reversing the afterthought mentality. We’re baking accessibility into the way we approach building our products, starting with design.
How are we doing that? We’ll share with you:
- Where our journey in accessibility began.
- How we identified the problems at Workday.
- How we’ve begun to tackle those problems with awareness, education, and resources.
We’ll give you a glimpse into what we’ve accomplished and where we’re headed next. While Workday is becoming a leader in the accessibility space, we know this is a never-ending journey.
Originally, we planned to present this talk in March at the 2020 CSUN Assistive Technology Conference, which is hosted by the California State University, Northridge (CSUN) Center on Disabilities. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, we were unable to travel there. However, we’ve since presented this topic at a virtual Boulder UX/UI Meetup in April 2020 and at a virtual Bay Area Disability Inclusion Network Meetup in July 2020. And we’re excited to share it virtually with you here on the Workday Design Blog!
