A Framework for Enterprise-Level Accessibility Management

How do large organizations manage their digital properties to ensure that they are built to be accessible and continue to remain accessible to their users? And how do we as civics-minded software quality professionals and managers work toward a future of inclusive design that centers around the diverse needs of our users?

There is plenty of readily-available documentation related to understanding accessibility guidelines and a healthy selection of tools geared toward identifying and remediating accessibility issues. However, there is a dearth of standard practices that address managerial-level oversight of accessibility processes such as ensuring continuous improvement and monitoring quality that organizational leaders can lean on to help them create policies and divvy up responsibilities among their staff.

This paper proposes a methodology for addressing digital accessibility at the enterprise level that incorporates capability maturity models, role-based responsibilities, event-triggered and maintenance tasks, processes for using software tooling and specific direction for handling shared templating systems. While this methodology specifically focuses on website accessibility, many of its key features can also be applied to other digital platforms such as mobile apps and PDF documents.

Paper | Presentation

Gage Pacifera

I have designed and developed web sites for over twenty years in the Pacific Northwest and have a portfolio that includes projects for Intel, Columbia Sportswear, Nike, Adidas and Kaiser Permanente. By virtue of managing large, multi-faceted projects and owning a business, I have ended up with a wide breadth of experience in many different disciplines directly and indirectly related to web development. I occasionally lecture and regularly engage in community and eduction-based projects. My web development shop, Harmonic Northwest, specializes in building and maintaining highly customized WordPress and e-commerce websites.