Fintech
UX Research
Accessibility in UX Operations
I conducted accessibility research with team members to build strategies to incorporate accessibility practices into the design process for inclusive user experiences
Role
IT Accessibility Analyst
Domain
Fintech
Duration
16 weeks
Team
3 designers
2 developers
1 product owner
Overview
I collaborated with a team of designers and developers to align the company's product strategy with regulatory accessibility requirements
My task
Understand UX operational risks and deficiencies for accessibility compliance
Align the team on process improvement strategies to move in the right direction
Drive success by piloting and scaling the solution across teams
Outcomes
6 of 20 teams adopted proposed solution
1 fully compliant feature shipped in 8 weeks
made a requirement for all new product launches
informed discussions with product owner, product strategy AVP, and UX team lead
PROBLEM
Accessibility issues were caught too late
Most issues were caught in software production when fixing them meant development rework. By then, the cost compounds and becomes more expensive to fix. For brokers, issues are live barriers. Automated tools detect only 30-40% of known accessibility issues (A11y Project, 2025) so the timing of catching these issues matter just as just as the tooling
Strategy
Making accessibility built-in
Research revealed that we needed (1) to create a shared benchmark so that designers know what to achieve and (2) a way to evaluate how well they meet these standards before proper implementation
Constraints
Manual over automated solution
The product owner and compliance stakeholders wanted a manual solution for catching accessibility issues before exploring technical ones
Limited to design and development phase
Solution is limited to design and development in the software development lifecycle before scaling to testing, deployment, and maintenance
Goals
SOLUTION
A Design Review Solution
A design review process with 2 checkpoints at the midpoint and handoff phase of design in which designs are marked-up with design and developer annotation focused on accessibility requirements
1. Midpoint
2. Handoff
Impact
User experiences with greater accessibility for 40k brokers
The design review process impacted both internal process improvements and the level of accessibility of our client-facing products
product teams adopted proposed solution
fully WCAG AA compliant feature launch within 8 weeks of deployed solution
deployed accessibility checklist to 20 designers
Key Decision #1
Aligning stakeholders with 3 process flowcharts
I found that flowcharts were the best tool for team alignment so I mapped to-be design review checkpoints from design ideation to developer handoff
Impact: these flowcharts initiated design reviews for 6 products and helped the Accessibility team reach agreement with 3 UX team leads on the right times for a design review
Key Decision #2
Establishing requirements with 6 pages of guidelines
In interviews, all 4 designers wished that there was a way for them to know how well they were meeting accessibility standards. Based on WCAG 2.2 AA standards, I created design documentation for accessibility requirements that defines what is required vs negotiable for designers to achieve
Impact: these guidelines were used to deploy a team-wide design checklist for accessibility by the Accessibility SME
Key Decision #3
Implementing a design review at developer handoff
Research highlighted that accessible design does not occur in isolation in the software development lifecycle (SDLC). My initial scope focused on design solely in the SDLC, but I realized developers must be able implement accessibility too. I built out a design review for technical implementation and developer tasks
Impact: 3 developers were assigned to conduct design reviews at developer handoff for upcoming products ready for development
Testimonials
"I'd like to recognize Ally Garcia for digging into the world of UX design reviews. This is an amazing step for our team as we work to achieve our goals. Ally brings her passion, creativity, and ability to ask the right questions every day as she discovers what this process will look like in the future."
Product Owner III, Accessibility Team
"Great job presenting your flowcharts! I am impressed (yet unsurprised) by your level of detail that went into making these."
Front-end Developer, Accessibility Team
Takeaways
Working on this project taught me how to navigate solving for a complex problem across disciplines. As I was building this solution, it was already being used and tested by team members at the same time. This challenged me to break down the problem, ask many questions, and gather lots of feedback through bi-weekly stakeholder demos and presentations.
My project initially focused on the design process, but the scope of my project expanded across design to front-end development. If I were to continue this project, I would like to interview developers about their perspectives working with designers to implement accessibility. I'd also like to capture these metrics to further refine the solution: