Accessibility

Make accessibility part of how the experience works.

Kirmela helps organisations understand and remove accessibility barriers in digital experiences, while strengthening the practices that help teams design, build and maintain accessible products over time.

Talk to Kirmela

When accessibility support helps

You need to understand where accessibility barriers exist.

A product or journey may need evaluating against accessibility requirements and, just as importantly, understanding in terms of how barriers affect the people trying to use it.

An important product is being designed or changed.

Accessibility needs to be considered while decisions are still being made, rather than discovered as a list of problems near the end of delivery.

Accessibility depends on a few people rather than the way teams work.

Knowledge may exist, but responsibilities, testing, evidence and governance are inconsistent, making accessible delivery difficult to sustain across products and teams.

How we think

Accessibility is more than a compliance check.

Standards such as WCAG provide an essential baseline, but meeting a standard does not automatically mean an experience works well for the people using it.

Accessibility is shaped by product decisions, content, interaction design, technology, testing and the way teams work together throughout delivery.

The strongest accessibility work improves the experience and the organisation’s ability to keep it accessible.

Accessible experiences

Find and remove barriers that make products harder to use.

Accessibility evaluation

Assess products and journeys to identify accessibility barriers, their severity and where remediation should be focused.

WCAG review

Evaluate relevant experiences against WCAG requirements and translate findings into clear, actionable direction for product and delivery teams.

Research with disabled people

Understand how real people experience important journeys, including barriers that standards-based evaluation alone may not reveal.

Accessible design and remediation direction

Help teams determine how identified barriers should be addressed without treating accessibility as a separate layer from the wider experience.

Accessible design systems and shared patterns

Strengthen reusable foundations so accessibility is considered consistently across components, patterns and products.

Accessible organisations

Make accessible delivery easier to sustain.

Roles and responsibilities

Clarify how product, design, development, QA and other functions contribute to accessibility throughout delivery.

Ways of working

Build accessibility into existing product and delivery practices instead of relying on a separate end-stage activity.

Testing and evidence

Establish clearer approaches for what should be tested, when it should be tested and how evidence of accessibility work is maintained.

Governance and oversight

Create proportionate structures for understanding accessibility risk, prioritising action and maintaining visibility across products.

Capability and learning

Help teams build the practical knowledge needed to make better accessibility decisions within their own roles.

How the work might take shape

The right intervention depends on where the barrier is.

Kirmela may work across a combination of:

Accessibility audits and focused evaluations
WCAG 2.2 review and remediation direction
Research and testing with disabled people
Accessible journey and interaction design
Design-system accessibility
Product, design, development and QA practices
Accessibility testing approaches
Governance and evidence frameworks
Accessibility maturity assessment
Training, workshops and capability building

The aim is not simply to find accessibility issues. It is to help the organisation understand what needs to change and make accessible delivery more repeatable.

What the work should give you

A clearer path from accessibility risk to better practice.

A clearer view of the barriers

Understand where people may be excluded or disadvantaged and which issues need attention first.

Actionable direction

Teams know what needs to change and have enough context to address the underlying experience rather than simply close an audit finding.

Accessibility considered earlier

Important decisions can account for accessibility before barriers become embedded in design and code.

Clearer organisational responsibility

Accessibility becomes part of the work of relevant teams rather than depending on one person or a final review.

Stronger evidence over time

The organisation has a more consistent basis for understanding what has been assessed, what has changed and where attention is still needed.

Related expertise

User-Centred Research Product Experience Design Strategic Product Design

Working with Kirmela

Start with where accessibility needs to work better.

That might be a particular product, an important journey, a design system or the way accessibility is handled across teams. Kirmela can help determine what needs attention and what should happen next.