The W3C defined 4 levels of Accessibility Maturity Model that describes an organisation’s journey toward full accessibility. This is a commentary of these formal stages mixing the W3C definition with more general observations and personal opinions to paint a picture using more general language.
Inactive stage
There’s no formal recognition of accessibility’s need. Activities are either nonexistent or completely disorganised. The organisation has no defined policy, strategy, or formal training, and accessibility is not a factor in development
This is the highest-risk stage for non-compliance and remediation costs. In this stage, the company has little to no awareness of accessibility. Activities are reactive, disorganised, or don’t happen at all. Bugs are everywhere, no one really has ownership. There might be a couple of internal employees with an interest, squashing bugs, commenting on colour contrast, but no formal power, ownership or budget is assigned.
They might be starting to have legal pressure that’s starting to build. They might have got a message from regulatory authorities. They might have been called out on social media. The company might have received a complaint. They might have a customer that needs to comply with WCAG standards or they will churn.
The company has a bit of a mindset that they can sprinkle a bit of accessibility on top and everything will be fine. However, accessibility is not a consideration in the planning, design, development or QA process.
Someone might be considering an overlay company (spoiler: 100% don’t do that) with the best of intentions.
Someone internal might be reassigned short term to fix some issues, but it’s considered a short term thing, a reactive way to put out some fires.
Teams don’t really understand why a non-accessible product or service is a problem. The word “accessibility” doesn’t really have any meaning, it’s this mythical thing that’s considered an annoyance that some people wish would rather just disappear.
Leadership has very little awareness. No employees have formal training in accessibility, and there are no plans to provide any. No one is tracking training outcomes. Job specifications don’t list accessibility or WCAG, the interviews don’t ask accessibility questions as there’s no expertise. There are no visible disabled people at the company, those that are there do not feel safe to disclose.
The Frontend might have cut so many corners it’s really badly out of shape. Keyboard navigation doesn’t work consistently, focus states are missing, no-one’s testing on landscape, on tablet, at 200% zoom. Images filled with text are on the site. The site has major bugs in Firefox, in Safari. The home page is 10, 20, 30mb.
Many private companies are in this stage. Accessibility might be allocated to a couple of sprints to sprinkle some accessibility on top which might look like some commits with aria.
Launch stage
The organisation has recognised the need for accessibility, and initial, ad-hoc planning has begun. Activities are not yet integrated or consistent, often triggered by compliance requirements. While some awareness exists, accessibility is not a formal, repeatable part of operations.
The organisation has realised the need for accessibility, and initial planning has begun. There’s a growing awareness, and some random ad-hoc actions are happening, but they are not yet fully integrated or consistent. The company might be starting to address accessibility to meet basic compliance requirements. More Designers and Developers might be assigned to close bugs, some Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) pipelines might be updated to highlight issues, some npm plugins installed, some automated testing is run. An email might get sent saying how important it is but no ownership is assigned or real budget it released, no-one senior is assigned to really help drive culture change.
A general checklist might be added to some documentation but it’s not mandatory. No-one is testing with assistive technologies or screen readers yet, there might not even be any relevant software procured from IT yet. Job specs might have the Accessibility keyword but hiring doesn’t ask any real questions beyond basics like alt text.
The company might add generic nonsensical accessibility statements to its website but doesn’t provide a way for users to report accessibility issues, get support and it’s just a performative checkbox.
Integrate stage
Accessibility is a planned and managed part of the organisation’s operations. A clear roadmap is in place, and a repeatable approach is defined. Accessibility is considered earlier in the development process, with specific roles and responsibilities assigned.
This is where things start to really take shape. Budget is finally released. Accessibility is planned and managed as part of the organisation’s operations. A clearer roadmap is in place, and an organised approach is defined.
An Accessibility team is starting to take shape. Accessibility is considered earlier in the Planning, Design, Development and QA process (by ”shifting left”), and specific roles and responsibilities are assigned. The company is still putting out fires but also actively working to embed accessibility into its core business practices.
Accessibility Acceptance Criteria has started to be included in the company’s definition of done for all features and projects. People are asking more questions about WCAG, there is more technical understanding.
Push back with logical fallacies is starting to reduce and real solutions are explored. Ownership is taken seriously and not reassigned back into the ether. Resources are being followed instead of ignored.
Designers have started scrutinising each other’s work and ask more accessibility questions. More pull request (PR) comments address accessibility. There are consequences for non-accessible work. Features are reassigned back to original Developers to resolve bugs, PRs might be blocked should they not meet standards or bugs are captured into tickets to be done later. This is supported by tech leaders and managers. Accessibility might even be part of performance reviews, part of 1-2-1s.
3rd party work from agencies and other vendors are starting to be scrutinised until fixed. Different vendors that work towards WCAG 2.1 AA standards are being considered. There are more accessibility champions embedded in teams speaking up when things don’t quite meet standards. There are now dedicated accessibility testers in quality assurance (QA).
Accessibility bugs are triaged and prioritised like other critical bugs. However, accessibility might still be considered a short-term project not a function. Funded for a year or two before the budget is cut. The work slowly gets undone as bugs get reintroduced.
Optimise Stage
Accessibility is fully ingrained in the organisation’s culture and processes. The company proactively evaluates its efforts, innovates, and continuously improves the user experience for everyone. Accessibility is a fundamental business value.
Accessibility is fully ingrained in the organisation’s culture and processes. There are visible disabled people in the organisation. Accessibility is a dedicated, resourced function that can plan long-term without risk of being disbanded. The company goes beyond compliance and is a leader in not only accessible design but inclusive design (it has overlap but is different).
Accessibility is no longer just bug fixing and putting out fires, but also introducing new innovative accessibility features. There might be a Head of Accessibility, Chief Accessibility Officer that has real structural power and authority. Accessibility features are actually tested with real disabled users. The company proactively conducts user research with people with disabilities to inform new product features and design decisions.
There is a much better understanding of ableism and how it shows up in company culture, process and technology systems. There are process attempts to address, counter and dismantle this. Accessibility, WCAG and screen reader knowledge is part of the interview process. They run accessibility audits on a regular basis. The company’s hiring and working practices are more inclusive, they might have an active employee resource group for people with disabilities. They offer accommodations for interviews and provide ongoing support to ensure all employees can thrive. Internal tools that employees are working with have higher accessibility standards.
Culturally there is a shift in mindset. Accessibility is a fundamental business value, not just a requirement.