You're leading a UX design project. How do you get stakeholders on board with prioritizing accessibility?
To make stakeholders prioritize accessibility in your UX design project, it's crucial to highlight the tangible benefits and align them with their goals. Here's how to get their buy-in:
How do you ensure accessibility is a priority in your projects? Share your thoughts.
You're leading a UX design project. How do you get stakeholders on board with prioritizing accessibility?
To make stakeholders prioritize accessibility in your UX design project, it's crucial to highlight the tangible benefits and align them with their goals. Here's how to get their buy-in:
How do you ensure accessibility is a priority in your projects? Share your thoughts.
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l emphasize its value making them understand that accessibility not only ensures inclusivity for all users but also drives tangible business benefits and enhanced customer satisfaction. Collaboration is key-engaging stakeholders through workshops, usability testing, and feedback sessions fosters shared ownership and builds a deeper understanding of its impact. When faced with resistance, l leverage relatable examples, data-driven insights (e.g., statistics, case studies), and demonstrate quick wins, such as improved contrast, alt text, and keyboard navigation. These small, impactful changes not only showcase feasibility but also highlight how accessible designs benefit both users and the company, making it a win-win for all.
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To get stakeholders on board with prioritizing accessibility, present its benefits through user research and real-life examples, highlighting how it broadens the user base, improves usability for everyone, and reduces legal risks. Frame accessibility as a competitive advantage and align it with business goals for inclusivity and innovation.
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Accessibility isn't just a nice-to-have—it's a business imperative. To get stakeholders on board: 1. Start with data: Show how many potential users are excluded without accessibility. 2. Highlight legal risks: Emphasize potential lawsuits and compliance issues. 3. Demonstrate ROI: Accessible design often improves usability for everyone. 4. Share success stories: Showcase companies benefiting from inclusive design. 5. Conduct empathy exercises: Let stakeholders experience accessibility challenges firsthand. 6. Align with brand values: Connect accessibility to the company's mission and ethics.
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One way that I've done this is to simply show them the issue. In a previous role, one of my responsibilities was to outfit enterprise platforms using customer-specific colors. Occasionally, a customer would want to use a really light color from their brand guidelines that was difficult to read against the platform's light backgrounds. Initially, they were often resistant and didn't understand the issue, but after showing them an example, they would be convinced to go with another color with more contrast.
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Getting stakeholders on board with prioritizing accessibility in a UX design project starts by demonstrating its value. Highlight how accessible designs broaden the user base, improve usability for everyone, and enhance brand reputation. Share real-world examples or case studies showing how accessibility positively impacts user satisfaction and business outcomes. Explain legal and ethical implications, emphasizing how compliance with standards like WCAG reduces legal risks. Use data and user stories to illustrate the challenges faced by people with disabilities, making need for accessibility relatable. Propose small, actionable changes to show how accessibility can be integrated seamlessly into the project without significant cost or delay.
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