By Jonee Meiser — Anyone and everyone who is an accessibility professional or expert will say everyone on a software development team has a role to play in embedding accessibility successfully. Admittedly, I struggled with what that looked like for me in terms of supporting every role in the development process. There are tons of resources that support the “right” side of the “shift-left” concept. The field has a plethora of resources for supporting designers, developers, and quality assurance testers. But as a professional, I had a difficult time trying to find thorough resources as to what it means to support the roles on the “left” side: product managers, project managers, business analysts, and organizational leaders. If I, as a professional with over a decade of experience, struggled to find resources, then it had to be nearly impossible for these roles to find support on their own. Other than ISO 30071-1 and What Every Engineer Should Know About Accessibility, resources that provide actionable and measurable guidance for managing accessibility are few and far between. So, I decided to take matters into my own hands with my dissertation research.
Because I was leading this research by myself and wanted to graduate, I narrowed my research population to product managers who lead the development of digital educational products for higher education. I was interested in product managers because I saw and heard consistently that product managers have a pivotal role in accessibility implementation. My literature review also supported the vital role of product managers in accessibility. My thought process was that if I am to support this “left-side” role, I need to understand what product managers would require of me as an expert and what they need in their roles in general to address accessibility. For my research, I interviewed 14 product managers and conducted a thematic analysis of their responses. The analysis revealed key information for product managers to feel confident when addressing accessibility in their specific role.
- Individual and Shared Responsibilities: Product managers identified themselves as the primary advocates for accessibility among their teams, but they recognized that they could not be alone in this effort. They expressed that they need user-experience designers, developers, and quality assurance testers to have the knowledge and skills to design, develop, and test for accessibility. They understood that collaboration and interdependence with the team can facilitate a more seamless integration of accessibility throughout the development lifecycle.
- Accessibility Education and Training: Product managers expressed a need for comprehensive training on accessibility standards and guidelines. They were explicit in their need for the training to have visual examples and explanations why certain standards matter from a user’s perspective. In addition, participants explained that training should focus on helping product managers understand how to prioritize accessibility in the context of business needs, financial implications, and technological changes.
- Access to Accessibility Experts: Having accessibility subject-matter experts available for consultation was crucial to product managers. Product managers acknowledged their need to have experts who can provide guidance, answer specific questions, validate their team’s efforts in accessibility, and help interpret complex accessibility guidelines. It was even stated that product teams could benefit from having a dedicated accessibility expert on their team to ensure accessibility requirements are addressed during the development process.
- Leadership Support: For product managers, executive leadership establishing the tone among teams for prioritizing accessibility is critical to their own success in their role. Clear directives, strategic policies, and documented expectations from leadership would empower product managers to advocate for and implement accessibility effectively. Leadership should also commit the necessary time, resources, and budget to support accessibility initiatives.
- Organizational Culture: One major need that product managers shared was for their leadership to build an organizational culture that recognizes the benefits of accessibility and prioritizes how essential it is. Product managers desired for their leadership to foster an environment where accessibility is a core value and integral to the software development lifecycle. For them, a cultural shift like this would help them minimize deprioritizing accessibility in favor of getting product to market faster.
- Budget and Time Allocation: Two significant challenges of accessibility integration product managers said they faced were the lack of sufficient financial resources and the time to address accessibility properly. Product managers asserted their need for time to plan for accessibility in the early development stages to avoid the costs of retrofitting their products for accessibility after production. They expressed their need for the language and capability to justify the costs of accessibility when it comes to return on investment and market reach.
As an accessibility professional, the results of my study showed me some things that are within my control and out of my control when it comes to supporting product managers. I can be the accessibility subject-matter expert product managers need for consultation and validation. I can frame for them how accessibility impacts their users’ experiences within their products and services. I can provide accessibility training. However, I feel the external factors of organizational culture, executive leadership support, and allocations are out of my control; but they are just as important, if not incredibly more important, than my subject-matter expertise in accessibility. Accessibility support for product managers is multifaceted, and I know now that support for them in accessibility includes being cognizant of meeting product managers where they are within their organization and factoring in the organizational limitations they may have in their role.
Now, with that, I am off to pursue an MBA with a concentration in Accessibility.
Want to know more about my research study? Check out my dissertation titled Exploring Accessibility Management in Digital Education Publishing.
Know About Accessibility 