Accessibility Insights at Microsoft
Accessibility Insights is a free, open-source tool that helps developers find and fix accessibility issues.
“I feel confident this information would help me find accessibility issues early on in the process. I MEGA completely agree which is why I love it!” - Developer
MY ROLES & RESPONSIBILITIES
Note: Specific details of the work cannot be disclosed due to non-disclosure agreements.
I am the product owner for all Accessibility Insights products lead accessibility within 1ES within the Developer Division. As an Accessibility Product Manager, I work across the company with various stakeholders in Design, Engineering, and Leadership to create impact within developer workflows.
CURRENT FOCUS & WORK
I have 3 primary areas of focus. I lead Artificial Intelligence & Accessibility workstreams to support developers on their accessibility journey across Microsoft.
I investigate additional ways to find accessibility issues through our products and explore the following questions: What other rules and checks do we add to surface additional accessibility issues? What changes should we consider to empower our users to find more issues early on in the process?
Finally, my role includes a focus on accessibility evangelism and advocacy. Our team has to learn to lead by influence and we aim to empower all teams, inside and outside Microsoft, to adopt our products to build more inclusively!
IMPACT
I do a lot of my evangelism efforts to encourage others to bake accessibility into all their processes as well as work culture.
On my right, the image shows the reflections from various people who attended a talk about accessibility and inclusive culture. Everyone was invited to be vulnerable and share ONE thing they will change moving forward to be more inclusive.
Screenshot that showcases reflections from others after an inclusion talk by Nandita
CHALLENGES
There are numerous challenges that we continue to face:
Adapting to business needs: Our business needs are always changing, and we are experimentative and adaptable. This has built a lot of resilience with the team where we adapt to varying business needs.
People & Culture: Accessibility is a journey, and it is challenging to build for different teams that are in different phases with their journey both inside and outside Microsoft. Our role as a team is to build a product that will empower people, regardless of their place in their accessibility journey, to build inclusive products!
Constraints: We, as all teams, run into constraints of time, resources and need to prioritize our work accordingly.