Accessibility Champion Program

Accessibility Team (if exists)
  - Sets standards and strategy
  - Provides expert consultation
  - Manages vendor relationships (auditors, tools)
  - Reports metrics to leadership

Champions (1 per team, 10-20% time allocation)
  - Embedded in product/engineering teams
  - First responder for accessibility questions
  - Conducts basic reviews before specialist audit
  - Trains teammates on accessibility basics
  - Reports issues and progress to accessibility team

All Team Members
  - Follow accessibility standards in daily work
  - Raise accessibility concerns early
  - Complete baseline accessibility training
  - Test with assistive technologies periodically

Ideal champions are:
  - Passionate about inclusion (not assigned reluctantly)
  - Respected by their team (influence without authority)
  - Mix of roles: developers, designers, QA, product managers
  - Available for 4-8 hours/week on accessibility activities
  - Willing to learn and teach

Champion responsibilities (weekly):
  - 1 hour: Review PRs/designs for accessibility
  - 1 hour: Attend champion community of practice
  - 1 hour: Self-learning / skill development
  - 1-5 hours: Remediation work and consultation

Champion benefits:
  - Professional development (certification, conference)
  - Recognition in performance reviews
  - Community of practice with peers
  - Direct impact on users' lives
  - Visibility with leadership

Week 1: Foundation
  - Complete WCAG 2.1 AA overview training
  - Install and try a screen reader (VoiceOver or NVDA)
  - Review your product with a screen reader for 30 minutes
  - Document top 3 issues you found

Week 2: Tools and Process
  - Learn automated testing tools (axe, Lighthouse)
  - Practice manual testing checklist
  - Shadow an accessibility audit session
  - Review 2 PRs for accessibility

Week 3: Integration
  - Present accessibility overview to your team (15 min)
  - Add accessibility checklist to your team's PR template
  - Identify top 5 accessibility issues in your team's product
  - Create tickets for the issues

Week 4: Independence
  - Conduct your first accessibility review independently
  - Attend first champion community of practice meeting
  - Set quarterly goals with accessibility team lead
  - Begin tracking team-level accessibility metrics

Tier 1: Awareness (All Employees, 1 hour)
  - What is accessibility and why it matters
  - Real stories from users with disabilities
  - Legal landscape (ADA, EAA, lawsuits)
  - Company's accessibility commitment
  - How to report accessibility issues
  Delivery: Self-paced online module, annual refresh

Tier 2: Role-Specific (Relevant Teams, 4-8 hours)

  Developers (8 hours):
  - WCAG 2.1 AA criteria relevant to code
  - Semantic HTML and ARIA
  - Keyboard navigation implementation
  - Screen reader testing (hands-on lab)
  - Automated testing integration (axe-core, jest-axe)
  - Common coding patterns for accessible components

  Designers (4 hours):
  - Color contrast requirements and tools
  - Focus states and visual indicators
  - Touch target sizing
  - Typography and readability
  - Annotation of designs for developer handoff
  - Inclusive design patterns

  Product Managers (4 hours):
  - Accessibility requirements in user stories
  - Prioritizing accessibility in backlogs
  - Understanding VPAT/ACR (Voluntary Product Accessibility Template)
  - Customer accessibility requirements in RFPs

  Content Creators (4 hours):
  - Plain language principles
  - Writing effective alt text
  - Accessible document structure
  - Caption and audio description requirements

  QA/Testing (4 hours):
  - Manual accessibility testing methodology
  - Screen reader testing for QA
  - Automated accessibility test suites
  - Accessibility bug reporting standards

Tier 3: Expert (Champions, Ongoing)
  - Advanced ARIA patterns
  - Complex component accessibility
  - Accessibility architecture reviews
  - WCAG 2.2 and emerging standards
  - Assistive technology deep dives
  Delivery: Monthly workshop + conference attendance

CI Pipeline Integration:

1. Unit tests (jest-axe / @axe-core/react)
   - Run on every commit
   - Catch component-level issues
   - Block merge if new violations introduced

2. Integration tests (axe-core + Playwright/Cypress)
   - Run on every PR
   - Test full pages and user flows
   - Screenshot comparison for visual regression

3. Lighthouse CI
   - Run on staging deployments
   - Track accessibility score over time
   - Alert on score regression

4. Site-wide scan (axe Monitor / Siteimprove)
   - Weekly full-site crawl
   - Dashboard of total issues by severity
   - Trend tracking over time

For each critical user flow:

1. Keyboard Navigation
   □ All interactive elements reachable via Tab
   □ Focus order is logical
   □ Focus indicator is visible (not suppressed)
   □ No keyboard traps
   □ Skip links work correctly

2. Screen Reader
   □ Page has meaningful title
   □ Heading hierarchy is logical
   □ Images have appropriate alt text
   □ Form fields have labels
   □ Error messages are announced
   □ Dynamic content changes are announced
   □ Custom components have correct ARIA roles

3. Visual
   □ Text contrast meets 4.5:1 (or 3:1 for large text)
   □ UI component contrast meets 3:1
   □ Information not conveyed by color alone
   □ Content readable at 200% zoom
   □ Content reflows without horizontal scroll at 320px

4. Motor
   □ Touch targets are minimum 44x44 CSS pixels
   □ No time-limited interactions without extension option
   □ Complex gestures have single-pointer alternatives
   □ Drag-and-drop has keyboard alternative

5. Cognitive
   □ Error messages are clear and suggest fixes
   □ Consistent navigation across pages
   □ No unexpected context changes
   □ Animations can be paused/stopped
   □ Reading level appropriate for audience

Category 1: Compliance (40% weight)
  - Automated scan pass rate (% of pages with 0 critical violations)
  - WCAG conformance level achieved (A, AA, AAA)
  - Open accessibility bugs by severity
  - Mean time to resolve accessibility bugs

Category 2: Process (30% weight)
  - Percentage of teams with active champion
  - Percentage of PRs with accessibility review
  - Percentage of user stories with accessibility criteria
  - Training completion rate by role

Category 3: Impact (30% weight)
  - User satisfaction (accessibility-specific survey)
  - Support tickets related to accessibility (trending down)
  - Assistive technology compatibility test results
  - VPAT/ACR currency (updated within last 12 months)

Executive Dashboard (monthly):
  - Overall accessibility score: 73/100 (up from 65)
  - Critical issues: 12 (down from 28)
  - Training completion: 85% of developers
  - Customer impact: 3 accessibility complaints (down from 11)

Team Dashboard (weekly):
  - Team accessibility score: 81/100
  - Open accessibility bugs: 4 (2 high, 2 medium)
  - PRs with accessibility review: 92%
  - Automated test coverage: 78% of components

Trend Charts:
  - Accessibility score over time (12-month)
  - Issues opened vs closed (quarterly)
  - Training completion by department
  - Automated scan results trend