Scalable accessibility program improved design quality and decreased bugs by 80% for global tech company’s products
Our client, a global technology company, encountered increasing difficulties in guaranteeing accessibility for all users, including those with disabilities, across their diverse product ecosystem. The company boasts an extensive array of consumer-facing products, such as productivity tools, mobile platforms and digital services.
The Challenge
Scaling accessibility across a rapidly expanding product ecosystem
The client faced several challenges with accessibility. Their distributed product teams, particularly in high-cost regions, lacked sufficient accessibility knowledge. Internal testing struggled to keep up with rapid product ecosystem growth, hindering accessibility compliance. Inconsistent accessibility testing led to usability issues, fragmented bug reporting and quality gaps. Finally, a lack of consolidated accessibility compliance views across products resulted in large backlogs and delayed launches.
The Objective
A scalable, cost-effective and inclusive accessibility program
The client engaged HCLTech to address their challenges. They sought to establish a scalable and cost-efficient model for accessibility testing while improving the quality and consistency of accessibility compliance across their product portfolio. A crucial objective was to enhance visibility into accessibility status and testing progress. Furthermore, the client aimed to minimize rework and elevate the user experience by embedding accessibility considerations earlier in the product development lifecycle.
The Solution
A four-phase strategy to transform accessibility testing
HCLTech devised a comprehensive four-phase strategy to tackle the client's accessibility challenges:
- Phase 1: Foundation building
- We established specialized micro-teams of certified accessibility testers for each product area that collaborated directly with product owners to define testing scope and develop extensive test suites
- We provided remediation guidance for identified issues to the team and product owners
- Phase 2: Process efficiency
- We developed standardized templates and workflows to streamline testing and reduce turnaround times
- We adopted a shift-left approach by integrating accessibility early in the development cycle – during the design phase – when HCLTech SMEs participated in design reviews, suggesting fixes during feature design
- Phase 3: Visibility and empowerment
- We built live dashboards for real-time tracking of accessibility health and test requests
- We enabled data-driven decision-making through analytics provided by the dashboards
- We incorporated real-world feedback from users with disabilities to enhance usability
- We conducted knowledge transfer and mentoring sessions with product teams
- Phase 4: AI integration
- We explored and implemented AI-powered solutions to automate testing processes, accelerate issue detection and propose effective fixes through AI
The Impact
Measurable compliance gains, efficiency and product quality
HCLTech’s partnership with our client delivered significant and quantifiable improvements:
- Enhanced quality and compliance:
- Bug reduction: Accessibility issues per test request decreased dramatically by 80%
- Design quality: Over 150 design reviews proactively prevented more than 750 critical bugs
- 100% accessibility compliance: All planned features achieved full accessibility compliance
- Improved efficiency and cost savings:
- Faster feature launches: Turnaround time for feature launches improved by 75%
- Reduced bug backlog: Proactive UX fixes and code snippets led to a 20% reduction in bug backlog
- Cost savings: The project achieved an estimated $7,500 in savings through early issue detection and streamlined processes
The client’s internal product teams lauded the accessibility program as a "massive success," specifically highlighting improvements in delivery, user experience and the collaborative culture.
