At Microsoft, we’ve learned the best way to get accessibility right is to shift left.
“We need to think about accessibility before we start any of our work, before we write any line of code, at every step of our development lifecycle,” says Patrice Pelland, partner software engineering director for Microsoft Digital (MSD), the company’s IT organization. “Shifting left means thinking about accessibility at the start of every step we take when we deploy new software or services.”
This enables us to find accessibility bugs early, so at the end, major, disruptive bugs are few and far between. It enables us to ship experiences with accessibility in mind from the start, creating applications that are more inclusive for everyone, including those with disabilities. That’s why shifting left is so powerful—it allows you to avoid fire drills at the end of your projects.
—Patrice Pelland, partner software engineering director, Microsoft Digital
This approach is helping us improve how we approach accessibility internally here at Microsoft.
“This enables us to find accessibility bugs early, so at the end, major, disruptive bugs are few and far between,” Pelland says. “It enables us to ship experiences with accessibility in mind from the start, creating applications that are more inclusive for everyone, including those with disabilities. That’s why shifting left is so powerful—it allows you to avoid fire drills at the end of your projects.”
With Accessibility Insights, developers don’t have to be accessibility experts to create accessible products. Now they don’t have to wait until their whole page is complete to check for accessibility.
—Nandita Gupta, accessibility product owner, 1ES Accessibility Insights Team
A tool for shifting left
To help teams shift left with accessibility, the 1ES Accessibility Insights Team encourages teams to use Accessibility Insights, an open-source tool developed here at Microsoft.
“With Accessibility Insights, developers don’t have to be accessibility experts to create accessible products,” says Nandita Gupta, accessibility product owner on the 1ES Accessibility Insights Team. “Now they don’t have to wait until their whole page is complete to check for accessibility.”
How Accessibility Insights fits into the developer workflow.
Our teams across MSD are using the Accessibility Insights tool to transform how they approach accessibility. We’re providing feedback on what it’s like to use the tool, something that’s part of our role as the company’s Customer Zero.
“Accessibility Insights is embedded into our engineering pipeline,” Chumba Limo, a principal software engineering lead on the MSD’s Infrastructure Engineering Services team. “Any time we integrate a new feature, the tool automatically kicks in and assesses the changes we want to make before they go live.”
If we do find accessibility issues, engineers can address the problem immediately, rather than waiting for the results of a testing cycle later.
We’re able to remediate bugs caught by the automation in less than one hour on average. We’re saving a lot of time.
—Chumba Limo, principal software engineering lead, Infrastructure Engineering Services team, Microsoft Digital
Many of our engineering teams in MSD are using the new shift-left tool from Accessibility Insights.
“Having MSD teams using and deploying Accessibility Insights internally is very powerful,” Gupta says. “By taking active steps to ensure accessibility in the development lifecycle, MSD is sending a very important message: Accessibility is important to us and is a part of our DNA and culture.”
With the work completed by MSD teams so far, we project that our organization will save as many as 2,000 development hours over the next six months. Using Accessibility Insights and talking accessibility early in the process is reducing the amount of accessibility testing we need.
—Jia Ma, senior product manager, Accessibility team, Microsoft Digital
Benefits of shifting left with accessibility
Teams using Accessibility Insights have found several benefits to shifting left with accessibility, including saving time and money by fixing issues in the development phase.
“We’re able to remediate bugs caught by the automation in less than one hour on average,” Limo says. “We’re saving a lot of time.”
The risk of delays in shipping are greatly reduced. If we’re finding fewer issues, we’re releasing the application or product on time. Because we already found those issues in the early phase, there’s no delay, and no risk of having an inaccessible experience for users.
—Ankur Garg, senior technical program manager, Accessibility team, Microsoft Digital
Fixing a bug later, in the post-production phase, can cost 30 times more than it takes to fix it in the development phase.
“With the work completed by MSD teams so far, we project that our organization will save as many as 2,000 development hours over the next six months,” says Jia Ma, a senior product manager on the MSD Accessibility team. “Using Accessibility Insights and talking accessibility early in the process is reducing the amount of accessibility testing we need.”
I’ve heard from my fellow engineers from multiple organizations. They tell me, “By conducting accessibility testing using the tool, it’s teaching me issues I need to avoid and thus, now when I’m writing code, I’m not introducing those issues anymore. Now I just code with accessibility in mind.”
—Nandita Gupta, accessibility product owner, 1ES Accessibility Insights Team
In the end, getting it right at the start helps us from end to end.
“The risk of delays in shipping are greatly reduced,” says Ankur Garg, a senior technical program manager on the MSD Accessibility team. “If we’re finding fewer issues, we’re releasing the application or product on time. Because we already found those issues in the early phase, there’s no delay, and no risk of having an inaccessible experience for users.”
Accessibility Insights supports learning in addition to accessibility testing for developers. “I’ve heard from my fellow engineers from multiple organizations,” Gupta says. “They tell me, ‘By conducting accessibility testing using the tool, it’s teaching me issues I need to avoid and thus, now when I’m writing code, I’m not introducing those issues anymore. Now I just code with accessibility in mind.’”
You can see a change happening across the company. “It’s really great to see the cultural shift as organizations are starting to use this product,” Gupta says.
Tips for shifting left with accessibility
Organizations outside of Microsoft are using Accessibility Insights, too. While developed here at Microsoft, it’s open-source and available for anyone to use.
“It’s used across different industries, including academic and nonprofit,” says Gupta, who says customers love using the product, especially since it’s an open-source product for tackling accessibility testing. “Here’s an open-source product that nonprofits, academia, and others can use to tackle accessibility at no cost.”
For us, it’s been a helpful tool in our journey to improve the way we approach accessibility internally at Microsoft—shifting left is helping us get it right, but we still have a lot of work to do.
If your organization wants to shift left with accessibility, our experts here at Microsoft have some tips to share.
“Just do it,” Gupta says. “Ask yourselves, what is the one thing you can do today?”
Start there and build on that.
For example, one quick, impactful thing you can do is to make sure all your images have alt text. Then make sure you’re using ARIA correctly. Then look for the next thing you can do.
There are more than one billion people in the world who have a disability and they’re not necessarily visible. Anybody investing in shifting left is buying themselves more time to do innovation, and better things for their customers.
—Patrice Pelland, partner software engineering director, Microsoft Digital
“It’s worth the investment,” Limo says. “You’re going to have to go through the process anyway, so you might as well address these bugs sooner than later.”
It’s about making products better for everyone.
“There are more than one billion people in the world who have a disability and they’re not necessarily visible,” Pelland says. “Anybody investing in shifting left is buying themselves more time to do innovation, and better things for their customers.”
- Discover Microsoft’s fresh approach to accessibility powered by inclusive design.
- Unpack driving inclusive and effective meetings at Microsoft with Microsoft Teams.
- Learn more about advancing your meetings with the Microsoft Teams Meeting Guide.
Want more information? Email us and include a link to this story and we’ll get back to you.
