As AI transforms how we build and experience technology, accessibility has to be built in from the start.

Designing with and for people with disabilities isn’t optional—it’s fundamental to building technology that works for everyone and to building trust at scale. And yet today, about96% of websites are still inaccessible.

At Microsoft, we’re committed to creating accessible products and services—designed with and for the disability community—that benefit everyone.

Our “shift left” approach to software production—which involves moving quality-assurance, testing, and accessibility checks to earlier in the development lifecycle—means that implementing assistive features and tools is a high priority for Microsoft, rather than a late-stage addition.

And with the rise in importance of AI tools and products, paying close attention to accessibility standards and building these key capabilities into game-changing tech like Microsoft 365 Copilot is a crucial part of our mission here in Microsoft Digital, the company’s IT organization.

“After my accident, I became immediately reliant on accessible technology. Because I worked in tech, I could leverage accessibility features and assistive technologies to continue doing my job. It was literally a lifeline for me.”

Laurie Allen, accessibility technology evangelist, Microsoft

Evangelizing for accessibility

Laurie Allen is one person who knows first-hand the importance of accessibility in enterprise software. A little more than a decade ago, she experienced a spinal cord injury and became a quadriplegic.

Today, Allen works as an accessibility technology evangelist at Microsoft. Every day, she relies on assistive digital technologies to help her be successful in her role—which involves ensuring that our software products are accessible to everyone.

“After my accident, I became immediately reliant on accessible technology,” Allen says. “Because I worked in tech, I could leverage accessibility features and assistive technologies to continue doing my job. It was literally a lifeline for me during that transitionary phase, because my job was the one thing about my life that didn’t dramatically change as a result of the accident.”

The following graphic shows how widespread disability is around the globe: 

Shifting left for inclusivity

At Microsoft, our accessibility strategy includes such disability categories as mobility, vision, hearing, cognition, and learning—because accessibility empowers everyone.

“We view accessibility as a quality of our software, not simply a feature. Like with security and privacy, we prioritize accessibility to ensure that people can effectively perceive and operate our products and services, delivering an inclusive experience for everyone.”

Ankur Garg, accessibility program manager, Microsoft Digital

We begin with the concept of “shift left,” which in this context means incorporating accessibility principles from the project’s outset, instead of waiting until a product is already built.

This strategy mirrors our approach in other key trust domains, such as security and privacy.

“We view accessibility as a quality of our software, not simply a feature,” says Ankur Garg, an accessibility program manager in Microsoft Digital. “Like with security and privacy, we prioritize accessibility to ensure that people can effectively perceive and operate our products and services, delivering an inclusive experience for everyone.”

Here in Microsoft Digital, that manifests as treating accessibility as a core requirement validated through rigorous internal testing of AI agents and embedding standards and inclusive design early in every tool’s development life cycle. We also use internal AI tools to streamline guidance and testing before expanding those practices across the company.  

Accessibility challenges in the age of AI

Technology is moving fast, especially with the advent of AI-powered tools. It’s easier than ever for companies and individuals to quickly generate and publish an app, website, or other digital product.

That means it’s also easier than ever before to create inaccessible software. It’s important to remember that much of the data that generative AI models have been trained on includes websites and apps that were built without considering accessibility guidelines.

“We want people with disabilities to be represented and see themselves in the technology we’re producing. We work with our AI models to make sure they have disability data in their training sets, so that the final product will reflect these values.”

Alli Hirt, director of accessibility engineering, Microsoft

As a result, we’ve found that many AI code-generation tools and models produce code that by default fail to meet Microsoft’s high standards for accessibility.

“We want people with disabilities to be represented and see themselves in the technology we’re producing,” says Alli Hirt, a director of accessibility engineering at Microsoft. “We work with our AI models to make sure they have disability data in their training sets, so that the final product will reflect these values.”

When we’re developing AI-driven products like Microsoft 365 Copilot, the tool must have comprehensive knowledge of different disabilities and be able to give appropriate, contextual help.

“Let’s say I tell Copilot, ‘I have a mobility disability; what software tools can I use?’” Allen says. “Copilot must recognize what a mobility disability is and identify which tools will support me. That’s the data representation we need in our AI models.”

Allen noted that sensitivity and bias are also big factors when creating these kinds of tools.

“Copilot should not respond with, ‘I’m sorry you have a disability,’” she says. “That’s the type of bias we’re working to train out of the models.”

Accessibility as a core commitment

When Satya Nadella became Microsoft CEO in 2014, he redirected the core mission of the company. The new vision was simple: To empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. And accessibility is a core part of that mission.

“At Microsoft, accessibility is in our DNA. It’s who we are as a company.”

Laurie Allen, accessibility technology evangelist, Microsoft

Meeting global accessibility standards is our starting point. For example, the hub-and-spoke business model of the Accessibility Team helps ensure that accessibility is everyone’s responsibility.

The Microsoft Corporate, External, and Legal Affairs (CELA) group oversees accessibility across the company, helping products align with internationally recognized accessibility standards, such as Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and EN 301 549. These standards ensure that digital content, websites, and apps produced today are designed with accessibility in mind.

Understanding how products and services align to key accessibility standards and requirements is an important step in providing inclusive and accessible experiences.

“An organization’s accessibility program succeeds when it’s a priority at every level of the organization, starting with senior leadership,” Allen says. “At Microsoft, accessibility is in our DNA. It’s who we are as a company.”

Presenting content in a multimodal way

Here in Microsoft Digital, we embrace software products that provide our employees with a multimodal approach in presenting content. This means using more than one sense at the same time, like seeing, listening, reading, and speaking. This makes our products accessible to a diverse array of users, including people who learn and work in different ways. It lets our employees customize the way that works best for them.

“Seeing a visually impaired colleague demonstrate how he works—listening to a wiki being read at a speed that I could never follow—showed me exactly why accessibility is needed. It’s not just about being inclusive or compassionate; it’s a requirement for people to do their jobs.”

Eman Shaheen, principal PM lead, Microsoft Digital

For example, someone may not have a diagnosed disability, but they might be a better auditory learner than a visual learner.

This reflects what Eman Shaheen, a principal PM lead in Microsoft Digital, learned from a team member when observing how he used assistive technologies.

“Seeing a visually impaired colleague demonstrate how he works—listening to a wiki being read at a speed I couldn’t even follow—showed exactly why accessibility is needed,” Shaheen says. “It’s not just about being inclusive or compassionate; it’s a requirement for people to do their jobs.”

Here are some examples of multimodal accessibility capabilities offered by Microsoft 365 Copilot that are designed to support diverse user requirements:

How we demonstrate our accessibility vision

Here at Microsoft, we developed a strategic partnership with ServiceNow over the last five years. The two companies work together to accelerate digital transformation for our enterprise and government customers.

Through this partnership, we use the ServiceNow platform for internal helpdesk and ServiceDesk process automation, IT asset management, and integrated risk management.

“The biggest shift happened once ServiceNow started feeling the same operational pain we felt. That’s when they began fixing accessibility issues proactively, which changed everything.”

Sherif Mazhar, principal product manager, Microsoft Digital

As part of this process, we uncovered 1,800 accessibility bugs (including 1,200 that were rated as high severity) in the platform—in our first assessment. By contrast, our most recent review found just 24 accessibility-related issues.

“The biggest shift happened once ServiceNow started feeling the same operational pain we felt,” says Sherif Mazhar, a principal product manager in Microsoft Digital, who oversees the company’s relationship with ServiceNow. “That’s when they began fixing accessibility issues proactively, which changed everything.”

The next major step for us is ensuring our ServiceNow platform updates aligns to WCAG 2.2 accessibility standards which will require reworking older versions of our products. However, doing this work helps us maintain momentum toward a world of more inclusive enterprise software in all lines of business and for all Microsoft customers.

What’s next in accessibility

Digital accessibility work is never done.

As new software and hardware are introduced, user needs and accessibility standards change and grow. At Microsoft, we are committed to making accessibility easier for everyone.

“Right now, we’re making sure every AI agent across Microsoft is tested with assistive technologies—like screen readers and keyboard navigation—to guarantee that the outputs are accessible and compliant,” Garg says.

This “shift left” mentality at Microsoft is ultimately about putting people first. It means that no one should have to wait for a late fix to be able to do their work, or simply to belong.

By embedding accessibility standards into product planning, instead of tacking it on as an afterthought just before (or even after) product launch, we’re helping ensure that these digital experiences will include everyone from day one.

“We may compete on products, especially in AI, but accessibility is a shared mission,” Allen says. “When the industry collaborates on inclusive technology, everyone wins.”

Key takeaways

Here are some tips to keep in mind as you consider your own accessibility strategy in a world of increasingly AI-driven technology:

• Start with leadership. Championing accessibility from the C-suite signals that this is a top organizational priority.
• Raise awareness with training. Set up employee learning opportunities regarding accessibility in AI tools and encourage everyone to take part.
• Design with inclusivity in mind from day one (“shift left”). Incorporate accessibility from the beginning of the software creation process to make sure it isn’t lost in the shuffle of trying to ship a product on time.
• Think inclusively. Run usability tests with people with lived experience
• Treat accessibility as an ongoing practice. Digital accessibility work is never finished; document strategies and share your team’s learnings to keep improving iteratively as an organization.

Try it out

Get started with accessibility using Microsoft tools and solutions.

Related links

• Learn how Microsoft is raising the bar for accessibility and building a more accessible future for all.
• Try the Ask Microsoft Accessibility AI tool.
• Read how Microsoft and ServiceNow are building more accessible and inclusive experience.
• Read the Web content accessibility guidelines.
• Explore the Microsoft Inclusive Design hub.
• See how the Indiana Pacers use Azure AI Foundry to create the first live arena captioning service.
• Go behind the scenes with a Microsoft accessibility product manager.

We’d like to hear from you!

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“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.”

Try the open-source Accessibility Insights to progress accessible and inclusive experiences in your business.

• Learn more about creating an accessibility training program for your team.
• Dive into the latest accessibility fundamentals training course on Microsoft Learn.
• 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.

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Our mission at Microsoft is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. Our Microsoft Digital team lives this mission every day by empowering employees across the organization with inclusive digital and physical experiences.

Leading our accessibility efforts over the past two years, I’ve seen teams make great progress—not just in those experiences, but also in the culture we’ve created across the organization. It’s energizing when you hear someone share an accessibility tip in a meeting or see the “Accessibility: Good to Go” message in someone’s PowerPoint presentation.

We have continued to evolve the way we incorporate accessibility practices into our employee experiences—from meeting etiquette to the digital experiences that enable our employees to do their best work. And with the recent explosion of generative AI using machine learning to further drive productivity improvements, it’s important we continue to extend these practices to new experiences, so everyone benefits.

We worked with the Accessibility team to create a quick guide of best practices for large, internal meetings like Town Halls that serves as a checklist for administrators, meeting organizers and leaders. It helps us all be consistent on what to do when planning a meeting to help everyone fully participate.

—Michelle Strub, executive communications lead, Microsoft Digital

This article explores three practices our teams have learned and do regularly that can be applied across your own organization. Adopting and championing these can increase productivity and produce higher engagement among employees.

Practice #1: Regularly communicate and model key behaviors for inclusive meetings

Meetings are critical to getting work done, whether it’s communicating priorities, driving alignment, brainstorming ideas, or making decisions. Features in Microsoft Teams and Microsoft 365 help people customize their experience, but we found many people weren’t aware of the options available. And while our accessible events guide gives lots of useful information, we found it was sometimes hard for people to know what to adopt and when.

“We worked with the Accessibility team to create a quick guide of best practices for large, internal meetings like Town Halls that serves as a checklist for administrators, meeting organizers and leaders,” says Michelle Strub, an executive communications lead in Microsoft Digital. “It helps us all be consistent on what to do when planning a meeting to help everyone fully participate.”

It really brought to light the customer pain point by having the employee walk through and share their experience with the tool. I tried to put myself in their shoes by closing my eyes and trying to follow along. That’s when I realized how confusing it was.

—Jaimie Larsen, product manager, Microsoft Digital

Companies can develop their own checklists to increase awareness of important practices, building up adoption over time. While some of these features were initially designed to support individuals with disabilities, we found the following practical tips encouraged everyone to participate and engage effectively.

• Encourage presenters to watch our video on inclusive presentation skills.
• Share materials in advance and use the accessibility checker in Microsoft Office.
• Use PowerPoint Live to enable features like real-time captions and translation.
• Record meetings so people can catch up later or review to improve understanding.

Practice #2: Build empathy and understanding through storytelling

Creating connections is central to the human experience. We’ve seen employees across Microsoft share their stories, and the stories of others, to improve understanding about why it’s important to create experiences that consider the needs of everyone.

Jaimie Larsen, a product manager in Microsoft Digital, was new to accessibility when she met with engineers across her organization to understand their needs and challenges. She quickly realized that the engineers didn’t always understand the impact a poorly designed tool could have on someone’s daily work. She found inspiration to start a quarterly series that featured employees and how they use different tools.

“It really brought to light the customer pain point by having the employee walk through and share their experience with the tool,” Larsen says. “I tried to put myself in their shoes by closing my eyes and trying to follow along. That’s when I realized how confusing it was.”

Because of this session, Larsen was able to create a stronger understanding of the importance of this work for the engineering team. Others were able to learn from it as well.

It’s been a multi-year journey as we have shared our expertise at Microsoft and worked with ServiceNow to develop practices and processes that continually improve the experiences for our employees.

—Sherif Mazhar, principal program manager, Microsoft Digital

“It was great because we needed multiple teams to do work to make the experience better,” Larsen says. “This session really helped anchor the goal and impact for everyone.”

Practice #3: Create alignment on accessibility with partners internally and externally

We partner with teams across Microsoft and external organizations to deliver employee experiences globally. Using international accessibility standards including Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), teams have developed strong partnerships and commitment to ensure that accessibility is included as a key requirement and measure of success.

One of these partnerships has been with ServiceNow, which Sherif Mazhar, a principal program manager, worked closely with to align accessibility goals and drive improvements together.

“It’s been a multi-year journey as we have shared our expertise at Microsoft and worked with ServiceNow to develop practices and processes that continually improve the experiences for our employees,” Mazhar says.

Leaders at Microsoft and ServiceNow have aligned on accessibility goals and now review progress quarterly.

It takes time to build up relationships and expertise when the primary job someone is used to doing is not focused on technology. I’ve found it helpful to explain the impact and show what happens, rather than just talking about an issue. It can be easy for people to get lost if you use too much technical jargon.

—Erika Retikis, principal product manager, Microsoft Digital

Our Microsoft Digital team works with our colleagues in Microsoft Human Resources to build internal and external partnerships that are increasing accessibility awareness and knowledge. Erika Retikis, a principal product manager in Microsoft Digital, has worked with multiple customers over the last few years and sees many unique challenges, especially for those companies or teams that aren’t as tech savvy.

“It takes time to build up relationships and expertise when the primary job someone is used to doing is not focused on technology,” Retikis says. “I’ve found it helpful to explain the impact and show what happens, rather than just talking about an issue. It can be easy for people to get lost if you use too much technical jargon.”

Looking ahead: AI needs to consider accessibility from the start

As we and other companies look at how AI is embedded into different experiences, it will be critical to think about accessibility from the start to ensure that the data and the experiences include everyone. One area of focus is ensuring data sets include a variety of people and situations. We also regularly include employees with disabilities at various product development stages to benefit from their perspective and create more accessible and inclusive experiences.

So, when you are thinking about building and adopting inclusive experiences, you should try and keep the above tips in mind, as well as other best practices included in some of the resources below. This will allow you to ensure that your employee experiences are created with everyone at the center.

• Learn more about creating an accessibility training program for your team.
• Discover techniques for generating inclusive content with the Accessibility Assistant in Microsoft 365.
• Read how we’re approaching accessibility in the era of AI.
• Dive into our accessibility fundamentals training course on Microsoft Learn. 
• Explore how we emphasize responsible AI at Microsoft.

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We periodically update our stories, but we can’t verify that they represent the full picture of our current situation at Microsoft. We leave them on the site so you can see what our thinking and experience was at the time.

Microsoft employees are the company’s first and best customers, who often test features and enable product groups to refine experiences before going to market. These employees can provide their feedback through inclusive usability tests, which are used to understand how people with disabilities interact with technology.

There are also industry standards for accessibility when it comes to the text, contrast, or graphics. However, Hope Idaewor wanted to go beyond accessibility requirements and focus on offering an intuitive user experience for everyone.

“Focusing on usability ensures that those lived experiences are actually accounted for and that the people that you’re building for have actually used the application and have given you contextual feedback,” says Idaewor, who was a user researcher on the Microsoft Digital Studio team at Microsoft.

After conducting usability tests with employees with disabilities, some of the findings that surfaced were the need to clarify technical jargon and acronyms, add a user guide video that include American Sign Language (ASL), and ensure that the video has better contrast so it would show up properly for someone with low vision or is working in a bright environment.

The team was able to add a video with an ASL interpreter among other changes to make the tool more accessible and inclusive.

It’s important to think about accessibility from the beginning of the product-making process.

“Much like a house, you need to start with a strong foundation,” says Faris Mango, a principal software engineering manager in Microsoft Digital Employee Experience. “Our team really put a lot of effort into this process, and there’s nothing better than knowing that we made someone’s day better because we took this time to do it.”

• Explore three practices to help you create inclusive experiences at your company.
• Discover how building inclusive, accessible experiences is a catalyst for digital transformation.
• Unpack how accessibility fosters inclusion: Five lessons learned.

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Prioritizing accessibility at Microsoft is helping the company create products and services that are inclusive and accessible for everyone.

Being successful at this important work hinges on getting feedback from people with disabilities ranging from mobility and cognitive disabilities to temporary disabilities due to an injury or short-term condition.

Joanna Briggs, a senior technical program manager in Microsoft Digital, says that creating inclusive experiences starts with creating products and services for Microsoft employees, who are often the first and best customers at the company.

“We’re trying to innovate and provide our employees and customers with the best user experiences,” says Briggs, who works with partner teams in Microsoft Digital, the organization that powers, protects, and transforms the company, to ensure that internal applications and services meet accessibility standards and guidelines. “To do that, we have to take into account the lived experiences of every employee, regardless of ability.”

This was the approach that Briggs, Faris Mango (a software engineering manager in Microsoft Digital), and their teams used to improve the portal that Microsoft guests can use to register their devices and connect to the internet when they visit one of the company’s buildings.

“We didn’t want to just guess what certain employees would want or face,” Mango says. “Instead, we wanted to have our employees use the portal so we could get feedback straight from them.”

This is why Briggs set up inclusive usability studies to get feedback from people with disabilities, where she would observe them going through a series of tasks using the portal. To do this, she worked with employees who volunteered to share their lived experience and test out the portal. Their lived experience and feedback were vital to building out this technology and ensuring that it is usable for employees and customers with a range of lived experiences.

In the research findings, Briggs summarized that some participants wanted more consistency around the semantics of the color palette in the user interface and simpler language that wasn’t specific to software engineers. Others advocated for a version of the user guide video with American Sign Language (ASL).

“All of the feedback made sense to me,” Mango says, explaining Microsoft Digital’s accessibility team made it easy for him to find and hire an ASL interpreter. “We were able to quickly record a version of the video with an ASL interpreter, and that made a huge impact.”

Ensure that you’re getting feedback from customers outside of your own team, discipline, or organization. Bring in a diverse user base from the beginning, and really listen to what they need.

—Joanna Briggs, senior technical program manager, Microsoft Digital

Conducting the inclusive usability studies with people with disabilities has also reinforced the importance of creating intuitive user experiences. What’s more important is that these learnings have shifted the mindset of his team. Mango also worked with Briggs to apply principles of Microsoft’s inclusive design methodology to the technology and tools they’re developing. One of the core principles is “solve for one, extend to many.” In other words, technology created with people with disabilities in mind, like video captions or a push bar on a door, can benefit people in a range of situations and ability levels.

“We’re taking the lessons we learned in the inclusive usability studies, applying them when developing new products and services, and prioritizing accessibility at Microsoft,” Mango says.

For teams that want to take a page out of Mango and Briggs’ book by prioritizing accessibility, it’s important to think about inclusion from the beginning of the product-making process.

“Ensure that you’re getting feedback from customers outside of your own team, discipline, or organization,” Briggs says. “Bring in a diverse user base from the beginning, and really listen to what they need.”

You can even leverage free tools, like a plug-in for accessibility insights that can be added to any webpage, or do your own research.

This conversation is especially important as companies continue to embrace remote and hybrid work, and ensure that every employee is invited to participate regardless of where they’re working or what technology they’re using.

“Put yourself in customers’ shoes and get feedback from them directly about what they need,” Mango says. “This gives you a better sense of what to invest in.”

• Think about inclusion and accessibility from the beginning of the product-making process.
• Get feedback from folks outside of your own team, discipline, or collaborators.
• Run usability tests with people who have a range of disabilities.

• Find out how building inclusive, accessible experiences at Microsoft is a catalyst for digital transformation.
• Read about how Microsoft is enabling remote work with Zero Trust networking, Microsoft Teams meetings, and employee engagement.
• Watch this video about how to design Microsoft products and services with accessibility in mind.

Want more information? Email us and include a link to this story and we’ll get back to you.

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