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.

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

The post Mapping the Microsoft approach to accessibility in the world of AI appeared first on Inside Track Blog.

Adopting rigorous design standards is helping Microsoft get better at something very important to the company—getting accessibility right inside its own walls.

Microsoft’s journey to transform its approach to accessibility started when Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella took the helm in 2014, says Tricia Fejfar, partner director of user experience in Microsoft Digital, the organization that powers, protects, and transforms Microsoft. Nadella sharpened the company’s focus on accessibility in 2017, when he penned a moving essay describing his experience raising a child with cerebral palsy.

“That really got us thinking about accessibility internally,” Fejfar says. “Employees are more productive and engaged when they have simple, easy-to-use tools, and accessibility is a very important part of that DNA.”

More than 1 billion people on the planet identify as having some form of a disability, so building experiences that are accessible to all Microsoft employees makes a difference every day.

“Being able to do my job at Microsoft based on my skills and not be blocked by my blindness has made a big difference in my life,” says Manish Agrawal, a senior program manager for the Accessibility team within Microsoft Digital.

Agrawal, who is blind, works to make Microsoft products more accessible to people with disabilities. It’s about creating an inclusive work environment where everyone can succeed.

“For me, it’s not just about making products accessible for Microsoft employees to help them get their work done,” he says. “It’s also about supporting employees with disabilities and ensuring that Microsoft builds a diverse and inclusive workforce across the spectrum of abilities.”

Fejfar adds, “Designing for and building experiences that reflect the diversity of the people who use them makes sure we put our people at the center of our work. Until people recognize that, and honor it in the work they do, they can’t begin to make sure what they build will take care of everyone’s needs.”

It’s about understanding why you build something and who will use it. Microsoft calls it being human-centric and customer obsessed.

“Building accessible experiences is not a compliance effort or a checklist of guidelines,” Fejfar says. “It’s about thinking of the user at all stages of the development process so you build usable, delightful, and cohesive end-to-end experiences.”

Hiring and supporting people with disabilities makes good sense for the company and helps attract top talent.

“Millennials choose employers who reflect their values, and diversity and inclusion are at the top of their list,” Fejfar says. “They make up 75 percent of the global workforce.”

Making a difference in the lives of people like Agrawal is what brings people to the Accessibility team, Fejfar says. “We’re here because we want to make sure the internal products that our employees use every day are accessible,” she says.

[Find out how building inclusive, accessible experiences at Microsoft is a catalyst for digital transformation. Learn how Microsoft enables remote work for its employees.]

Adopting a coherent design system

Nadella sharing his story led to a company-wide pivot toward accessibility and improving employability for people with disabilities at Microsoft. One of the initiatives connected to this goal was creating a set of coherence design standards that teams can use each time they builds new tools and services for employees.

“Using a coherent design language reduces engineering costs while increasing engineering efficiency,” Fejfar says. “That makes what we build predictable to our users, which increases engagement and builds trust.”

Microsoft Digital’s design system is built on top of Fluent, Microsoft’s externally facing design language, which makes it feel more like Microsoft.

“Building coherently means something very specific to us,” Fejfar says. “It means designing and coding accessible and reusable UI components, interaction patterns, brand, and other guidelines to build predictable experiences for our employees.”

These design standards have allowed Microsoft to not only consider accessibility as part of every internal project. They also consider accessibility at every step along the way, from idea, to construction, to release. That makes its products accessible to as wide a range of people as possible, which creates new opportunities and better experiences for everyone who works at Microsoft.

Accessible design benefits everyone

Agrawal cites closed captioning as an example of a widely useful accessibility tool that is now used for far more than helping people with hearing impairments watch TV or follow a presentation. Creative uses of the capability include helping audiences understand someone with a heavy accent, following along on TVs placed in loud environments like airports and bars, or allowing someone to watch TV while their partner sleeps.

In fact, closed captions or subtitles are so popular with the general population that game maker Ubisoft reported that more than 95 percent of the people who play their popular Assassin’s Creed Odyssey game keep subtitles turned on. “When you build for accessibility, you end up building a much more compelling product,” Agrawal says.

Moreover, it’s simply good business sense to ensure that talented people such as Agrawal are empowered to make a significant contribution to companies such as Microsoft.

“We need to make sure all the applications and experiences that we build empower everyone who works here to not only do their work, but to have full, rich experiences while they’re at work,” Fejfar says. “Without accessible tools, people can’t do their best work, and if people can’t do their best work, our company, our culture, and our customers are directly impacted.”

For a transcript, please view the video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhN1tnBcYLo, select the “More actions” button (three dots icon) below the video, and then select “Show transcript.”

Designing new employee experiences

One telling example of Microsoft Digital’s coherent design approach to accessibility is Microsoft MyHub, a new one-stop shop for employees to get their “at work” stuff done at work, like getting worksite access, taking time off, checking stock rewards, and finding out what holidays are upcoming.

It was also vital to make sure the app experience would be fully accessible, says Bing Zhu, principal design manager in Microsoft Digital’s Studio UX team.

“Before we built the app, our employees had to deal with as many as five to eight different tools almost every day,” Zhu says. “Each experience was different than the last one, and not all of them were as accessible as we needed them to be.”

This fragmented experience was difficult for everyone to navigate and very hard to keep accessible for people with disabilities.

“We used our coherent design system to build a unified, consistent, and accessible experience for our employees,” Zhu says. “Using that as our guide, we were able to design an application that all Microsoft employees can use.”

Not only is Microsoft MyHub compliant with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), but it also received a strong usability grade by employees with a spectrum of vision disabilities.

Crucially, the new app was built with accessibility in mind at every stage of its development cycle, Agrawal says.

“We reviewed the design for every feature for accessibility and beta tested the app’s accessibility every time a new feature was implemented,” he says. “We made sure it was accessible for all of our users at each step in the development process.”

One example of how the team that built Microsoft MyHub was guided by Microsoft Digital’s coherence design system was in how it made every interaction and visual element accessible.

“Our coherence design system—which is an extension of Microsoft’s Fluent design system—alongside the accessibility guidance that we provide, helped the MyHub team start incorporating accessibility into their app from the get-go,” says Anna Zaremba, a senior designer on Microsoft Digital’s Coherence team. “Our coherence design system provides components with built-in accessibility that Microsoft Digital’s product teams, like the team that built MyHub, use to create their experiences.”

Work that makes a difference

It’s striking to hear employees in Microsoft Digital talk about the deep satisfaction they take from making products more accessible.

“The greatest reward is hearing from people who have benefitted from our work,” Zaremba says. “I really like the fact that we are doing work that helps the entire company and drives a greater awareness of accessibility.”

Though Microsoft is among the companies pushing hard to build accessibility into everything it does, there is still much work to do. One in 10 people who identify as having some form of disability don’t have the assistive technology they need to fully participate in work and society.

Going forward, Microsoft Digital will continue designing with accessibility as a top priority, using the developmental model it uses to build solutions like Microsoft MyHub as a template for creating the company’s next generation of employee tools.

“We’re still learning this process ourselves,” Zhu says. “We’re figuring out how to make accessibility and design work with program managers and engineers to create even more opportunities for access. It’s an exciting challenge.”

And one that will open doors for Microsoft employees—and others.

“I really love building software anyway,” Agrawal says. “But it’s great to be part of a team that is working to make Microsoft a more inclusive place to work. It has a real impact on people’s lives.”

• Learn more about creating an accessibility training program for your team.
• Dive into the latest accessibility fundamentals training course on Microsoft Learn.
• October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month 2020—learn more about the 75th anniversary of this event in the US here.
• Read how Microsoft is sharing how many of its employees identify as having some form of disability.
• Read how people with disabilities shape technology people use every day.
• Find out how building inclusive, accessible experiences at Microsoft is a catalyst for digital transformation.
• Learn how Microsoft enables remote work for its employees.

The post Microsoft’s fresh approach to accessibility powered by inclusive design appeared first on Inside Track Blog.

“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.

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

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The post Shifting left to get accessibility right at Microsoft appeared first on Inside Track Blog.

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 Employee Experience

Following are 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 higher engagement.

[Learn how to create inclusive content with the new Accessibility Assistant in Microsoft 365. Take our accessibility fundamentals training. Learn about our responsible AI program. Find out about our pursuit of inclusive AI.]

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 Employee Experience. “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 Employee Experience

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 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 Employee Experience, 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. 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,” Larsen says.

Due to this session, Larsen created a stronger understanding of the importance of the work to the engineering team for the specific tool and others were able to learn from it.

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 Employee Experience

“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, where Sherif Mazhar, a principal program manager, worked closely with ServiceNow 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 against common goals.

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 Employee Experience

Our Microsoft Digital Employee Experience 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 Employee Experience, has worked with multiple customer companies 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. 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,” Retikis says.

Looking ahead: Artificial Intelligence needs accessibility from the start

As we and other companies look at how artificial intelligence 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, to ensure that your employee experiences are created with everyone at the center.

• Learn more about creating an accessibility training program for your team.
• Dive into the latest accessibility fundamentals training course on Microsoft Learn. 
• Learn how to create inclusive content with the new Accessibility Assistant in Microsoft 365.
• Take our accessibility fundamentals training.
• Learn about our responsible AI program.
• Find out about our pursuit of inclusive AI.

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

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The post Disability as a strength: Three practices to help you create inclusive experiences at your company appeared first on Inside Track Blog.

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.

The post Using insights from Microsoft employees with disabilities to build accessible employee experiences appeared first on Inside Track Blog.

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.

Please share your feedback with us—take our survey and let us know what kind of content is most useful to you.

The post Prioritizing accessibility at Microsoft with feedback from people with disabilities appeared first on Inside Track Blog.