In the first two parts of this series, we laid the groundwork by exploring the fundamentals of inclusive design systems and the practical tools for building and testing them. Now, we'll address the most crucial element: fostering a company-wide culture of accessibility via design systems. Building accessible products isn't just a technical challenge; it's a human one. This article will guide you on how to move from theory to practice and embed inclusivity into your organization's very DNA, ensuring every digital product you create is usable by everyone.
Leadership: The catalyst for an inclusive culture
A genuine cultural shift towards inclusivity must start from the top. Beyond just technical requirements, leaders need to understand, champion, and promote inclusive design practices across the entire organization. It should be a core business principle to create products that welcome the broadest possible audience. Without this crucial buy-in, even the most passionate efforts will struggle to gain traction and secure the necessary resources.
To get leaders on board, you must frame accessibility in the language of business value. Any compelling business case typically would answer these critical questions: Does it generate revenue? Does it save us money? And does it help us mitigate risk? When pitching this investment, focus on the benefits of inclusive design – it fosters loyalty among customers who feel seen and respected, expands your market reach, drives innovation by creating a better product for everyone, and ultimately increases your organization's revenue.
This is where the journey of "selling" inclusivity internally begins. Crucially, this often requires the same leadership buy-in as adopting a design system, making it far more powerful to champion them together. The design system then becomes the critical player because it's the tool that scales your inclusive principles. It makes the long-term benefits tangible by providing a direct pathway to cost savings, mitigating legal risk, and most importantly, enforcing a high-standard, inclusive experience for every user from the start.
Beyond compliance: a fundamental mindset shift
True inclusive design is not just about checking boxes for keyboard navigation, contrast ratios, and screen readers. It's a shared understanding that we build high-quality products through inclusive design systems. In fact, accessibility is a direct measure of quality. It forces you to apply logic, clarity, and simplicity to every aspect of your product. Think of every frustrating app you've used – that friction is often a symptom of ignoring the very principles that create speed and ease of use, especially on mobile devices.
This requires an evolution in the roles of designers and developers, shifting the focus from aesthetics and a "we can code anything" attitude to holistic and intentional product design thinking. A mature design system becomes the engine for this change. By providing the fundamentals – the brand's look and feel, accessible components with design tokens, clear guidelines, and design standards – it frees up teams to solve complex user problems instead of reinventing the wheel or focusing too much on the visual aspects. This craft shift prioritizes consistent user journeys over costly, unscalable, and time-consuming custom work. While custom design has its place on an innovation layer, the core quality of your product must be driven by the design system.
This principle becomes even more critical with the rise of artificial intelligence (AI). For AI to create high-quality, coherent experiences, it requires a robust design system to draw from. AI is only as good as the rules it's given. Clear component architecture, overarching guidelines, and well-documented 'dos and don'ts' are some of the essential guardrails that ensure AI-generated interfaces are not just functional, but also on-brand and trustworthy.
Practical steps to cultivate an inclusive culture
Building an inclusive culture via the design system is an active process that requires a multi-pronged approach. It starts with widespread education. Offer training courses, whether hands-on or self-driven, to a broad audience that includes designers, developers, product managers, and, most importantly, leadership. If dedicated specialists aren’t feasible for your company, consider creating a guild or advocacy group, ideally with cross-functional representatives. This team, once upskilled on accessibility, can help train the wider organization, provide hands-on reviews, and mitigate risks.
Finally, formalize your commitment by creating clear policies and standards. A public accessibility statement should detail the standard that the company is aiming for [e.g., Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 Level AA]. However, if that isn't possible, creating a robust internal policy is an excellent first step in establishing and enforcing high standards for your products.
Integrating inclusive practices into your workflow
Once you have set the accessibility standard within your design system and baked it into components, patterns, and guidelines, the next step is to define the practices that protect its integrity and quality. For any workflow to be effective, it requires clear governance. This means establishing ownership, with individuals in defined roles who are responsible for maintaining standards and addressing issues as they arise.
To make accessibility "business as usual", regular awareness events and training are essential. Awareness events make the work visible and celebrate progress, while training and the accessibility guild (if you created one) equips your teams with understanding and confidence. Combined, they help weave inclusivity into the very fabric of how your organization operates.
Every small adjustment to your internal processes is a step towards a more inclusive and higher-quality product. What may seem like a lot of extra work initially will, with consistency, become second nature to your teams.
A quick note on AI and the future
As we look ahead, it’s essential to examine the role of AI in designing user interfaces. While the technology is new, the principles of accessible design remain the same. An AI-generated interface is still a user interface. Its elements must follow established usability patterns, be clearly labeled, and adhere to accessibility standards. For example, an AI-powered input must be as intuitive and accessible as any other types of inputs. The fundamentals of human-centric design do not change simply because the tool used to build the interface does.
AI is increasingly being used to help design and build interfaces and to help deal with more complex user tasks. However, until its use is more established, and there’s better guidance on how you can ensure it’s accessible, you may need to carry out some of your own research and then document advice for your organization to follow. For example, let’s say some important information in your application is AI-generated and this is only conveyed through a visual cue; you’ll need to consider how someone with no sight is made aware of this as well.
Conclusion: The time to invest is now
The reality is that a lot of digital products are not accessible. About one in five people globally experience disability, and this is a figure that doesn’t even account for those with temporary and situational disabilities or the increasingly aging population.
By investing in accessibility now, you will do more than just the right thing. And the key to unlocking these benefits at scale is your design system. It is the tool that allows you to gain a powerful competitive advantage by consistently increasing your market share, enhancing your brand's reputation, achieving significant cost savings, and mitigating the risk of legal action. Fostering a culture of accessibility, with a design system as its foundation, is not a cost; it's an investment in better products and a better business.