Four ways AbilityNet helped embed accessibility best practices at Aviva

Brian Grellmann, User Experience Research and Accessibility Lead for the User Centred Design (UCD) team at Aviva - a leading UK insurance, wealth, and retirement business - is commenting above on the experience of having an AbilityNet senior accessibility and usability consultant join the Aviva digital team to provide long-term accessibility guidance.

Brian was originally tasked to "bring in fixed-term contractors" to help augment his in-house accessibility team's capacity and expertise. Instead, Brian suggested an alternative embedding model for spending his allocated budget more strategically.

Joana Condeço from AbilityNet began providing regular accessibility consultancy support within the UCD team at Aviva, working closely over a 12-month period on accessibility projects and activities.

Here are four of the ways AbilityNet worked with Aviva to help develop its digital accessibility skills and processes during the year-long project:

1. AbilityNet accessibility consultant joins the Aviva team

Brian had been championing accessibility at Aviva and recognised the benefit of allocating budget to working with an organisation like AbilityNet, due to our experience and established position in the industry, especially within financial services.

Bringing in Joana from an experienced accessibility organisation such as AbilityNet meant that Joana could share with the Aviva internal digital accessibility team not only her expertise but also AbilityNet's tried-and-tested templates and resources for the different accessibility aspects in focus. 

"This approach meant I could divide work carefully to make the budget go further and make the most of the external expertise from AbilityNet alongside establishing and growing the existing knowledge within the internal accessibility team," says Brian.

AbilityNet was able to provide structured accessibility testing, plus training for the Aviva team on digital accessibility topics, and useful resources and guides to help upskill team members.  

"When we get to know and work with a team for a longer period of time, we get to understand their biggest strengths and aspects of accessibility that require more attention," says Joana, about her productive accessibility consultancy support within Aviva.

Developing in-house accessibility expertise

In cases like Aviva, where an in-house Accessibility Team was created alongside this project, working with this new team allowed Joana to contribute with ideas from an external point of view.

"This project, combined with the launch of the Aviva Accessibility Team, caused a general increase of the accessibility engagement within the design and development teams at Aviva. I observed clear developments of Accessibility Maturity at Aviva, such as the revision of Aviva’s Accessibility pages, and the involvement of individuals with lived experiences of disability in diverse user testing sessions," says Joana.

Long-term impact and value

"It was clear Joana had an impact on a lot of people – many at Aviva have more skill to deliver accessibility within their role but also have become more interested or have found a passion in accessibility because of Joana’s enthusiasm and support," says Brian.

"The Aviva team welcomed me and my expertise in a very positive way. I went to their office once a week and worked remotely the rest of the time. It has been a pleasure to work on this year-long project with the Aviva team," says Joana.

2. Follow the Digital Accessibility Maturity Model 

As part of the project, Aviva went through AbilityNet's Digital Accessibility Maturity Model (DAMM) assessment, which uses an established approach to help organisations understand how well they are doing with digital accessibility. It also helps to create a roadmap for an organisation's accessibility strategy.

"The DAMM provides us with the guidance that we need," Brian says, "so if, for example, we know we're weak on capability or tooling, then we will create a working group to focus on the training or tooling needs of various teams and to secure budgets and implement a plan. Over time we expect to see improvement in our ability to consistently meet our accessibility principles and gradually increase maturity against the DAMM."

"The maturity model is great because it is highly relevant and applicable to all businesses and organisations. But it's important that you also understand the mechanisms in your organisation for how things get done and how to pull the right levers and mesh that together with the DAMM," Brian continues.

Brian also notes that when internal teams began noticing how successful a particular accessibility project had been in embedding best practices, new accessibility project requests would emerge. "Other teams often approach us saying 'We want to do that too - we want to create a product that's truly inclusive and works for everyone'".

3. Make content and design improvements

Other initiatives that Joana helped Aviva with during her placement included working with Aviva's HTML email developer to ensure the email platform and its components would be accessible for all new email communications moving forward.

"Joana also created an accessibility conformance checklist for colleagues to use as a tool to learn more about accessibility and self-check their work. She also worked across many teams within Aviva to create an accessibility style guide, for expert guidance on how to style content in a consistent, accessible manner," says Brian.

More developments included adapting a mobile app version of Aviva's accessibility support page, and providing ongoing support to the design system team to ensure components are accessible.

Joana also co-ran a weekly 'accessibility surgery' drop-in session to answer questions from the design team. 

Brian arranged a system with AbilityNet to be able to "turn on or off as much as we needed" when Joana would provide support over the 12-month period. At the end of the process, there were many clear outputs for the budget spent, Brian says: "Everything Joana started, she finished."

4. Network with accessibility professionals

Brian joined in with AbilityNet-hosted roundtable events alongside other AbilityNet accessibility clients. These events help accessibility professionals share their accessibility experiences and learnings, and to feel part of the broader accessibility community.

"I enjoy attending these events to get to know other accessibility practitioners, and then at conferences like AbilityNet's TechShare Pro I see familiar faces and catch-up with people outside of the sessions too," says Brian.

In addition, Brian was part of the guest speakers in a free public AbiltyNet accessibility webinar discussing Accessibility Planning. 

Tips for progressing digital accessibility

"We’ve had some fantastic consultants join us for different projects from AbilityNet over the past year. What’s most impressive is how quickly they get up to speed. As consultants they assess each project and its requirements, provide excellent guidance and support to the team, and deliver fantastic outputs which are detailed and actionable," says Brian. 

Future accessibility developments between Aviva and AbilityNet include Accessibility Confident assessment and certification, which is about to get underway. 

What advice does Brian have if you want to make progress with accessibility at your organisation?

"Every organisation has a system for how things get done. Understand the system first and then embed accessibility using the levers around you to build up the adequate processes and resources needed to make it happen. And celebrate the wins – it is a long process to embed accessibility in a large organisation with lots of challenges and hurdles. Reflect and acknowledge all of the great effort and work that has been done," says Brian.

Start your accessibility journey - speak to our experts

Need help embedding accessibility as business as usual, but don't know where to begin? You're not alone. Whereever you are on your accessibility journey, contact AbilityNet for reassurance about the best next steps for you, with tailored support whatever your sector or budget.

Speak to our experts about your project and we will advise on a bespoke accessibility strategy to meet your specific requirements.