Lead UX Designer — 1 month
Survey Accessibility
Championing a11y for a more inclusive survey experience
Opportunity
The employee engagement survey platform faced critical accessibility challenges that made it difficult for users with additional needs to complete surveys effectively. This not only reduced overall employee participation but also exposed a significant strategic gap in our product offering.
Outcomes
Achieve WCAG 2.1 AA compliance across the survey platform
Reduce accessibility-related support queries to near zero
Increase survey participation for users with assistive needs
Create an A11y-first component style guide for future development
Key metrics
Accessibility issue reduction %
Survey completion rate change
Support query volume
WCAG compliance score
Defining the problem
We consolidated and analysed information and insights from across the business, partnering closely with Customer Success, Data Research, and Compliance teams to accurately define the problem and its scope. This collaborative approach ensured we captured diverse perspectives and aligned on key challenges.
Secondary research highlighted that 5.3 million working-age people in the UK identify as disabled, reinforcing the urgent need for our products to be inclusive and accessible to all employees. This data informed our commitment to embedding accessibility as a core design principle throughout the product experience.
18,300 employee responses with a disability. 33% reported some form of disability, with a 10% year-on-year increase — reinforcing the urgency to act.
A WCAG 2.1 audit identified 50 total issues across four criteria: Perceivable (15), Operable (10), Understandable (15), and Robust (10).
Observed challenges
Keyboard navigation ordering
Colour contrast issues
Inaccessible input fields
Non-semantic HTML
Missing Alt tags
Screen reader incompatibility
Missing ARIA references
Solution
By aligning the platform with WCAG 2.1 AA standards, we improved usability, ensured compliance, and made the survey experience more inclusive. These enhancements helped broaden participation and demonstrated the company’s commitment to creating a survey experience where all users can be heard.
Key deliverables included: redesigning the survey end-to-end, collaborating with engineering teams to address technical a11y issues, addressing inconsistent language throughout, removing auto-scroll functionality, creating an A11y-first component style guide, and ensuring multilingual support.
Impact
The accessibility improvements marked a major step forward in the company’s commitment to inclusive design, closing key gaps that limited participation for users with assistive needs. Beyond enhancing usability and compliance, the project drove greater organisational buy-in and awareness, embedding accessibility as a core principle and setting a higher standard for inclusive digital experiences across the business.
Key learnings & next steps
The project has laid the foundations for accessibility within the business, however it is just the start. Establishing a clear strategy, conducting thorough assessments, and formalising our commitment through an accessibility statement have set us on the right path. There is still a lot of work ahead to fully embed accessibility across all products and processes, and foster a culture where inclusive design is a continuous priority and shared responsibility.