Layla Soileau | UX Designer

H-E-B / Accessibility

Starting a digital accessibility program and educating teams

Working with a new digital product team to understand and prioritize accessibility.

Challenge: HEB.com had many undocumented accessibility issues, and no effort was underway to fix them due to a lack of awareness and education.

My Role

I was the Lead Inclusion and Accessibility Specialist on the Design System team. (I advocated for this new role.)

Screenshots of slides used to educate product designers about accessibility in a workshop I facilitated at H-E-B.

Strategy

Conduct interviews and usability sessions with H-E-B customers using screen readers and share findings throughout the company to spark awareness and empathy
Educate product designers about designing for accessibility

Conduct interviews and usability sessions with H-E-B customers using screen readers and share findings throughout the company to spark awareness and empathy
Educate product designers about designing for accessibility

Design Research

For the research study, we conducted 5 remote sessions. Sessions were divided into 30-minute interviews and 20-minute usability sections. We focused on learning about participants’ shopping habits and the usability of HEB.com.

Educational Workshops

After presenting video clips of the sessions and research findings, it became clear that the design team needed more guidance around designing for accessibility.

So, I partnered with a web developer who was passionate about accessibility and began planning and creating a series of accessibility workshops for designers, the first one centered on Focus and Read order.

After presenting video clips of the sessions and research findings, it became clear that the design team needed more guidance around designing for accessibility.

Slide for the Practice section of the Focus and Read Order Accessibility workshop with a link to a Mural board. Designers were assigned to groups of four to discuss how they might go about improving HEB.com's current Time Slot modal.

Accessibility Office Hours

In addition to collaborating with the Design System team to ensure accessibility was baked into all of our styles and components, I held weekly office hours to discuss accessibility topics with designers and developers.

Lessons Learned

Building a digital accessibility program isn't a one-person job.
Driving awareness and building empathy across a company is a slow process.
Before I left H-E-B, I worked with a Lead Engineer on the Design System team to advocate for hiring an accessibility-focused consultancy to help build a company-wide accessibility roadmap.
I made great strides in accessibility without a budget.
I couldn't have done any of it without building strong connections and trust throughout the company.

Building a digital accessibility program isn't a one-person job.
Driving awareness and building empathy across a company is a slow process.
Before I left H-E-B, I worked with a Lead Engineer on the Design System team to advocate for hiring an accessibility-focused consultancy to help build a company-wide accessibility roadmap.
I made great strides in accessibility without a budget.
I couldn't have done any of it without building strong connections and trust throughout the company.