---
title: Who’s responsible for accessibility in a digital project?
description: Discover how to integrate accessibility into digital projects from the start, fostering collaboration and enhancing user experiences for everyone.
image: https://pages.ciao.ca/hubfs/Screenshot%202026-06-19%20at%2008.26.32.png
---

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 October 19, 2026

# Who’s responsible for accessibility in a digital project?

![Picture of Karine Simard](https://app.hubspot.com/settings/avatar/9a22adee68462f6f925d3847455b01e4) By   Karine Simard  ·   6 minute read

We hear a lot about digital accessibility these days. But too often, it’s treated like a box to tick at the end of a project, or an audit you order because you “probably should.” Rocío Alvarado and Karine Simard sat down to set the record straight: accessibility isn’t a nice-to-have or a luxury. It’s a shared responsibility that needs to be built in from the very beginning and carried through the entire lifecycle of a digital product.

When it’s done well, experiences become more inclusive, projects move faster, cost less, and teams build long-term skills.

Welcome to a much smarter—and frankly more human—way to do digital.

## Evolve Digital: from a Drupal event to a broader conversation about digital

The Evolve Digital conference is already in its 4th edition. At first, it was a very niche event focused on the Drupal platform. But, as its name suggests, the conference has evolved: today, it’s about digital in the broader sense, and the whole ecosystem around platforms, websites, apps, and digital products.

Organized by the Montréal-based company Evolving Web, a Drupal specialist among other things, the conference brings together practitioners who deal with digital challenges every day. It’s in this context that Rocío Alvarado joined a panel on digital accessibility, alongside other experts: Olivier Fortin from Radio‑Canada, Carolina Crespot from Bisperot, and Jennifer Chadwick from Journey Accessibility.

What struck Rocío during this discussion wasn’t a clash of opinions, but rather how aligned everyone was: same vision, same observations, same challenges. When several experts from different backgrounds are all arriving at the same conclusions, it’s often a sign that something fundamental is taking shape.

![Form CTA](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/48214872/interactive-207983022479.png)

## Accessibility: not a role, a shared responsibility

For a long time, accessibility tended to be seen as “someone’s job”: the accessibility specialist, the QA person, or the team that comes in at the end to do the audit. That way of looking at it is not only reductive, it’s also bound to fail.

As Rocío puts it clearly: accessibility is everyone’s responsibility on a digital product. From the very first project analysis through to quality assurance, and including project management, design, content, and development, each role has a direct impact on user experience, including for people with functional limitations.

A design can look incredibly inclusive in Figma, but if, during development, no one is paying attention to semantic structure, HTML tags, keyboard focus, or screen readers, all the benefits of the work done upstream are lost. Conversely, a developer can put in a lot of effort to write clean, accessible code, but if the mockups were created without considering colour contrast or information hierarchy, they’re starting with a disadvantage.

Accessibility is a thread running through the entire project. If you cut that thread at any point, you weaken the whole experience.

## The all‑too‑common reflex: the end‑of‑project audit

In practice, organizations often fall into the same pattern: they reach the end of a project with a website that’s almost finished and suddenly decide it’s “probably time to get accessibility checked.” So they order an audit, often in a rush: the launch date is set, campaigns are lined up, and the pressure is on.

An audit in that context is still useful. As Rocío points out, it gives you a clear picture of where the product stands at a given moment, identifies non‑conformities, documents issues, and suggests possible solutions. But it should **never** be the only checkpoint.

Why? Because when you discover major problems at the very end, fixing them becomes expensive, time‑consuming, and sometimes even politically sensitive. Rethinking an entire navigation, updating a colour palette, redesigning a page template, or revisiting a component logic is not a quick last‑minute patch. The result is that teams do the bare minimum to pass the test, push more structural fixes to “later”… and that “later” never comes.

You end up with a product that technically checks a few boxes but doesn’t truly embody an inclusive or sustainable approach.

## Changing our stance: bringing accessibility into the dev squad

In contrast to this classic scenario, Rocío shares an experience that shows what a truly integrated approach can look like: instead of doing an audit at the very end, the accessibility specialist was embedded directly into the digital platform’s development squad as an accessibility QA.

In practice, that changes everything.

From the design phase, Rocío had an eye on the mockups, could spot sensitive issues—like colour contrast, hover and focus states, text legibility, and clarity of user flows—and suggest adjustments even before the first line of code was written. Potential problems were defused early, when change is still relatively cheap.

During development, the team knew they could ask questions along the way: “How should we handle this carousel for keyboard users?” “We’ve seen this component before—how was it built last time?” Rocío didn’t just say “this doesn’t work”; she suggested options, showed examples online, and shared best practices tailored to the team’s actual context.

At that point, accessibility stops being a set of abstract constraints and becomes a space for learning and collaboration.

## From an Excel list to real‑time collaboration

When accessibility only shows up as an end‑of‑project audit, what the client often receives is a massive Excel file: a list of issues, references to WCAG criteria, some suggested fixes. It’s useful, but it’s cold, and disconnected from the developers’ daily work.

They’re told what to fix, but rarely how to fold these changes into their practices in a lasting way. Communication can pass through multiple intermediaries, diluting the message and distancing accessibility specialists from the people who actually write the code.

By contrast, when a specialist is embedded in the team, every bug, every question, and every tweak becomes a learning moment. Instead of simply delivering a verdict, you explain, demonstrate alternatives, and look for solutions together. For the dev team, it’s much richer: accessibility isn’t something they’re subjected to, it’s something they increasingly master.

This kind of real‑world support builds new reflexes. The next time a developer has to code a similar component, they’ll remember the conversations, the examples, and the reasons behind certain choices. Accessibility gradually becomes automatic, not just a compliance checkbox.

## Fewer issues in pre‑prod, lower costs, higher quality

The concrete benefits of this integrated approach become obvious at pre‑production. In the project where Rocío was embedded as accessibility QA within the squad, the final validation phase revealed… far fewer issues.

That makes sense: foundational work had already been done upstream. Processes were designed with accessibility in mind, critical components had been reviewed, and user journeys had been tested with real scenarios. In some cases, there was almost nothing left to fix. Validation became a confirmation step, not a moment of discovering a construction site.

For the organization, that’s a direct gain: fewer last‑minute fixes, less pre‑launch stress, and fewer hidden costs. For the team, it’s extremely satisfying: you feel like you’ve delivered something solid that better reflects the diversity of your users.

And for accessibility itself, it creates a virtuous cycle: each project builds the team’s skills, making them more autonomous in naturally integrating these practices.

## Accessibility as a project culture, not a side project

What comes through clearly from Karine and Rocío’s conversation is that real change doesn’t come from a single tool, audit, or expert. It comes when an organization decides to integrate accessibility into its project culture.

That means:

- involving accessibility specialists from the very beginning, not at the end;
- giving teams time and space for training;
- planning multiple checkpoints throughout the lifecycle;
- treating accessibility as a quality criterion on par with performance, security, and usability.

In that context, the white paper on the accessibility lifecycle becomes a strategic tool: it guides a rethinking of how we plan, design, develop, test, and evolve our digital platforms, making sure accessibility is never a last‑minute add‑on.

## Beyond compliance: real‑world impact

You could say that all of this is mainly about regulatory compliance, WCAG standards, and meeting formal requirements. But what the Evolve Digital panel highlights is that accessibility has very concrete impacts on people’s lives.

When a form can’t be filled out using a keyboard, that’s a person giving up on an important task. When text doesn’t have enough contrast, a portion of the population tires more quickly or stops reading altogether. When an interface doesn’t behave properly with a screen reader, that can turn a public service or essential resource into something effectively inaccessible.

On the flip side, when a team takes the time to do things properly—to test, refine, and keep learning—it creates experiences that are fairer, more welcoming, and more efficient for everyone, not just people with disabilities. We’re talking about an investment with human benefits, but also organizational and even economic returns.

## Towards accessible digital projects… from the first try

At the heart of what Karine Simard and Rocío Alvarado are describing is a shift between two models:

- a reactive model, where accessibility shows up at the end in the form of an audit, with a list of issues to fix under pressure;
- a proactive model, where accessibility is woven throughout the project lifecycle, owned by the whole team and supported by specialists who provide day‑to‑day guidance.

The second model does require a mindset shift. But it makes everyone’s life easier. Managers have fewer nasty surprises. Designers work with clear guardrails. Developers learn as they ship. Accessibility specialists step out of the role of “compliance police” and become genuine partners.

Most importantly, the people using these platforms—with all their realities, abilities, and tools—finally get access to digital services that truly take them into account.

That’s the point: digital projects that are accessible not just because they have to be, but because they were designed that way from the very first try.

## To go further

- [Download our free ebook on digital accessibility and start making your platforms more inclusive today.](https://pages.ciao.ca/en-ca/practical-accessibility-guide?hsLang=en-ca)
- [Explore our training catalogue and build your team’s skills in web and document accessibility.](https://pages.ciao.ca/en-ca/digital-accessibility-training-catalog?hsLang=en-ca)
- [Tell us about your project and let’s find the best accessibility strategy for your organization](https://www.ciao.ca/en/contact).

 

 

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