🛠️ Looking back on 2026 Accessibility Design Week
Last week we marked Global Accessibility Awareness Day with our annual Atlassian Accessibility Design Week. It's dedicated time to shine light on how focusing on accessibility uplifts experiences for everyone.
[BTW we use "A11y" internally - so I'll do the same from now on]
It was also a chance to celebrate A11y practitioners and supporters across Design. They are so expert in communicating the care and craft that we need to bring every day. Big shout-out especially to Hendrik P., Pawel W., Tim T., Simon M. and Lydia Y. for sharing their tips, stories and inspiration during the week.
We believe that A11y depends on a strong foundation in the design system. There are case studies that show tackling A11y in the design phase reduces automated A11y defects by over 60%. The earlier you systematise the right tools and frameworks into your design stack - the less there is to fix later. An A11y plan for your team (including the agents) is such an important step.
Our A11y Design System team continues to uplift core UI components, build better tools (e.g a custom A11y annotations library), and increasingly - integrate A11y capabilities into the AI parts of the toolchain (e.g. creating AI skills that agents can help in early phase suggestion and detection).
I think the whole week was nicely encapsulated by Vijay S. in one of the Looms shared - "when [A11y] is done right, the whole experience just feels intentional".
Read more at https://t.co/Gu8shHRYmO
Guess what? My new book "What #UX Is Really About" is coming out! It's an INTRO book to (re)explain that:
- UX is human-centered
- UX is grounded in science
- UX is a collaborative process
- UX is benevolent
It's a mindset meant to improve people's lives.
https://t.co/X5ztFIUZf5
Nice article debunking illusions about creativity and how it is or should be practised in orgs, highlighting the value of incubation periods and explaining why we falsely believe that critics are more intelligent: https://t.co/WWpEx5E2B6 via @HarvardBiz#creativity#innovation
@Sardionerak Consider these:
1. Building for Everyone by Annie Jean-Baptiste
2. Thinking in Systems by Donella H. Meadows
3. Mismatch by Kat Holmes
4. How to Speak Machine by John Maeda
@gerrygaffney @86400smartbank @voltbank@xinjamoney I read this wired article tonight... There are traps to avoid... like paying lip service. https://t.co/qnApcZiU8a
for the past few months I've been working on a talk about why most "user-centered" design isn't & how we can address the issues this creates.
video of this talk from Google Conversions is now live: https://t.co/OU2dMPDw68
as are my slides: https://t.co/mGBmuVa4Wa
Thrilled to have spoken to the fabulous @bobbirebell about being (ok, fine, the journey to becoming) a Financial Grown-up. Podcast episode out now! #GoodMoney#FinancialWellbeing