A Digital Accessibility Platform
eSSENTIAL Accessibility was named the “Next Big Thing in Tech” by Fast Company. As the Principal Designer I was tasked with conducting a software wide audit to improve usability and accessibility across the platform.
Role: Principal Designer / Timeline: 3-4 months Q1-Q2 / Team: Principal Designer, PM, Director of Development, Accessibility Technical Lead / Tools: Figma, Jira, User Research, WCAG Guidelines
Our Three Pillar Solution
Rather than ship isolated features, we created an integrated system addressing
the complete accessibility workflow:
Pillar 1: Jira Integration → Eliminate Duplicate Work
Pillar 2: Manual Evaluation Dashboard → Centralize Visibility
Pillar 3: Accessibility Audit Toolkit → Streamline Expert Workflow
Why Jira Integration Matters
Before: Expert finds issue → manually creates Jira ticket → PM tracks in spreadsheet → Dev searches for context
After: Expert finds issue → one-click push to Jira → automatic tracking → developer has full context
The Jira Problem
Accessibility experts and development teams struggled with fragmented workflows requiring constant context-switching
between eSSENTIAL Accessibility and Jira. Experts manually duplicated findings, wasting hours on data entry instead of conducting audits.
Development teams lacked visibility into priorities without logging into multiple systems.
The Result: Slow issue resolution, data inconsistencies, and inefficient barrier remediation.
Pillar 1: Jira Integration
Manual Evaluation Dashboard
The Context: Manual accessibility evaluation complements automated scans by catching issues requiring human judgment, screen reader testing, keyboard navigation, color contrast assessment, and focus indicators. Experts needed a unified dashboard to communicate these findings to stakeholders at a glance.
Why Manual Evaluation Matters
"How might we display issues by status, WCAG criteria, and severity alongside automated scan scores
in a format that enables quick, data-driven decisions?"
Before: Project managers spent hours compiling accessibility data from multiple sources to create status reports.
After: Answer "What's our accessibility status?" in 30 seconds with clear visual dashboard showing priorities, progress, and compliance gaps.
““The dashboard gives our leadership instant visibility into our accessibility efforts without me having to create custom reports every week.” ”
Audit and UI Toolkit
Conduct an end to end UI and UX audit and prioritize critical updates to improve usability and user experience for internal and public facing users. Enhancing the overall user experience to increase confidence and trust among enterprise clients , giving the platform a competitive advantage in the digital accessibility market.
