Chapter 8: Collaboration between Developers and Accessibility Advocates

Forming Cross-Functional Accessibility Teams 

Building a dedicated, cross-disciplinary accessibility team is one of the most effective ways to embed inclusive design into your organization’s DNA. Rather than tacking on accessibility as a post-release checklist item, product teams that include developers, UX/UI designers, QA engineers, product managers, and actual users with disabilities cultivate a shared sense of ownership. When each discipline sees accessibility as part of their remit, decision-making reflects diverse perspectives early on: designers think about focus order when creating wireframes, developers consider semantic structure as they build components, and testers validate interactions with assistive technologies. 

At Shopify, the formation of “A11y Squads” in mid-2023 provides a compelling case study. Each squad was responsible for an end-to-end product area and included an accessibility specialist, a UX designer, a front-end developer, and a QA engineer. Over four quarters, these squads reduced critical accessibility defects by 75% dropping from 100 to 25 high-impact issues per quarter (as shown above). This decline translated into faster release cycles since fewer accessibility bugs circulated back to development sprints. 

Key success factors included: 

• Clear Charter and Authority 

Each squad had the mandate to block releases that failed to meet agreed-upon benchmarks, ensuring that accessibility could not be deprioritized under delivery pressure.  

• Regular Touchpoints 

Weekly meetings allowed squads to review upcoming features, share learnings, and update a central accessibility backlog. 

• Embedded Expertise 

By including lived-experience representatives’ users with various disabilities the squads gained direct insight into real-world barriers, accelerating issue discovery and empathy. 

• Data-Driven Focus 

Teams tracked metrics (see graph) in a shared dashboard, which made progress visible across the organization and spurred friendly competition to drive down defect counts. 

While the exact structure may vary, the principle holds: cross-functional accessibility teams align incentives, embed expertise at every stage, and translate inclusive ambitions into measured, sustained improvements ultimately fostering products that serve every user more equitably.