The next frontier of digital accessibility

I have been dedicated to accessibility for a long time.

So, five years before joining ANZ, I developed an app called ‘Cash Gain’, to ensure people of all abilities could fully enjoy and benefit from online shopping.

I’ve specialised in digital accessibility for about 10 years now; ever since I saw a colleague with low vision using a screen reader to code. That chance encounter profoundly affected me and altered my career path.

I'm now lucky to work at ANZ, a place which combines enthusiasm, curiosity and technical expertise in leading digital employee accessibility. Working at ANZ has been eye-opening, as it's the first organisation I've seen that values employee experiences as much as customer experiences.

The next frontier

Digital accessibility empowers all employees to access information, collaborate effectively and perform their best work without barriers. By prioritising accessibility in internal tools and applications, ANZ helps create an inclusive workplace where everyone has equal growth opportunities.

Ensuring collaboration tools, productivity tools and administrative platforms meet accessibility standards is a significant part of my team's responsibilities. These are used by ANZ’s global team of more than 6,000 engineers.

I assist developers through training, testing and remediation, ensuring products are accessible to all users regardless of ability. Adopting a collaborative and proactive strategy aids the early adoption of accessibility practices, which helps cultivate a culture of inclusivity.

My colleagues Maxim Rioumine, Cameron Chong and I have created an app that streamlines how ANZ diagnoses and resolves accessibility issues in apps. This is the next frontier of digital accessibility.

The conception of Ta11y

During a week-long innovation sprint, Cameron and Maxim noticed an opportunity. They were building a payments app center, serving as backstage for payments engineers to keep micro apps separate rather than in a single pool. All apps must meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) before being added to the repository.

They proposed automating app scans for issues rather than having individuals approve them one by one to ensure WCAG compliance. Cameron and Maxim assembled a team with engineers Sherry Zhang, David Liao and Dennis Darwis. They created the foundational product in two weeks and finished the Ta11y build in three months.

During this time, I worked with businesses, primarily with developers and designers through testing and training. Testing occurs early in the development lifecycle with tools like Reveal from Itty Bitty Apps, Accessibility Inspector, Accessibility Insights for web and windows, various Deque Tools/APIs and screen readers like JAWS, NVDA, Narrator and VoiceOver.

ANZ will soon add our proprietary tool Ta11y (short for Test Accessibility) to this list. When we industrialise Ta11y it will be revolutionary. Its potential goes beyond accessibility, impacting branding and onboarding too.

Productivity gains

When Ta11y is industrialised for broader use (expected September 2024), it will integrate into ANZ engineering’s pipeline, significantly reducing time and effort needed for accessibility compliance.

Designing accessible User Interfaces (UI) can be challenging, particularly for designers unfamiliar with accessibility guidelines. We help designers collaborate with artificial intelligence assistants to create accessible design suggestions, such as appropriate color contrast ratios, alternative text for images and keyboard navigation optimisations.

AI also powers ANZ’s dynamic UI component library, 'Horizon.' Algorithms within Horizon adapt components to users' specific accessibility needs, achieving universal accessibility without sacrificing design flexibility or creativity.

While AI plays a growing role in digital accessibility, human interaction remains central and we work with ANZ’s Abilities Employee Network to address any challenges staff might face.

Since joining ANZ, I’ve worked with my team to improve the accessibility of numerous applications across the organisation. For example, recently someone from the ANZ Support Centre reported an issue with one of their portals. We liaised with the vendor, who promptly resolved the problem.

In March 2024, ANZ Support Centre approached us with an accessibility bug in the Visa online portal. We quickly took action and recorded a video detailing the bug and its significant impact on users with low vision.

We identified the owners of the Visa portal and they connected us directly with the Visa vendor. We shared the video with the vendor and maintained continuous communication for updates. By May, the vendor had fixed the bug and contact center user confirmed the solution was now accessible.

As a result, the Visa online portal is now accessible not only at ANZ but also worldwide. Knowing we're positively impacting people's work lives is my motivation.

Anchal Jain is Accessibility Testing Lead at ANZ