SHORT COURSE

I'm a manager

Managers and leaders have the unique power to transform digital accessibility from an afterthought into a strategic business advantage. Every decision you make—from setting budgets and choosing third-party vendors to shaping hiring funnels and defining team roles—dictates how inclusive your digital ecosystem will be. Managing accessibility effectively isn't just about avoiding legal risk; it is about building a scalable, high-performing culture that serves every user seamlessly.

Illustration of a person sitting on a desk writing with a pen with a laptop in front
Photograph of a person using a laptop

PART 1/8

Web accessibility statements

An accessibility statement is a public declaration outlining an organization's commitment to accessibility, the compliance standards they aim for (like WCAG 2.2 AA), and how users can report accessibility barriers. It provides crucial public transparency, sets clear legal expectations, and establishes a direct feedback loop with disabled users trying to access your products.

Question 1/8

Your company is launching a new website, and you need to ensure it includes a valid accessibility statement. What is the most effective approach to handling this document?

Photograph of two employees looking at a laptop

PART 2/8

Reasonable adjustments

Providing reasonable adjustments means modifying workplace practices or procuring assistive tools to ensure employees with disabilities can perform their daily responsibilities without systemic barriers. Proactively funding and supporting these adjustments prevents internal exclusion, elevates team productivity, and drastically boosts talent retention.

Question 2/8

An employee with a visual impairment requests a specific screen reader license to perform their daily analytical work. How should a manager handle this request?

Photograph of a laptop screen showing software source code

PART 3/8

Procurement and vendor management

Procuring inaccessible third-party software can expose an organization to immense legal liabilities and alienate internal staff or customers. By requesting an Accessibility Conformance Report (ACR)—which is generated using a Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT)—managers can systematically evaluate a vendor's compliance level before signing any binding contract.

Question 3/8

Your department is procuring a new external HR software portal for employee time-tracking. How should you evaluate the product's digital accessibility standards prior to finalizing the purchase?

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PART 4/8

Legal and compliance risk

Digital accessibility regulations globally—including the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the European Accessibility Act (EAA), and regional public/private statutes—increasingly penalize organizations operating barriers in their digital experiences. Non-compliance represents a major operational, financial, and reputational business risk.

Question 4/8

Your leadership team believes digital accessibility laws exclusively target public sector bodies and government organizations. What is the most accurate response to address this assumption?

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PART 5/8

Defining roles and responsibilities

Accessibility is a collective, cross-functional team responsibility rather than a siloed job. When management views accessibility as a standalone phase or an exclusive developer task at the very end of a lifecycle, it introduces massive structural bottlenecks and drives up remediation costs.

Question 5/8

To deliver an accessible digital product successfully, how should a manager allocate accessibility responsibilities across their product team?

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PART 6/8

Budgeting for accessibility

Retrofitting a complex digital system for accessibility after it has been fully coded can cost significantly more than building it accessibly from the initial discovery phase. Strategic managers integrate accessibility resources directly into regular project operational budgets to protect project timelines.

Question 6/8

When planning the budget and resource timeline for a major digital product overhaul, how should a manager sustainably allocate project resources?

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PART 7/8

Inclusive hiring and workplace culture

Building an inclusive company begins with an accessible talent acquisition pipeline and an open corporate culture. If your job application platforms, assessment portals, or day-to-day internal communication software are inaccessible, you systematically lock out highly qualified candidates and professionals with disabilities.

Question 7/8

You discover that your company's digital applicant tracking system requires candidates to complete complex, visual-only image puzzles to submit a job application. What management action should you take?

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PART 8/8

Tracking metrics and progress

What gets tracked gets managed. To demonstrate the real return on investment (ROI) of accessibility initiatives and maintain compliance over time, managers must establish clear, continuous performance indicators rather than relying on an occasional automated scan.

Question 8/8

How should a manager effectively monitor and report the long-term progress of their website's digital accessibility compliance initiatives?

Ready to check your score?

You've got this! Correct and incorrect answers will be indicated for each question, so take a moment to go back and check them. Your score and any questions you missed are shown below. If you didn't get top marks, don't worry—you're already a winner for taking the time to give it a go. Every question is an opportunity to learn. If you'd like to build your knowledge further or need more advanced guidance, we'd love to hear from you.

Key takeaways

  • 1

    Maintain an honest, highly visible public accessibility statement with an open channel for user feedback.

  • 2

    Proactively budget and fund reasonable workplace adjustments to ensure your internal teams can remain fully productive.

  • 3

    Verify external product compliance via official ACR/VPAT reports before procuring third-party software platforms.

  • 4

    Recognize that global accessibility regulations apply strictly to private businesses, making compliance a core business risk.

  • 5

    Distribute accessibility duties across all specialized project roles instead of making it an exclusive engineering issue at launch.

  • 6

    Invest resources and time into digital accessibility from the project inception phase to avoid costly late-stage retrofits.

  • 7

    Audit and adapt your hiring funnels and internal tools to ensure talent acquisition remains accessible and inclusive to all.

  • 8

    Integrate both automated testing and manual expert evaluation metrics to accurately gauge long-term compliance progress.