Beyond the Audit:
How Top Enterprises Make Accessibility Sustainable

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Kate O’Connor [0:00]:

Welcome, everyone, and thank you for joining. We’re just waiting a moment as a few more people join the Zoom Room.

I also wanted to mention that we have two ASL interpreters, Kathy with a K and Jonathan, who will be taking turns throughout the presentation. They’re spotlighted now if anyone in the audience wants to pin them.

And once again, thank you for joining us for our webinar, Beyond the Audit: How Top Enterprises Make Accessibility Sustainable.

I’m Kate O’Connor, Vice President and practice leader at Onward Accessibility, which is a division of Onward Search. Today, we’ll discuss what enterprise leaders—and any leaders—can do to drive lasting progress at every stage of their accessibility journey.

Whether you’re new to accessibility or have a program that’s been around for 10 years, we hope this content is for you. We have a little bit of everything. With laws changing and awareness spreading, companies everywhere want and need to make their digital properties accessible.

But, as most of you know, it isn’t easy to get started—and it’s even harder to make changes last, especially in large organizations.

At Onward Accessibility, we’ve seen client after client face the same challenges. Audits get done, issues get flagged, but without the right people and processes in place, progress stalls fast.

Today, we’re going to dive into the planning and actions large organizations must take to avoid stalling, build capabilities, consider accessibility early, and make it sustainable from day one. 

We’ll begin with introductions.

• I’ll tell you a little more about myself, then introduce you to my peers, Pete and Cathi.
• We’re going to cover accessibility sustainability and explain what we mean by “making digital accessibility sustainable.”
• The core of our webinar will be a live discussion. During this time, I’ll moderate a conversation between accessibility leaders Pete and Cathi on how to get—and stay—accessible. Together, we’ll cover pitfalls to avoid and tips for lasting success in the modern enterprise.
• Then, we’ll close with a Q&A session where you can ask us anything. You can place your questions in the chat. If we miss one or run out of time, we’ll follow up afterward.
• Lastly, we’ll tell you a bit more about Onward Accessibility and how we support our clients with digital accessibility solutions and talent.

So, on to introductions.

Kate O’Connor [3:33]:

I’m Kate O’Connor. As I mentioned, I head our Onward Accessibility division. I have 20 years of experience in the digital space. I started my career as a UX/UI designer, moved into the world of staffing and consulting, and my time here at Onward Accessibility has been spent helping clients build teams within the digital accessibility and XD [experience design] space. We’ve also taken it a step further by supporting our clients in building programs from the ground up and delivering solutions.

With that, I’d love to introduce you to Pete.

Pete Bruhn [4:19]:

Great, thanks, Kate. Hi, everybody. I’m Pete Bruhn, Director of Digital Accessibility Solutions here at Onward. I have nearly 10 years of experience in digital accessibility, including auditing, consulting, and building teams to support enterprise-level customers.

I really love this work—helping customers shift left and integrate accessibility into their day-to-day processes. Accessibility shouldn’t be seen as a side thing. It should be part of the culture, part of the process, and part of good web design and user experiences.

I love being here at Onward; I’ve been here about a year. With that, I’ll pass it over to Cathi.

Cathi Sherry [5:01]:

Hi everyone, thanks Pete. I’m Cathi Sherry, Director of Staffing for Onward Accessibility. I have over 15 years of experience in staffing and discovered my passion for accessibility about five years ago. Since then, I’ve been helping build inclusive, accessibility-centric teams. Super happy to be here!

Kate O’Connor [5:25]:

Great, thank you. With that, we’ll kick off our live discussion. I’m Kate O’Connor. Pete, over to you with our first question.

When we talk about “making accessibility sustainable,” what does that actually mean in practice, and why is it so important—especially for large or complex organizations?

Pete Bruhn [5:51]:

Yeah, great question to start with. When we talk about “making accessibility sustainable,” we mean ensuring your digital products and content are accessible for the long term. It’s about setting up your organization to continue and repeat success. It’s critical to consider accessibility not just at the beginning of projects, but at every stage.

In practice, it means planning ahead—thinking about the next phase while you’re still in the current one. For example, before your audit, you have to plan for what happens after. We’ll go into more detail about this later, but the core point is that planning is key.

You need to bring in the right people at the right time. It’s about balancing internal and external expertise. Sometimes, in-house capabilities are enough to sustain efforts. But bringing in outside consultants or third parties to fill short-term gaps can also be important.

Considering accessibility early is critical. It must be woven into everyday workflows—it can’t be treated as an afterthought or a one-time fix. Then there’s the maintenance side. You can make a site or app accessible, but you have to keep it that way. That means ongoing testing, monitoring, and remediation—all of which are vital to long-term success.

Kate, anything you’d like to add?

Kate O’Connor [7:41]:

Absolutely. I love what you said. Especially for large enterprises, accessibility is even more challenging due to the scope—the number of digital properties, engineers, and products involved. Some companies we work with have thousands of websites, apps, internal tools, documents, and third-party platforms.

So it’s not easy—it’s ongoing. But it’s about prioritizing progress over perfection. We often talk about making incremental changes over time. If you follow the practices Pete just laid out, it is achievable—and it is sustainable—for organizations of all sizes.

Just remember: every step forward is a win. Sometimes the hardest part is that first step. Make sure you’re celebrating even the small wins—because they all count.

Cathi, anything you’d like to add?

Cathi Sherry [9:10]:

Yeah, sustainable accessibility starts with people. You need buy-in from leaders and teams across functions. It can’t just be one person or even one team that’s passionate—it has to be widely accepted across the organization. You need more than just champions. Accessibility has to be woven into the fabric of the organization. That’s what sustainability really means—continuity. 

And that comes from building teams that can carry it forward. Even as people or priorities change, if digital accessibility is part of the organization’s values, that’s what makes it sustainable.

Kate O’Connor [10:01]:

That’s great. Love that. On to the next question.

Pete, what are some of the most common challenges that you’ve encountered or seen others face when trying to build lasting accessibility programs?

Pete Bruhn [10:18]:

Yeah, there’s a lot, but I’ll cover a few key ones.

The first is underestimating the number of defects that come from an audit—and the amount of work required to fix them. A lot of organizations say, “Let’s get going on accessibility—let’s do an audit.” Then they get a huge report and realize they’re not prepared to take action.

Another issue is relying too much on short-term remediation without investing in prevention. We’ll talk more about shifting left later, but moving accessibility earlier into processes helps prevent issues from hitting production—instead of just reacting and remediating what’s already broken.

Training is huge. Most organizations underestimate the need for continuous training. You can’t just train one team once and be done. This has to be ongoing—especially as new people join, roles change, or teams grow. Having a program and process around training is key.

Then there are siloed efforts. Accessibility can’t just live in one department—like design, dev, procurement, or content. Everyone has to be aligned.

Finally, lack of clear ownership. Without defined responsibilities, accessibility falls through the cracks. People need to know who’s doing what—who’s responsible for action, decisions, and execution. Without that, teams flounder and progress stalls.

Cathi, anything you’d like to add?

Cathi Sherry [12:33]:

Yeah, let’s go back to that idea of buy-in and accountability. When there’s just one person or one team pushing for accessibility, it leads to burnout. And nothing really progresses.

When other teams aren’t aware or bought in, accessibility ends up feeling like policing instead of collaboration. That’s a huge challenge from the people side. Accessibility needs to be shared—it has to be collaborative, not isolated. To empower your programs to succeed and last, accessibility must be embedded in your organization’s core values from the start.

Kate O’Connor [13:49]:

Absolutely. Moving on to the next question. Pete, how can organizations plan for action before an audit even begins?

Pete Bruhn [14:02]:

This is a great question. Most organizations don’t know where to start, so they start with an audit. That can help you understand your current accessibility status—but if you’re not ready to act on the results, it becomes a problem.

Before the audit begins, you need to spread awareness. Let teams know the audit is coming. There will be results, priorities, and items added to sprints. You need support from leadership and across all teams—because most teams will be involved.

Planning is crucial. If you plan for success, it can be successful. If you say, “We’ll figure it out after the audit,” it won’t work.

Expect a long list of issues—even organizations doing well often uncover unexpected problems.

You also need to map out your digital properties. Understand what exists, who owns it, and which areas are higher risk. We work with companies that have hundreds or thousands of digital assets, so just knowing where to start can be hard.

Assign clear responsibilities in advance. Who’s handling remediation? Who’s triaging? Who’s prioritizing? Who makes approvals? Without this structure, the organization will struggle and won’t be able to build a sustainable program quickly.

Some organizations dedicate a fixed portion of their sprint cycles to accessibility—10%, 15%, even 20%. That’s a great way to keep continuous progress.

And act quickly once the audit results come in. They get outdated fast. If you don’t act, development keeps moving and the audit becomes irrelevant.

Kate, anything to add?

Kate O’Connor [17:10]:

That’s great, Pete. Just to add on—if you’re not acting quickly, like you said, that’s what we call “Audit Rot.” A lot of organizations struggle because they’re not set up to remediate. If you don’t act quickly, your audits become outdated. Then you start wondering why your score is the same—or worse—a year later.

It’s a cycle you don’t want to be stuck in. If you’re not ready to act when the audit hits, progress stalls, the list of defects grows, and your digital environment changes. Development won’t keep up with accessibility needs, and you won’t hit your goals. It’s frustrating, of course.

So planning for remediation before you even get the results is really important.

And on that note, I want to shift—no pun intended—into something we love talking about. Pete, what does shifting left mean in the context of accessibility? And how can teams take meaningful steps in that direction? Regardless of where you are, there’s always a need to mature and shift left. Tell us about that.

Pete Bruhn [18:43]:

Yeah, shifting left is all about integrating accessibility as early as possible in your workflow—ideally, even before code is written or designs are created.

For example, start by setting accessibility requirements early. If your product team includes accessibility in the definition of “done” or the MVP, you’re setting yourself up for success.

Next is design. There’s a lot of value in design audits and making sure designers produce accessible designs. About 80% of issues can be avoided just by getting things right in design.

Annotations are another big one. These are notes that guide the dev team on how to build components accessibly. So if you design a carousel or a tab set, include annotations that say, “This must have keyboard support,” or “This needs ARIA roles.” That gives developers clear, upfront direction.

Then there’s the idea of elevating teams. Training is key here—training product managers, designers, developers, and really anyone who touches accessibility. Everyone needs to know how to do their part. Upskilling internal teams is critical, and hiring for gaps is also sometimes needed.

Kate O’Connor [20:59]:

Absolutely. That was great.

To recap: Shifting left saves time, reduces costs, and is essential to long-term progress. A huge part of that is accountability—ensuring everyone knows accessibility is part of their job. That’s how accessibility becomes embedded. It’s not just a problem to fix—it’s part of your organization’s process and culture.

So Pete, on that note—how should companies decide when to hire experts, when to upskill internally, and when to outsource?

Pete Bruhn [22:05]:

Great question. This isn’t an either/or—it’s a both/and.

You want to upskill internal teams where accessibility overlaps with day-to-day roles. So dev, design, QA, content—those are places where training can be really effective. But even experienced accessibility pros need ongoing learning—things evolve fast.

Hiring experts comes into play when you need leadership or deep technical knowledge you can’t train into someone quickly. That’s when it makes sense to bring in external professionals who’ve done it before and can help scale efforts.

Outsourcing is helpful when you need speed, scale, or unbiased perspective. It’s especially common with audits and document remediation. Maybe your team could do it, but they don’t have the bandwidth—outsourcing fills the gap.

Cathi Sherry [23:59]:

Yeah, so you really need to start by evaluating your team. Who do you already have? What are their strengths? What are their goals? If you’re restructuring or shifting to support accessibility goals, how do you help your current team grow with those goals?

Then, identify gaps. What skills are missing? Are you lacking perspectives or diversity? Bringing in people with different backgrounds helps create a more holistic understanding of what you’re building.

Also, consider your organization’s size, budget, and scope of work. Not every company is the same—and not every organization is at the same stage of accessibility maturity.

Because of that, the journey will look different for everyone. But the most successful companies balance hiring, outsourcing, and developing existing talent. They identify strengths and build around any skill or representation gaps.

Kate O’Connor [25:30]:

Absolutely. Moving us along—Cathi, this is a really important one, and we hear it all the time.

For teams looking to hire accessibility professionals, what advice would you give to help them make the right hires from the start?

Cathi Sherry [25:56]:

Everyone in accessibility knows the term “unicorn.” But honestly, there’s no such thing as one person who can do everything in accessibility.

You have to be realistic. Define the specific gaps you’re trying to fill. Set expectations clearly. No one person is going to lead your program, write your code, test for compliance, and run training—at least not at scale.

Also, prioritize experience and culture fit over certifications. Certifications are great—they show commitment—but nothing beats real-world experience.

And set expectations during the hiring process. Be honest about where you are in your accessibility journey. Communicate your goals. It’s okay if you’re not perfect—progress is what matters.

Make sure your hiring process is accessible. If you want diverse candidates, your process has to support them. That means asking candidates if they need anything to succeed and following through without hesitation.

It can be as simple as asking, “What do you need from us?” Support people proactively.

Lastly—don’t just fill a seat. Build a foundation.

Kate O’Connor [28:31]:

That’s great.

Cathi, here’s another one for you—and I’m sure we all have something to add—but what does a well-structured accessibility team look like, and how can companies set themselves up for success?

Cathi Sherry [28:49]:

Every organization is different, but you need to look at your current team structure and workload. Identify the critical roles you need and staff accordingly to avoid burnout.

Regardless of your business model, you’ll likely need:

• An accessibility lead or program manager
• Accessibility engineers for technical expertise
• UX or inclusive designers for proactive design collaboration
• QA testers with manual testing and assistive tech experience
• Trainers or enablement partners to support ongoing growth

Your goals need to be realistic. Scaling doesn’t happen overnight—and that’s okay. Just don’t expect one person to do everything.

A well-structured team is collaborative, open, and sets fair expectations. It should allow people to grow with your organization’s goals.

Pete Bruhn [30:21]:

Absolutely. A strong program isn’t just one team. Small orgs might start that way, but the work has to be distributed. Every department touches accessibility in some way.

There’s a tool called a RACI matrix—R-A-C-I—for Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed. It’s a great framework. You list all your accessibility activities and then define who in the org plays what role. It helps everyone understand their part and builds shared ownership.

You also need a central lead—someone who owns strategy—and champions within each team. And don’t forget to include people with disabilities, whether they’re employees or external testers. Real user feedback is critical.

And of course, executive support is non-negotiable. Without leadership buy-in, you’ll constantly be deprioritized. That’s exhausting for everyone pushing accessibility forward.

Kate O’Connor [32:55]:

Everything you both said is great. In the spirit of making sure we have time for questions, I want to move on.

Pete, monitoring and maintenance often become stumbling blocks after remediation. How can organizations stay on track and avoid falling behind—or avoid that Audit Rot we talked about earlier?

Pete Bruhn [33:27]:

Great question. Just like you plan for remediation before the audit, you should plan for monitoring and maintenance before or during remediation—not after.

There are four key areas:

First, integrate accessibility into every workflow. Build it into design, development, and QA processes. It can’t be a one-time project. That way, issues are caught early, and you avoid expensive rework later.

Second, assign ownership and accountability. Make accessibility a shared performance metric. When people know they’re responsible, things stay on track.

Third, automate and audit continuously. Automated tools are helpful for catching issues early, but they don’t catch everything. You still need manual audits and user testing. And you need to set a regular cadence for testing based on how often your site or app changes.

Fourth, invest in training and culture. Keep teams educated. Foster a culture that values inclusion. When accessibility is embedded in your values, it becomes a long-term priority. It’s no longer a separate thing—it’s who you are as an organization.

Kate O’Connor [35:32]:

Absolutely. So Pete, here’s a big one—AI and automation. Everyone’s talking about them. How are these tools shaping the accessibility space, and what can realistically be automated?

Pete Bruhn [35:48]:

Great question—and honestly, this could be its own webinar.

First off, the tech is evolving fast. We stay on top of it, and we hire professionals who do too. AI can be a helpful tool—but it has to be used carefully.

There’s a lot of hype around AI “solving” accessibility. I don’t buy that. Accessibility is about how people interact with computers—and that interaction is full of nuance.

AI can help improve efficiency and reduce repetitive manual work. Some tools use AI to suggest fixes during remediation—and that can be great—but those fixes still need human verification. AI is a tool, not a solution.

Smart organizations use AI to scale and complement expert work—not replace it.

Kate O’Connor [37:36]:

Absolutely. We’re almost out of time, but this one is important.

Cathi and Pete, let’s talk about examples. Can you share organizations you consider leaders in digital accessibility—and what others can learn from them?

Cathi Sherry [37:57]:

Sure. You have companies like Microsoft—they’ve made accessibility a core value. Their public resources educate not just their teams but the entire industry.

We’ve also had the privilege of working with CVS Health. We helped scale their team to over 100, and they’ve built one of the strongest programs in the country.

What these organizations have in common is innovation. They create open-source tools, collaborate widely, and encourage knowledge-sharing. CVS even partnered with Apple on accessibility “nutrition labels.”

The key is: accessibility is not just internal. These companies work outwardly too. They understand that accessibility is a human right and a business differentiator.

Kate O’Connor [39:25]:

Absolutely. And another thing—they have dedicated accessibility teams and a culture where accessibility is everyone’s responsibility.

Other great examples include Amazon, Comcast, Verizon, Salesforce, and GitHub. GitHub recently announced open-source commitments to support accessibility—and that’s huge.

There are lots of others doing great work. But to move us toward closing—

Cathi, in conclusion, what’s one takeaway you hope people leave with today?

Cathi Sherry [40:32]:

For me, it’s about people.

They’re what make an organization succeed. Set your teams up for success. Hire diverse talent. Set realistic expectations. Create a safe, collaborative culture.

Accessibility and sustainability start with people. You need to hire where there are gaps, train the folks you already have, and support everyone along the way.

It’s about balancing internal ownership and external support. You need both to move forward.

Pete Bruhn [41:12]:

For me, it’s planning. Always think ahead.

Plan for what’s next. Consider accessibility early and often. That’s how you create lasting change.

It’s not as overwhelming as it seems—you can do this. Just take that first step.

Kate O’Connor [42:01]:

Yes. Just as a reminder—like Pete and Cathi both said—accessibility isn’t easy, but it is achievable.

Remember, it’s not a destination. It’s not a project or a box to check. It’s a process and a journey. It’s ongoing.

And don’t forget to celebrate wins. Every step forward matters.

With that, let’s move into your questions. Looks like we have some in the chat.

Pete Bruhn [42:48]:

I’ll read the first one. So, Jeffrey says, this is less of a question and more of a comment, but: “The constant lack of alt tags, titles, and proper HTML formatting is a core concept—and it’s so basic that it astounds me that people aren’t using tools to fix it.”

Can’t agree more. These basics are easy to resolve. Automated tools are great at catching them. But we still see a lot of div soup—non-semantic HTML.

Use semantic HTML whenever possible. If you use a native HTML button, it comes with built-in keyboard support and accessibility features. If you create a custom button with a div, you have to do all of that manually. So use native elements—it’s a better, more sustainable approach.

The next question is from Beth: “Do you have a RACI template you can share?”

Yes, we absolutely do. We’ll follow up after the webinar with that template. It’s easy to fill out, though depending on your org’s size, it might take some work to get buy-in. But with executive support, it’s a great tool for setting expectations.

Kate O’Connor [44:53]:

Absolutely. Next question—from an anonymous attendee: “How can an organization get started with accessibility if we don’t have expertise in-house?”

Pete Bruhn [45:08]:

Great question.

If you don’t have accessibility expertise in-house, you need to bring in consultants or a third party to support you. That often includes helping you make the business case internally—especially for leadership buy-in.

It’s critical to work with people who’ve had these conversations before and know how to communicate the value of accessibility to C-level leaders.

Kate O’Connor [46:01]:

Absolutely. Every organization is different, so we often work with clients to figure out how accessibility ties to their mission and goals. We look at what leadership cares about—then show how accessibility supports those priorities.

Sometimes it’s compliance. Sometimes it’s revenue. Sometimes it’s customer experience or risk management. Sometimes it’s what your competitors are doing. Those all help make the case.

Happy to talk more about that anytime.

The next question is from Albert: “I heard who is responsible and who is accountable, but how do you empower accessibility champions? Otherwise, they’ll be scapegoated. Can you share examples?”

Pete?

Pete Bruhn [47:35]:

Yeah, this ties back to responsibility and accountability. If those aren’t clear across departments, everything falls on your accessibility champion. And that’s not sustainable.

So it starts with leadership support—making it clear that accessibility is shared across teams. The RACI matrix we mentioned earlier helps here. When roles are clearly defined, champions aren’t isolated or blamed.

Cathi Sherry [48:33]:

Right. And you also need to connect accessibility to what leadership values.

If leadership cares most about revenue, tie accessibility to growth and customer reach. If they care about compliance, talk about legal risk. You have to speak their language.

And also—show real-world examples. Show what your competitors are doing. Show how inaccessible experiences frustrate users.

When leaders really understand the impact, they’re more likely to back your champions.

Kate O’Connor [49:40]:

Absolutely. Just to add—when we talk about scapegoating, that often comes from misunderstanding. People don’t always know what accessibility means for their role.

That’s why education is so important. When everyone understands even a little about how accessibility affects their work—whether they’re in research, product, marketing, anything—they’re more likely to take ownership.

Also, yes, there are laws. If you’re struggling to get leadership buy-in, sometimes highlighting legal obligations or risks helps. Or showing how competitors are approaching accessibility. These are strategic levers—not scare tactics—to move things forward.

We could go deeper, but happy to take that conversation offline.

Next question—from an anonymous attendee: “How can companies still prioritize accessibility when DEI is under attack in a lot of organizations?”

Pete Bruhn [51:41]:

Yeah, that’s a really good question.

We work with companies that have publicly pulled DEI language from their websites—but behind the scenes, they’re still doing the work. The initiatives are still happening. Accessibility hasn’t stopped.

Accessibility often gets lumped in with DEI, and it is related—but it also stands on its own. You can frame it around usability, customer experience, and inclusive design.

In the end, it’s about making your products better for more people. That’s a strong business case.

Kate O’Connor [53:15]:

Yes. Next question: “If Company A gets an audit and remediation from Company Y, but still gets sued—who is responsible? Can you prevent this?”

Pete Bruhn [53:38]:

Great question—and not a simple answer.

But here’s the thing: if it’s your website, you are responsible. That includes third-party tools or partners. If you choose to install a chatbot or plugin that’s inaccessible, it’s still your responsibility.

Same goes for agencies or contractors. If they publish inaccessible content on your site—it’s still your site.

This also ties into procurement. You have to vet third-party tools and services for accessibility.

As for remediation, you’d need to check your contract. Some vendors provide guarantees or support if legal issues arise. But ultimately, site owners carry the risk.

We always recommend talking to legal counsel for guidance on that.

Kate O’Connor [55:13]:

Absolutely. Here’s one we hear a lot: “For a team just getting started, what’s the first step—an audit, a consultation, or something else?”

Pete Bruhn [55:32]:

I’d recommend starting with consulting—especially with a focus on understanding the process and building leadership buy-in.

An audit gives you a snapshot of current issues—but if you don’t know what to do with those results, you’ll stall. Consulting helps you plan, prioritize, and build a foundation.

The goal is to catch issues before they hit production. That means integrating accessibility throughout your software development lifecycle—design, dev, QA, launch.

It’s proactive, not reactive. It saves time and money. And it reduces your risk.

Don’t forget user testing, either. Real people, using real assistive tech, give the best feedback. Something might be technically accessible but functionally unusable—and you’ll only catch that with real users.

Kate O’Connor [58:06]:

That’s a great note to end on.

Looks like we answered all the questions. As a reminder—if there’s anything we didn’t cover or if you’d like to go deeper, reach out. Every organization is different, which is why there’s no easy button for accessibility.

It’s complex. But we’re here to help.

At Onward Accessibility, our mission is to help organizations make progress and build sustainable programs. We support our clients with talent and solutions—so we can fill gaps wherever needed.

And remember: people are key. Not just your accessibility experts—but everyone in your organization.

Thank you for joining us today. Reach out if we can support you in any way—whether it’s a conversation, guidance, or just listening.

Have a great day, everyone.