Unified Voice for Accessibility Concerns (UVAC)
An Accessibility Initiative Framework for Everything · Created by: William Dodson
UVAC is a comprehensive framework designed to centralize and harmonize an organization's digital accessibility initiatives. It acts as a single source of truth—serving simultaneously as a Statement of Work (SOW), a project roadmap, and a training/implementation resource.
By establishing a “Unified Voice,” UVAC ensures that accessibility is not a siloed technical task but a core component of branding, marketing, and corporate culture.
🏗 The Five Pillars
Strategy Establishes the organization’s digital accessibility policy, multi-year roadmap, and executive commitment.
Organization Defines clear roles and responsibilities and establishes a Digital Accessibility Committee for oversight.
Capability Focuses on building internal expertise through role-based training and providing tools.
Process Integrates accessibility into every phase of the digital product lifecycle from planning to support.
Content Ensures all digital assets, including marketing and multimedia, are accessible by design.
👥 Roles & Responsibilities
👔 Management & Leadership
- Governance: Oversight of the accessibility roadmap and compliance monitoring.
- Procurement: Ensuring third-party vendors provide a VPAT before integration.
- Resourcing: Allocating budget for audits, remediation tools, and continuous education.
💻 Software Engineering & UX
- Shift Left: Integrating accessibility testing into the earliest stages of design and development.
- Design Systems: Building and maintaining a library of reusable, WCAG-compliant components.
- Validation: Utilizing automated linting and manual testing with assistive technologies.
🎧 Customer Service & Support
- Inclusive Etiquette: Training staff in disability awareness and plain-language communication.
- Feedback Loops: Establishing formal protocols to report user-identified barriers to engineering.
- AT Literacy: Troubleshooting issues specific to assistive technology users.
🔄 The UVAC Lifecycle
- Assessment & Remediation: Identifying existing barriers and prioritizing technical fixes.
- Integration: Incorporating accessibility standards into standard operating procedures and code reviews.
- Monitoring & Maintenance: Ongoing auditing and reporting to prevent accessibility “debt”.
- Education: Continually upskilling the workforce to adapt to evolving standards like WCAG 2.2.
📈 Success Metrics
- Remediation Velocity: Time taken to fix critical accessibility bugs.
- Training Completion: Percentage of staff certified in their role-specific UVAC duties.
- Conformance Level: Current adherence to WCAG 2.1/2.2 AA standards.