Helping 45 Products Become More Inclusive—And Keeping Big Contracts on the Line

When we kicked off our accessibility initiative at NICE, it wasn’t just about compliance—it was about people. The evolution of our customer base meant accessibility was no longer optional. There were multi-million-dollar contracts that required WCAG compliance, but more importantly, we wanted everyone to be able to use our software. That urgency, combined with strong support/pressure from the company’s leadership, set the tone for what would become a major two-year effort across the entire organization.

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Leading the Charge—From 0 ACRs to a Scalable System

I led this initiative from the ground up. At the time, we had zero Accessibility Conformance Reports (ACRs) across our 45+ product suite. At the time of writing this article, we had completed 9 ACRs with another 30 in progress—a massive step forward.

As the UX Manager in charge of our WCAG web accessibility initiative, I was responsible for:

• Managing cross-functional teams that included UX, Product, Dev, Legal, Compliance, and our external testing firm/partner Level Access
• Building the plan, timeline, and processes
• Reporting progress up through all levels of leadership
• Creating and delivering training for UX, dev, and product teams

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The Hardest Part? Scaling and Adoption

With so many products, one of our biggest challenges was simply keeping everything coordinated. To manage it all, we created a central SharePoint hub that served as the source of truth for audits, guidelines, progress trackers, and training docs.

We kept momentum through:

• Weekly progress check-ins with both our testing firm and our internal teams
• Executive updates
• Centralized email communications
• A growing library of accessibility training resources

Even with these tools, getting buy-in wasn’t easy. For many development teams, accessibility felt like “extra work” rather than an integrated part of the process. That’s where consistent messaging and leadership support were critical.

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We Embedded Accessibility into the Design System

A huge part of our long-term success came from integrating accessibility into our design system. We reviewed all core components and patterns to ensure they aligned with WCAG guidelines, so that any future builds had accessibility baked in from the start.

Our team tracked implementation and progress through Jira and SharePoint, keeping everything transparent and manageable—even across dozens of global teams.

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Measurable Progress, Cultural Shift

We didn’t expect 100% accessibility compliance across all products. That’s just not realistic with this many moving parts. But in addition to remediating hundredes for accessibility infractions we also did create a clear, repeatable process, real momentum, and a cultural shift that will serve the company for years to come.

We hit every milestone we set, and we now have a solid framework that continues to grow.

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Key Takeaways

What I Led	Impact
Cross-functional initiative with UX, Dev, Product, Legal, and Vendor Teams	9 completed ACRs, 30+ in progress
Created the entire accessibility audit and remediation process	From 0 to 45+ product accessibility plans
Centralized documentation, training, and communications	Company-wide alignment and knowledge sharing
Integrated accessibility into the design system	Long-term scalability and consistency
Maintained leadership and stakeholder buy-in	Hit all major milestones over a 2-year span

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