Soren Hamby 6 min read

Operations

E*Trade Accessibility Team

Co-founded E*Trade's accessibility program from the ground up, turning a reactive, audit-driven process into a proactive practice trusted by blind and low-vision investors.

"Accessibility at E*Trade" banner with the a11y wordmark above a photo of one person pushing another in a wheelchair, seen from behind.
Client
E*Trade (via InRhythm)
Timeline
Services
Accessibility · Operations · Design Systems

The Challenge

E*Trade had entered a 2016 structured-negotiation settlement with two blind customers, committing to WCAG 2.1 AA conformance across its website, mobile apps, and trading platform. By the time I joined in 2019, the mandated remediation was largely complete, but the underlying practice hadn't caught up: there was no formal program, no shared benchmark for how comfortable design and dev teams were with accessibility work, and heavy reliance on periodic audits to catch what should have been caught earlier. E*Trade wanted to move from reactive to proactive on accessibility and earn the loyalty of disabled investors, including customers with low or no vision.

Seen from behind, one person leans in to talk with another seated in a wheelchair on an open road under an overcast sky.

The Goal

Build a lasting accessibility program and secure the headcount, tooling, and executive buy-in to sustain it, rather than treating accessibility as a recurring fire drill.

A magenta "Step free Route" sign with a wheelchair symbol and an arrow, set in tall grass.

The Solution

Working with blind E*Trade customers and the Design Systems team, I assessed gaps across the site, surveyed design and dev teams to set a comfort-level benchmark, and started weekly office hours for coaching.

I authored more than 20 reference documents for designers and developers, and put together a proposal that won full funding for a dedicated accessibility team, then wrote the job descriptions for the new roles.

Accessibility at E*Trade

Building an accessibility program from scratch

The strategy, research, guidelines and process documents I put together to move E*Trade from reactive bug fixing to a funded, proactive accessibility team.

  • 2019
  • 21 documents
  • Design, dev, PM, social and leadership

Roadmap in the proposal

Q4 2019
Plan, set roles, hire the first team
Q1 2020
Onboard, train, start remediation
Q3 2020
Three levels of fluency, full team

Strategy 4 files

  • Accessibility Program Proposal DeckKeynote · 4 revisions
  • Program Proposal, Early NotesFirst outline of team, culture and goals
  • Team Building and Training PlanHiring hybrids, onboarding, certifications
  • Why We Design AccessiblyMission statement for the design team

Research 5 files

  • The Business Case for AccessibilityWho relies on it, SEO overlap, ROI
  • Accessibility Law PrimerADA, Section 508, CVAA, ACAA, state laws
  • Section 508 Deep DiveThe 2017 refresh, ICT scope, who enforces
  • Inclusive Design GlossaryCore terms and the four WCAG principles
  • Automated Testing Toolkitaxe, Pa11y, WAVE, tota11y

Guidelines 6 files

  • Designer's Accessibility ChecklistAnnotations, forms, charts, touch targets
  • Social Media Accessibility GuidelinesAlt text, captions, GIFs, hashtags, language
  • Social Media Quick ChecklistOne-page version for the social team
  • Writing Alt Text: A Worked ExampleHow much an image description should say
  • Designing for Screen ReadersTraining deck
  • Accessible Course Content ChecklistQuick-start rules for docs, slides and PDFs

Process 6 files

  • Accessibility Remediation FlowTest, evaluate, propose, build, review, re-test
  • Complete View Redesign EvaluationAug 2019 · ARIA, semantics, labels
  • Design QA ReviewsGap analysis of Design System
  • Product Design Skills Self-AssessmentTen skills rated 1 to 5
  • Design Language Starter GuideSketch library, templates and fonts for designers
  • Chart Style GuideLines, markers and labels for trading charts
Three colleagues gathered around a laptop at a table, two seated and one leaning over to look at the screen.
LinkedIn recommendation from Joe Cahill, who managed Soren directly, dated June 1, 2020. Full text follows.
There so much to say about Soren as a designer, as an advocate, as a coworker and as a person. When I first hired Soren I knew they were bound for so many great things. Our conversation spanned the gamut of subjects but even to this day it always comes back to why we love what we do and the responsibility we have for the users.

I originally placed Soren in a Snr Designer role at e*Trade but they soon found their niche in the world of accessibility finding all the gaps and building plans around bringing them up to code (no pun intended). When you take a step back to see where the site was before they showed up, to when they hit their stride you can see their impact.

When we send a new person to a client I tell them “be yourself and have fun” Soren stayed true to themselves but represented our company as well as myself better then anyone. They brought their passion and professionalism to our client, they saw the design needs, inclusion needs as well as the organizational needs and advised them on a path for success.

Saying I recommend Soren is an understatement, Soren is always on the short list of people I want on my team especially if I see huge gaps in accessibility and inclusion.

— Joe Cahill, Leading UX & Creative teams