Accessible Design
Design for Everyone.
What We Do
Approximately one in four adults in the United States lives with some form of disability. If your digital product does not work for them, you have already excluded a quarter of your potential audience before they even arrive. Accessible design is not a compliance checkbox or an afterthought. It is the discipline of building digital experiences that work for everyone: people using screen readers, keyboard-only navigation, voice controls, high-contrast modes, or any other assistive technology. WCAG 2.
1 AA compliance is the legal and technical baseline. We design beyond that minimum. The result is better for everyone. Clear hierarchy, readable typography, and logical interaction patterns benefit all users, not just those with declared disabilities. Running Start Digital treats accessibility as a core design competency.
How We Work
We integrate accessibility from the first wireframe, not as a final audit. That means semantic information architecture from the start, focus order planned before visual design begins, color contrast validated at every stage, and ARIA patterns built into components before development starts. We conduct accessibility audits on existing products, generating prioritized issue reports that separate critical blockers from progressive improvements.
For new builds, we run usability testing with participants who rely on assistive technologies: screen readers, switch access, voice control, and magnification. The test findings shape design decisions that automated tools cannot catch. Every accessible design engagement delivers documented conformance information your legal team can reference.
Why Running Start Digital
Frequently Asked Questions
ADA compliance focuses on meeting legal requirements. Accessible design goes further by centering the experience of disabled users in the design process itself. Compliance is the floor, not the ceiling.
No. Well-executed accessible design looks beautiful and works for everyone. Better contrast, clearer typography, and logical layouts benefit all users, not just those with disabilities.
Yes. We audit your current product, identify barriers, and implement fixes in priority order. Critical issues first, then progressive improvements over time.
Yes. Automated tools catch some issues, but real user testing with assistive technology users reveals problems that scanners miss entirely.
A focused audit of a single web application or website takes 1 to 2 weeks. We deliver a prioritized report with documented issues, severity ratings, WCAG criterion references, and recommended fixes.
Accessibility audits start at $3,000 for smaller sites and scale based on the number of unique page templates and interaction patterns. Remediation support is scoped separately based on the findings.
Yes, positively. Semantic HTML structure, meaningful alt text, logical heading hierarchy, and readable content all improve both accessibility and search engine crawlability. It is the same work serving two goals.