For the past three years, I have also been leading our accessibility efforts in partnership with our legal and compliance teams. Again, lots of partnering.\u00a0 My main initiatives in regards to accessibility are raising the awareness of its importance, remediating inaccessible experiences, and integrating accessibility into our process to ensure all new experiences will be fully inclusive.<\/span><\/p>\n How would you rate the accessibility maturity at Sallie Mae Bank?<\/b><\/p>\n We\u2019re not starting at zero, as we\u2019re actively addressing the importance of accessibility with stakeholders, remediating inaccessible content, and changing our process. But we have plenty of work to do. Based on the Digital Accessibility Maturity Model (DAMM), I would say we\u2019re solidly at the \u201cManaged\u201d stage, working our way to \u201cDefined.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n The Digital Access Maturity Model (DAMM). Source: Level Access.<\/p><\/div>\n Part of our process work is establishing standards, prioritizing them based on the project, and being consistent with them in an effort\u00a0to ensure that for future projects, muscle memory takes over and everyone involved knows what to do.<\/span><\/p>\n So is there an accessibility program in place?<\/b><\/p>\n Not yet. We worked with a company called Level Access to draft an accessibility policy, which we\u2019re iterating upon now. We\u2019re in the process of\u00a0putting together a working group that will establish the accessibility program at Sallie Mae more formally.<\/span><\/p>\n How do you feel about people who view accessibility solely in terms of compliance?<\/b><\/p>\n I think that\u2019s a perfectly acceptable starting position to take. Compliance is very much our approach and perspective\u00a0\u2013\u00a0at least at our relatively immature stage of accessibility. We can use the conversations around compliance to start to\u00a0make the business and ethical cases\u00a0as well.<\/span><\/p>\n I think of it as a maturity model. A company doesn\u2019t move from immature to mature all together. Some stakeholders already understand the importance and can be champions. Others need some help. Likewise, some stakeholders already see\u00a0the compliance, business, and ethical cases, whereas others might just see compliance. We can use compliance as the anchor for the others in due time.<\/span><\/p>\n Do you have a particular example you like to fall back on to convince stakeholders?<\/b><\/p>\n I like to focus on how big the population of people with diagnosed disabilities is, and how much bigger the population is with undiagnosed disabilities. The “<\/span>curb-cut effect” <\/span>is most pronounced and beneficial for this undiagnosed population. \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.testingtime.com\/app\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Digital-Accessibility-Maturity-Model-DAMM.png\")