Interview with UX Designer Bailey Costello: IAAP Accessibility Certification

At DOOR3, accessibility is a core principle of our UX design practices. That’s why we’re thrilled to celebrate our Senior UX Designer, Bailey Costello, for recently earning her certification in accessibility from the International Association of Accessibility Professionals (IAAP). Bailey’s background and experience in computer science and product design prepared her well to pursue her interests in accessibility and apply it in her design work. This certification showcases Bailey’s commitment to designing inclusive digital experiences and expanding DOOR3’s expertise in accessibility and UX design.

Interview Overview

In a recent conversation with our Marketing Content Manager, Zev Gottdiener, Bailey shared insights into her journey toward certification, the learning process, and what this milestone means for her work and the future of accessibility at DOOR3.

A Deeper Understanding of Accessibility

Bailey’s certification process wasn’t just about memorizing WCAG guidelines—it was an in-depth dive into the history of accessibility legislation, international standards, and the diverse range of disabilities that impact how people interact with digital interfaces. As she explained, the IAAP certification provided a strong foundation for understanding why accessibility matters, reinforcing the principle that good design is accessible design.

"Accessible design is good design"

Why Accessibility Matters for Business and Design

Bailey’s passion for accessibility stems from a deep understanding of its impact—not just from an ethical standpoint but also from a business perspective. As she noted, between 15% and 25% of the global population has some form of disability. Ignoring accessibility means excluding a significant portion of potential users and customers. For businesses, this is not only a compliance risk but also a missed opportunity to create more inclusive and scalable products.

"I'm leveraging accessibility in small, everyday ways."

What’s Next for Accessibility at DOOR3

Bailey’s certification comes at an exciting time, as DOOR3 continues to take on projects that prioritize accessibility. As she put it, accessibility is something she incorporates into every project, from color contrast considerations to ensuring seamless keyboard navigation. But beyond her own work, Bailey is committed to educating the broader DOOR3 team, ensuring that accessibility remains a foundational part of the design process.

Resources for UX Designers Interested in Accessibility

For those looking to deepen their accessibility knowledge, Bailey recommends starting with Google’s A11ycasts video series, which explores accessibility from a developer’s perspective. She also suggests exploring the A11Y Project, a valuable resource offering checklists, articles, and best practices for building accessible digital experiences.

Bailey’s certification is just one step in DOOR3’s ongoing commitment to accessibility. As digital experiences continue to evolve, we are excited to integrate these principles into more projects and help businesses create software that is truly inclusive for all users.

Want to learn more about accessibility in UX? Read the full interview with Bailey Costello below and explore how DOOR3 can help improve your product’s accessibility standards.

Interview Transcription

Note: The interview text has been edited for clarity.

Zev:

Welcome everyone. Thanks for joining. My name is Zev Gottdiener and I’m the marketing content manager here at DOOR3. I’m joined by Bailey Costello, who is a senior UX designer here at DOOR3. We’re going to be talking about a new experience and certification she just completed.

Bailey:

Hi, I am Bailey Costello. As you said, I’m a senior UX designer here at Door 3, and I’m also kind of considered our resident accessibility specialist. I recently got the opportunity to get a certification through the International Association of Accessibility Professionals. And, you know, it was a lot of fun.

I learned a lot through the process, and the main idea is that we can start having more projects focused around accessibility as a whole, instead of just an afterthought, you know, not just a side quest. We want to bring in and have real accessibility projects.

Zev:

What was the program like for the certification? How long was it? And you did it on the web?

Bailey:

So, I just was reading the entire time. They had an 80 page document that I went through. It wasn’t exactly what I expected. When people think about accessibility, usually they start looking for knowledge on the actual WCAG guidelines. This was not about those guidelines at all. It did mention it once or twice, but it was more focused on the actual legislation that has come up and the different kinds of disabilities.

So, there was a lot of health and wellness in there. And also a good, fundamental background of the things you need to know in order to apply it as UX designers and developers in practice. A lot of background knowledge that was really, really interesting to learn about.

Zev:

Reading is the quickest way to set yourself up for practicing something, obviously. It’s nice that they added a lot of resources. So, what not only led you to want to pursue this certification, but how did you get interested in accessibility and even about that in UX?

Bailey:

This [accessibility] is something that I have always cared about once I kind of initially learned about it as a young designer. It kind of came up through Google search, and I started hearing about accessibility and kind of like, internalized that good design is accessible design.

And that’s something that really, really stuck with me. Then on top of that, in the company that I was working for, a B2B company for building reports and doing data analysis, I was kind of sitting around and thinking about accessibility, ‘Oh, this is important, right?’ We need to be inclusive and include people. The more that I kind of thought about it, the more I was thinking about it in the software that I’m working on. If somebody is blind, for instance, they still have to use a keyboard to navigate the internet. They wouldn’t at all be able to use this software, you know? So essentially, down the line, what that looks like is that they can’t have a data analyst job, if the company were to use our software.

So to me, it became this very real concern, when we’re building software for people to use, especially business software. We are really limiting or cutting out a part of the market that could otherwise be able to have jobs. So it’s very discriminatory and limiting for people, and we don’t want that.

Zev:

Right, there’s the idea of needing to meet standards and government regulations. And then there’s the entirely different idea of what is, and who is the software for, and not just in a moral or humanistic sense, but even a business sense where there are areas of growth and opportunities that are glossed over by virtue of them not thinking about or not being aware of it. So that is interesting. And did the course go into methodology, not just in UX, but for businesses in general about, meeting accessibility, or is it focused more on standards?

Bailey:

It wasn’t so much focused on business, but I will say that is something that I learned, you know, through my own research, you know, about. Somewhere between like 15 and like 25 percent of the world has some kind of disability. So there is roughly a quarter of the world that could benefit from this and those are people that we need to account for too. As user experience designers, we’re all here to account for the end user.

Zev:

Absolutely.

Bailey:

The IAAP was more focused on international standards. It looked at the US, it looked at Europe, and even a couple of other smaller governments in the Middle East and other places as examples. A lot of what I learned is the history of where these standards came from.

For one, it happened all very recently. These standards, the earliest ones started coming out in the forties and fifties. Then, it really started taking hold towards the seventies and eighties. Now, the most recent one was in the early 2000s when we had some solid foundations and from the UN coming in, some actual worldwide standards. So, that was very interesting seeing how recent it was and seeing all these different governments try and have their say as to what the international standards should be.

Zev:

I can imagine. We didn’t mention this before, this is the certification from the International Association of Accessibility Professionals, and the experience also offered access into this network and you get exposure to not just practices in different countries, but you get to meet people from around the UX world and beyond. It sounds like, it’s not just the nuts and bolts of things, but, this international community that you get to be a part of.

Bailey:

You know, I need to look into that. I know that there is a directory that, well, that you can opt into that I decided to opt into because why wouldn’t I? There is a directory and I’m not sure if they have events as far as I’m aware, but it’s something to look into. There is, there is something out there.

Zev:

Sure. There’s a lot of ground to cover now that, that you’re there, you’re in, you’re certified. Yeah, in that vein, like what is the, the next steps know, how do you think this is going to change, your practices here at door three or, UX is changing with these new accessibility ideas?

Bailey:

Well, I am excited to say we are working on a new project. We are working with another government agency. Of course, the government cares very much about accessibility. They have to abide by these laws and standards. And so, I have since started working a little bit and it was a very positive experience.

It was great seeing an entire group of people who also cared about accessibility. I am hoping that we can get even more clients like that. I think we’re going to keep working with these folks. And then beyond that, I would like to start leaving a little bit more of a footprint on our designs.

It’s something that I do talk about whenever we do have projects. There are certain baseline things, like color contrast, that I’m always making sure are okay. That is a standard, ‘number one’ easiest to miss, and also the easiest to address. There are some baseline considerations that I’m making, also some things to do with things like interaction.

It just helps me be a better designer. Again, I kind of touched on it before, but accessible design is good design. For instance, there are cognitive disabilities where people have issues processing information or intellectual disabilities. The answer to these from the accessibility community is to make things very clear, and that’s just good UX anyways.

So, all the time, I’m leveraging accessibility in small everyday ways, and I’m hoping to bring that out a little bit more and get more contracts where we are doing more dedicated accessibility work. Beyond that, I’m really excited to be there as this resource for my team and continue to educate the rest of my team. That’s super useful too, and it makes us all better designers.

Zev:

Sure. That’s one of the interesting parts about working in DOOR3, the teams are horizontal, and everyone brings their unique expertise, and it all comes together to synergize in how we do our work so successfully. And yeah, like you said, it’s not just stuff you can bring to your individual projects, but in expanding our offerings for accessibility audits and design compliance, all these avenues that are open now. Yeah, the future is bright.

I am interested if you have some good resources or advice for UX designers, businesses, and so forth, who are looking to pursue not just the certification, but, in general, having their accessibility standards be raised and thinking more about this kind of dimension of design.

Bailey:

Yes, most definitely. Okay, so I started doing a lot of my own research. So, I wouldn’t say that the IAAP certification is going to give you all of the knowledge that you need to know. It’s more fundamental to getting your mindset in the right place and understanding ethically where all of these regulations came from.

Where I would start is, there is a really good Youtube series that I stumbled across. I believe it’s made by Google Chrome for Developers. It’s an Allycast video, and they go through a lot from the developer side, but that’s a great starting point because a lot of accessibility is addressed on the development side. Design has the job of making things clear, easy to use, and also doing things like color contrast. But when you’re using a keyboard, for instance, a lot of that is actually in the way that you’re interacting with this interface. And so you need to make sure that the code behind the scenes actually works, right? That it actually functions the way it needs to. Yeah, so, it does take more of a developer’s side.

It’s a really good starting point and was one of the most helpful resources for me. It goes through different things to consider when you’re actually writing code, which is good for everybody to know, good for accessibility audits and things like that. It also goes into specific different types of assistive technologies.

Zev:

Okay.

Bailey:

For example, somebody using a switch device, which is a two button device for people who have mobility issues. They can only tap a finger or something like that on a phone. They use the up and down volume button to simulate that. So you get to see all of these different devices and how people actually use them. I highly recommend that one.

I’ll also throw out just one more. There is an organization called A11Y, which is shorthand for Accessibility. They have a website called the A11Y Project where they have checklists, articles, and reading that you can do. There’s a lot of, like, just gold, a lot of good information on that site.

Zev:

Excellent. Yeah. And we can put some links and also to the certification site. And when we post this. Awesome. This is exciting. And is there anything else about the experience you want to share? It sounds like it puts you in a really good place to make the moves where you want to go.

Bailey:

Yeah, it’s something that I’ve always been passionate about, and I’m really excited to call myself a certified professional. Come to me if you have, like, questions about it. I’m here. I love talking about it.

Zev:

That’s very generous. Thanks for your time. And this is, been interesting to learn more about. And yeah, bright things to come.

Bailey:

Yeah. Thank you so much. This was great.