Accessibility@pega

UX Design systems and how they impact building inclusive products

Design systems shape how people experience digital services—but how do they shape accessibility? In this episode, we dive into the role of user experience design systems in building inclusive products, with a special focus on the GOV.UK Design System and why it’s often cited as a benchmark for accessible design. Join our team for a lively, practical conversation with Arthur Turner, accessibility tester for the UK government, and Alex James, Pega consultant working closely with UK public‑sector teams, as we explore real‑world impact, lessons learned, and what product teams everywhere can take away.

When productivity matters: Accessibility + efficiency in the digital work environment

Join the Pega crew in discussion about designing experiences for single time consumer users versus repeat business users. Does it make a difference when you need to design for efficiency and productivity in the workplace? How does this perspective impact screen reader users in terms of verbosity or navigation? As always, we have spirited conversation and different perspectives and considerations.

Reflow: Is it the same as responsive design?

On this episode of Accessibility@Pega, the team welcomes Matt Williamson, a senior front end engineer who provides his perspective on reflow and responsive design. I think all agree at the end game is to provide a "beautiful" experience for all users, but there may be some compromises for designers to ensure that experience. Join us for some lively conversation and food for thought.

Reflow Part 2: Exceptions and complex components

In this episode of Accessibility at Pega, the team dives deeper into the challenges and nuances of reflow in accessible design. They discuss exceptions for complex UI components like tables and charts, the importance of user customization, and the impact of localization and device breakpoints. Real-world scenarios and design dilemmas are explored, highlighting the need for equitable solutions that balance usability for all users. The conversation wraps up with insights on optimizing layouts for various devices and user needs.

Tables and Inline editing: Optimizing keyboard navigation

There are so many different topics to discuss when it comes to tables, but this is one that comes up quite a lot from our customers building applications, that is, tables that allow for inline editing. Inline editing simply means that read-only data as well as input fields can be included within a single table. Makes sense when you are editing a lot of content, but it can be challenging for persons who need to use a keyboard for navigation. Pega has looked at this from many perspectives and use cases to find the best solution to enable all users to be efficient. Join us for this fun discussion!

Drag and drop: Choosing a path for keyboard users

There are no direct example of how to implement drag and drop for keyboard users in the ARIA Authoring Practices Guide. Therefore, we discuss the general WCAG guidance, industry design standards as well user considerations to find a path we decided to move forward with in our applications. Come join the conversation for where drag and drop are needed for business and are inclusive for all users.

Table interactions: Telling a story with your data

Displaying data in a table is a very basic need for most applications. The true power of understanding your data is through manipulating the content using different tools and interactions. This allows your data to tell a story. Join the Pega team in exploring the types of interactions that are needed to tell that story and how we ensure accessibility is factored into the design.

Table versus grid aria role: When is it appropriate to use one or the other

Today we are talking about our journey with tables at Pega and how we evolved from using tables to using the grid role to meet our business use cases. Each navigates differently and has different WCAG requirements. Explore with us.

Status Messages: When they are needed and when focus might be enough

Today we will discuss status messages. We are going to cover the WCAG success criteria, the intent behind their use, the best practice techniques and then we can dive into some fun examples.

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines: Letter of the law versus intent behind criteria

Accessibility touches all our lives and the lives of our family, friends and colleagues. Many don't know the intricacy involved in creating a beautiful user experience for everyone, including persons with disabilities. For our initial podcast and today's topic, we thought we'd start right at the WCAG (or the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines). We will discuss how they came to be, where they are today, and some of the patterns that you find on the W3C (world wide web consortium) or APG (authoring practices guide) website as well as the interpretation of those patterns and how they all work together.

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