03 Accessibility · Practice-Building · WCAG · EAA

Building an accessibility
practice from the ground up

Meta's wearables org didn't have an accessibility problem. It had an accessibility vacuum. I became the Content Design Accessibility Lead — not because someone posted the role, but because I saw the gap and filled it. Four years later, the Accessibility Hub I built is still the canonical reference for the org.

29
Accessibility bugs closed
189
Tasks resolved
90%
Checklist adoption rate
80%
Content designer confidence improvement
45
Weekly accessibility tips published
20+
Accessibility office hours sessions
The problem

Not a problem.
A vacuum.

When I started looking at accessibility in Meta's wearables org, the issue wasn't that people were doing it wrong. It was that most people weren't thinking about it at all. There was no shared framework for what accessible content looked like on a wearable device. No checklist. No owner. No institutional knowledge.

Content designers were shipping copy without knowing whether they met WCAG requirements. Engineers were implementing without accessible labels. PMs were signing off on flows that would fail an EAA audit. Not because anyone was careless — but because no one had built the infrastructure to make accessibility the default.

I wasn't assigned to fix this. I saw it, named it, and decided to own it.

The gap
No accessibility framework. No shared standards. No owner. Content designers were shipping without the tools to know if their work was accessible — because those tools didn't exist yet.

"RL's accessibility hub page is now the canonical source for all information regarding accessibility in RL... Ashlee went above and beyond expectations."

— Erin Leary, PM
What I built

The Accessibility Hub — and everything around it

Building an accessibility practice isn't just writing a checklist. It's changing how an org thinks about who their products are for. That required infrastructure at multiple levels — reference materials, education, community, and process.

01
The Accessibility Hub — canonical org reference
I built a comprehensive accessibility hub that became the go-to reference for content designers, engineers, and PMs across the wearables org. It covered WCAG 2.1 requirements, EAA compliance, wearable-specific accessibility patterns, screen reader behavior on constrained devices, and content-specific guidance for alt text, error messages, and interactive labels. The hub was designed to be navigable by role — a PM could find what they needed without reading the whole thing.
02
Accessibility checklist — 90% adoption across the org
I created a content-specific accessibility checklist that content designers could use at every stage of the design process — not just at launch. The checklist covered alt text, error state language, interactive label clarity, heading hierarchy, and reading level. 90% of content designers surveyed found it beneficial. It was adopted across org levels, including by the Horizon team.
03
45 weekly accessibility tips
I published a weekly accessibility tip to the content design org — not as a formal training, but as a low-friction way to build accessibility knowledge over time. The tips covered everything from WCAG criteria to real examples from our own products. Over 45 weeks, they became a reference library that content designers bookmarked and shared.
04
Accessibility office hours — 20+ sessions
I ran dedicated accessibility office hours where content designers could bring specific questions, review copy for compliance, or get guidance on edge cases. The sessions were structured to be educational, not just advisory — so that every content designer who attended left with transferable knowledge, not just an answer to their immediate question.
05
Comma-Con talk — immediate standards impact
I presented a lightning talk on accessibility and "learn more" links at Comma-Con (Meta's internal content design conference). The talk led to an immediate reconsideration of existing guidance in our standards — a rare outcome for a lightning talk. It established my reputation as the go-to for accessibility best practices across the org.
06
Across org levels working group
I helped form the Across org levels accessibility working group that brought together content designers, engineers, and PMs from across the Reality Labs org. The group established shared standards, coordinated on EAA compliance timelines, and created a community of practice that outlasted any single project.

The document

What a canonical hub
actually looks like

The Accessibility Hub wasn't a document. It was a navigable resource designed to be useful to anyone in the org — a PM finding compliance requirements, a content designer checking a specific WCAG criterion, an engineer understanding what accessible copy looks like in practice. Four years after I built it, it's still the reference.

Screenshot of the Reality Labs Accessibility Hub — showing the hub header, TL;DR summary, Getting started section, and two-column resource cards for introductory accessibility resources and Reality Labs specific guidance
Reality Labs Accessibility Hub — internal resource, Meta

The tool

An interactive checklist
content designers could actually use

The Accessibility Hub told you what accessibility was. The checklist told you whether your content passed. I built this interactive Figma prototype so content designers could keep it open as a tab while writing — checking off WCAG criteria in real time, with links to deeper guidance for anything unclear. It covers content, navigation, non-text descriptions, error messages, structure, and inputs.

Screenshot of the Accessibility gut checklist for CDs — a Figma prototype showing six categories: Content, Navigation, Non-text content descriptions, Error messages, Structure and formatting, and Inputs, each with WCAG-based checklist items
Accessibility gut checklist for content designers — interactive Figma prototype

Built in Figma — internal tool, Meta

Impact

80% improvement in content designer confidence

The 80% improvement in content designer confidence for delivering accessible content wasn't a soft metric. It came from a structured survey of content designers before and after the Accessibility Hub launch — measuring how confident they felt making accessibility decisions independently, without needing to escalate.

Before the hub: most content designers reported low confidence in accessibility decisions, particularly around WCAG compliance and wearable-specific patterns. After: the majority reported high confidence and cited the hub and checklist as their primary resources.

The 29 bugs closed and 189 tasks resolved were the operational outcomes — the direct result of having a framework that made accessibility issues identifiable and actionable.

80%
content designer confidence improvement
Pre/post hub survey
90%
Checklist adoption
Across org levels including Horizon
29
accessibility bugs closed
189
Tasks resolved
Why it matters

Accessibility isn't a feature.
It's a foundation.

The European Accessibility Act came into force in 2025. Products that don't meet EAA requirements can't be sold in the EU. For a hardware product like a wrist wearable, that's not a compliance checkbox — it's a market access question.

I built the accessibility practice before EAA was a pressing concern. That meant when the compliance timeline became real, the org had a foundation to build on instead of starting from scratch. The Accessibility Hub, the checklist, the working group — all of it was already in place.

I didn't build the accessibility practice because it was assigned to me. I built it because I understood what was coming, and I saw the gap before anyone else named it.

"Ashlee presented a memorable and well-received lightning talk about accessibility and 'learn more' links at Comma-Con, which led to an immediate reconsideration of existing guidance in our standards. Your weekly tips and your part in forming a working group dedicated to accessibility practices across FRL have also established your reputation as a go-to for accessibility best practices in the org."

— Christine Mana, Manager
Outcome

The canonical reference, four years later

The Accessibility Hub I built is still the canonical reference for accessibility in Meta's wearables org. It's been updated, expanded, and adopted by teams I've never worked with directly. The checklist is still in use. The working group is still active.

That's the measure of infrastructure that works: it outlasts the person who built it.

What this proved
"Accessibility leadership isn't about shipping accessible copy. It's about building the systems that make accessibility the default — for every content design, on every product, whether or not you're in the room."
4 yrs
Accessibility Hub still canonical reference
Across org levels
Adopted beyond original team
EAA
Compliance foundation built