Building a Culture of Accessibility: Shelby Mitchell, Discover

The Gist

• Shelby's personal connection: Shelby Mitchell's journey into digital accessibility is driven by her personal experience with her son who has multiple disabilities.
• Inclusive culture at Discover: Discover's culture prioritizes accessibility, emphasizing genuine inclusion supported from the top down, aligning well with the company's customer-first values.
• Collaborative accessibility efforts: At Discover, accessibility is a collaborative effort across various teams, involving extensive research and feedback from individuals with disabilities to ensure inclusive digital experiences.

Episode Highlights

1. Shelby's Personal Connection to Accessibility (2:50): Shelby shares her journey into digital accessibility, motivated by her personal experience with her son who has multiple disabilities.
2. Shelby's Personal Story and Its Impact (3:30): Shelby describes how her son's use of a communication device has shaped her focus on creating inclusive digital experiences, considering his future needs as a potential user.
3. Discover's Accessibility Culture (5:56): Discover prioritizes accessibility, not just for compliance but to genuinely create inclusive experiences, supported from the top down.
4. Collaborative Efforts Across Teams (6:37): Accessibility at Discover is a team effort, involving extensive collaboration across various departments, ensuring accessibility is integrated into every project.
5. User Feedback on Vision Disabilities Project (12:36): Early research with users with vision disabilities revealed that Discover's initial assumptions were incorrect, underscoring the importance of direct user feedback.
6. Iterative Process of Accessibility (15:03): Discover follows a "listen, learn, adapt, create" model for accessibility, continuously improving based on user feedback and research.
7. Vision for Future Accessibility (15:49): Shelby's vision includes enhancing design systems and expanding research projects to build more robust and inclusive digital experiences.
8. Importance of Research Projects (17:44): Ongoing research projects involving individuals with disabilities are crucial for Discover to understand and address accessibility challenges effectively.
9. Building Accessible Design Systems (15:49): Ensuring that design systems at Discover are set up with accessible components as building blocks is essential for creating inclusive digital experiences.
10. Shelby's Passion and Dedication (17:44): Shelby's passion for continuous improvement in accessibility is evident as she shares her plans for the future and the importance of building robust design systems. 

Editor's note: This podcast transcript was edited for clarity.

Dom Nicastro, CMSWire managing editor: Hello, everyone, and welcome to today's CX Decoded podcast. I'm Dom Nicastro, CMSWire managing editor. In this episode, we'll be diving into a fascinating conversation I had with Shelby Mitchell, senior manager of digital accessibility at Discover. This interview was part of our CMSWire TV series show, The Digital Experience. We have many programs within that CMSWire TV series, and we hope you check it out. My particular show is The Digital Experience, and I was honored to catch up with Shelby, who shared a remarkable story of personal dedication and professional expertise in the critical field of digital accessibility.

I pulled out five key takeaways from my interview with Shelby, highlighting her commitment and the incredible work she's doing.

First, though, I wanted to note that this topic is super timely for May 2024. It's always timely, right? Because we need to build these digitally inclusive experiences. But May 16 was Global Accessibility Awareness Day, recognized by an organization called the WPI Hub. We're having a very timely conversation here, folks. That organization noted that 1 billion people worldwide have disabilities.

Forrester researchers checked in with CMSWire a while ago and noted that only 39% of businesses in North America indicated accessibility is a formal requirement on projects, and a mere 29% gather feedback from people with disabilities on their projects. We need to do better.

The good news is that there are people like Shelby Mitchell out there leading the way and doing better every day. So let's get into our takeaways from the Digital Experience show on CMSWire TV with Shelby Mitchell of Discover.

Takeaway 1: Personal Commitment to Accessibility

Dom: My first takeaway is Shelby's deep personal commitment to accessibility. Her journey is driven by personal experience that fueled her passion for creating inclusive digital spaces. Her personal story is truly inspiring. Her commitment to accessibility isn't just professional, it's deeply personal. You'll find out why in a sec. This dedication is evident when she talks about her son and how his experiences have shaped her professional path.

Shelby: I have a child with disabilities. He's seven years old, and he had a stroke in utero. So he has cerebral palsy, epilepsy, and something called apraxia of speech. He has many diagnoses, and we're still very early in his journey with disabilities. I really wanted to figure out a way to merge my customer experience and marketing experience with digital experience and my personal life. So I started getting into universal design, inclusive design, and digital accessibility during COVID, when we weren't driving around and were all in lockdown. That's when I started digging in deep. Ultimately, I put together a proposal to make it a unique function within Discover.

It became its own function, and now we have a small team. It's really exciting to see how things have grown and evolved and the excitement within Discover around the work we're doing. My son is pre-verbal; he could still develop speech, like what we're doing now. But in the meantime, he leverages a communication device. It has pictures and words, and he taps on them to put together short phrases and sentences. So, when he's old enough to open a credit card or checking account, what will that digital experience look like for him? Will he be able to engage with a website or mobile app as they are currently designed? If he needs customer support, will he be able to communicate what he needs or where he's struggling? And will the agent be able to communicate back?

Right now, we're focused on making our website and mobile app accessible, but other teams are also doing a lot of work.

Related Article: Empowering Accessibility: Discover's Story of Inclusivity in the Digital Age

Takeaway 2: Building an Inclusive Culture at Discover

Dom: Shelby's personal experience is incredible and touching. My second takeaway is about how Discover has built a culture that prioritizes accessibility, doing better than the majority, according to Forrester Research. This isn't just about compliance; it's about creating genuinely inclusive experiences. Shelby talks about how Discover’s culture supports and promotes accessibility from the top down. This kind of environment is essential for making real progress in digital accessibility.

Shelby: Discover has a culture of putting the customer first and enabling our customers to have brighter financial futures. Our culture is already in the right place; broadening that view to include accessibility ties in well with our existing culture. Culture is a huge part of making gains in accessibility. We've had meetings with our executive team to share the work we're doing, and they're very supportive. Many leaders within our organization are also supportive because of the culture that attracted them to Discover. When you don't have a personal connection to disability, it can be challenging to understand how big the population is and the types of disabilities people have.

Takeaway 3: Collaborative Efforts Across Teams

Dom: Accessibility, like most corporate initiatives, must start at the top. That support is critical. My third takeaway is about collaborative efforts across teams. At Discover, accessibility is truly a team effort. Making digital spaces accessible requires a collaborative approach, and many people are involved. Shelby emphasizes how different teams work together to ensure accessibility is built into every project.

Shelby: We work and consult with our development teams, design teams, and design system and common component teams. Digital accessibility is a multi-touchpoint approach. If you don't have an accessible design, developers can't create an accessible experience. It starts with design and research. When we're developing concepts for a digital experience, whether for a website or mobile app, we ensure we're pulling in individuals with various disabilities to understand what works and what doesn't and adjust the design and development accordingly. We also have our universal design advisory board at Discover, which includes employees with disabilities, parents, family members, and friends of individuals with disabilities.

The board provides a gut check to teams before they do more fleshed-out usability or consumer insights testing. The advisory board leverages their personal experiences to provide feedback on what works well and what doesn't, suggesting adjustments in colors, content, and other elements. The board started by recruiting people from our employee resource groups, and our projects have grown over the years.

Related Article: 4 Principles for Accessible Web Design & Digital Experiences

Takeaway 4: Putting Feedback Into Action

Dom: That board is a powerful way to hear directly from the affected community, those with disabilities. Crafting  requires this kind of input from the target audience. As an editor, finding content that resonates with specific people in specific roles with specific challenges is crucial.

The fourth takeaway is about how Discover conducted early research with users with vision disabilities on one project and learned that its initial assumptions were incorrect. This highlights the necessity of direct feedback from the target audience. This insight not only improves the physical product design but also expands into creating more accessible digital solutions.

Shelby: We were researching the best physical product for users with vision disabilities. We had a hypothesis, shared it with users, and they said it didn't work for them. Because we did this research at the very beginning, we learned a lot. This is a perfect case study of why you have to ask people with disabilities what works and what doesn't, because your assumptions could be totally wrong. Ours were.

The research evolved the conversation. We leveraged existing products to categorize them differently, making it easier for users to find what they need. This expanded to how we convey that in the digital space. The digital aspect is still in progress, but it's exciting to see that work spark other conversations.

Related Article: Why Web Accessibility Is Crucial for Brand Customer Experience 

Takeaway 5: Vision for the Future of Accessibility

Dom: It's incredible to see all that research feedback and iterations on creating these experiences. It's a listen, learn, adapt, and create model, constantly evolving based on feedback.

My fifth and final takeaway is about Shelby's vision for the future of accessibility at Discover. She talks about the ongoing efforts and future goals to enhance digital inclusion. Her passion for continuous improvement in accessibility is evident. She shares her plans for the future and the importance of building robust design systems and expanding research projects.

Shelby: We are just getting started, even though we've been on this journey for 10, 15, or 20 years. The most important thing is ensuring our design systems are set up to create accessible components, the building blocks, so that our design and development teams have a good starting point. Having that built out into a strong library is essential. Another big focus is continuing to build the number of research projects with our consumer insights team, involving individuals with disabilities. Listening to research and understanding how someone leverages their technology is powerful. Until people see and experience through observation where someone is struggling or succeeding, it's hard to grasp. Seeing that makes a light bulb go off, and it's like, "Oh, now I get it." Those are the two biggest things we're focusing on this year, though there are many more.

Dom: So there you have it. Five key takeaways from my conversation with Shelby Mitchell on the CMSWire TV series, The Digital Experience. Her personal passion and professional dedication to digital accessibility are super inspiring. Discover is fortunate to have such a committed advocate leading their efforts. I can't think of a better person for this role.

Thank you for tuning into this episode of CX Decoded. We are a monthly show, and check out our CMSWire TV series. We do multiple shows a month. My colleagues have a show called Beyond the Call on customer service and support. There's also CMO Circle, focused on the chief marketing officer and the future of that role. You can hear Shelby's full video interview on our May 1 chat on The Digital Experience show. If you enjoyed it, please share your feedback with your network, and stay tuned for more insightful discussions. Until next time, I'm Dom Nicastro, and this is CX Decoded. Take care.

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