Team Training

As Manager of the Frontline Design System team at T-Mobile, I led a cross-functional team of 12 direct reports: 2 Product Managers, a Scrum Master, 3 Designers, 5 Developers, and 1 Principal Researcher. Together, we held a complete upskilling effort to make every team member an accessibility advocate. Each role was required to complete the Accessibility Resource Center's (ARC) accessibility certification, and new consultants were onboarded with advanced accessibility as a core expectation. This established a foundation of shared expertise across design, research, and development.

Design System Audit

Partnering with iOS and web experts from the ARC team, we audited our legacy libraries and found that every code component required updates to meet WCAG 2.1 AA standards. While the scope was daunting, it also created an opportunity to shift our custom iOS library toward native SwiftUI, leveraging Apple’s built-in accessibility features. On the design side, we were in a stronger position, with only about 30% of Figma components needing updates to align with best practices

For example, a holistic look at colors revealed a conflict

Plan and Prioritization

Because the scope was extensive and our team could only dedicate 20 percent of each sprint, I worked with our PMs to create a strategic roadmap focused on the highest impact. We prioritized by:

1. Frequency of component use.

2. Alignment with active product builds.

3. Effort-to-impact ratio

Because component usage data wasn’t historically tracked, to make data-driven decisions, one of our developers created a script that analyzed component usage across product teams’ codebases. This visibility allowed us to deprecate unused components, which reduced the effort and made libraries easier to navigate. We also met with partner Retail and Care PMs to align priorities with upcoming initiatives, identifying a major iOS rebuild as our first focus, ensuring we directly supported their most urgent needs.

Execution and Delivery

I organized a planning session where leads gave story point estimates for effort/impact, then we packaged the iOS work into three stages.

• Small effort/large impact bundle
  Design and code issues, prioritized based on usage with releases every two weeks. Key areas included:

  • Higher color contrast

  • Secondary visual indicators

  • Ever-present labels 

  • Behaviors and code compliant with screen readers

  • Keyboard navigation improvements for those affected by the above. 

• Landscape parity
  Since 95% of store reps used iPads in portrait mode, applications were only optimized for that. However, this created barriers for wheelchair users, who often mount devices in landscape. Components and large patterns must be optimized for both portrait and landscape.
  

• Keyboard navigation
  All components enable the ability to navigate and accomplish tasks solely with the keyboard with minimal input from consuming teams.

Application Audit

While the team addressed iOS accessibility, I audited T-Mobile’s call center web apps using evaluation tools, visual inspection, and code review for semantic and ARIA elements (Yay for background in development!).  Frontline leaders hadn’t historically considered WCAG AA compliance for internal tools since they faced less legal pressure, but I knew senior leadership needed to understand how inaccessible tools were hindering T-Mobile; without their support, accessibility wouldn’t become a standard.

Validate

Meanwhile, our Principal Researcher advocated for and took the lead on the creation of a Usability Testing Panel. She worked with Human Resources, engaging both the disability employee network and HR’s accessibility support team to recruit volunteers with diverse needs while honoring privacy. This panel became a resource for ALL of digital, to do quick testing with people who use assistive technologies.

To make accessibility excellence a part of our DNA, I established standardized testing protocols that included

• Accessibility acceptance criteria in user stories.

• Peer and ARC coach reviews for design and code.

• Automated testing is integrated early in development.

• Manual keyboard and screen reader validation.

• Final testing with the accessibility panel.

External Education

I worked with my PMs to scale awareness beyond our team. As we made progress on our libraries, we proactively leveraged existing opportunities (Learning Days, Lunch & Learns, organization forums) to share the accessibility message across the organization. We also provided role-specific guidance to PMs, devs, and designers from consuming teams.

To influence senior decision-makers, I secured time at the weekly Frontline Technology Leadership meeting to present four key topics:

1. Inaccessible tools created hiring barriers and legal exposure.

2. The accessibility status of each major frontline application.

3. The built-in accessibility within our component code library.

4. The teams had tasks even with accessible components, for application accessibility.

These steps ensured every release met our accessibility goals and could be verified through measurable outcomes.