Objective

As a government-funded organization, the California State Lottery is required to comply with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). Ensuring accessibility is not just a legal obligation—it’s a commitment to inclusivity, allowing all users, including those with disabilities, to navigate and interact with the site effectively. However, the existing website had accessibility gaps that needed to be addressed to meet WCAG 2.1 standards.

Find and remediate

Prioritize fixes

Collaboration on soltutions

Build robust documentation for teams

Case Study

Customer Pain Points

Inaccessibility causes legal risk

Screenreader issues

Poor implementation of aria labels

Ensure fixes don't impact design quality

updated

Components

I create responsive, dynamic, and flexible components to work across devices and lines of business.

Information Architecture

Helping users find the best information with the right context for them to accomplish their goals.

Prototype Testing

These are critical in communicating internally and externally to ensure high levels of satisfaction across the business and customer base.

Customer Journey

Depicting the human interactions across every aspect of the business allows for cross-department learning and clarity for areas of improvement.

creating

The Solution

The Challenge

The biggest hurdle was the scale of the audit. The California State Lottery website was large, and with a limited time and scope budget, we needed to efficiently assess accessibility issues and devise a remediation plan. The challenge was twofold:

Audit – Quickly identify non-compliant elements across the entire site.
Remediate – Develop a clear, prioritized plan to bring the site up to WCAG 2.1 compliance while staying within the constraints of budget and timeline.

The Approach

Automated & Manual Auditing – We leveraged automated testing tools to flag obvious WCAG 2.1 violations while conducting a thorough manual review to catch issues that automated tools often miss, such as keyboard navigation, color contrast, and screen reader compatibility.
Prioritized Action Plan – Given the time constraints, we categorized issues by severity and user impact, ensuring that the most critical accessibility barriers were resolved first.
Cross-Team Collaboration – Worked closely with developers, content managers, and stakeholders to implement quick fixes while developing a long-term strategy for maintaining compliance.
Future-Proofing for WCAG 2.2 – While addressing WCAG 2.1, we proactively incorporated WCAG 2.2 best practices to ensure long-term compliance and avoid future accessibility debt.

The Results

The California State Lottery website is now a fully WCAG 2.1 and 2.2 compliant digital experience. The improvements not only met legal requirements but also enhanced usability for all visitors, creating a more inclusive and equitable user experience. This project demonstrated how accessibility can be integrated efficiently, even within tight constraints, proving that compliance and great UX go hand in hand.

October 18, 2024