Across organizations, accessibility often feels like an add-on-tacked on post-launch, after the budget runs dry, or once someone spots a missing dusty corner. It’s treated like a checkbox, a quick patch. But just like you wouldn’t layer on user experience after building your product, accessibility must be part of the design DNA from day one, or you’re always chasing what should never have been broken.
At a recent Venngage Roundtable, three experts, Roy Samuelson, Ashley Coffey, and Dr. Vera Roberts, didn’t hand out to-do lists. They shifted our lens. The real work is “culture.”
Accessibility Isn’t a Fix. It’s a Feeling.
Roy Samuelson reframes it beautifully: “Accessibility isn’t just functional. It’s emotional.” When Roy crafts his audio description performances for film and tv, it’s not a dry description, reading words off the page. It’s an emotional bridge, an invitation. The script might say “She turns. He exits.” but that isn’t enough. It’s what intent he and other performers bring: what was her hesitation? How did the room hold its breath?
Accessibility is belonging, feeling the story as deeply as any sighted audience. Perfection isn’t ticking boxes, it’s weaving experience.
Culture Starts with the Questions You Ask
Ashley Coffey sees the structural side, the systems and roles that push companies from checklist to culture. Her guiding line? “Everyone has a role in accessibility.” It’s not reserved for UX or compliance, but for product, HR, engineering, procurement. Her mantra: don’t wait for perfect. “Get to 80%, and iterate.” Empower, don’t persuade. Shift from “How do we comply?” to “How do we lead?”
If You Impact Others, You’re a Designer
Dr. Vera Roberts dropped this like a reset button: “If your work changes the experience of another person, you’re a designer.” Whether you draft emails, manage workflows, or shape onboarding, those ARE design decisions. They’re also opportunities for accessibility. But that kind of cultural shift needs resources. That means compensating ERG members, setting time for inclusive design, and weaving accessibility into performance frameworks. You measure whether people felt valued along the way beyond “outcomes.”
Design It In-or Design It Twice
The message from all three is clear: accessibility doesn’t tuck in later without cost-financial, emotional, reputational. Roy shared stories of AD being squeezed in post-production, and the moment to shape narrative immersion is gone. Ashley reminded us that unpaid ERGs lose their power. Vera highlighted how saying “we need to be accessible” still frames it as a burden. But when accessibility is treated like product design, it’s purpose-driven. It’s iterative. It’s fueled by input. It’s built-not retrofitted.
Your Culture Lives in the Questions You Ask
So how do you know you’ve made the shift? It’s your language.
Are your teams asking:
“What’s just enough to pass?”
Or:
“What would feel seamless to someone with low vision?”
Are you waiting for exec sign-off?
Or:
Are people empowered to lead where they are?
Is accessibility a “requirement?”
Or:
A value that sharpens your product, builds trust, strengthens your story?
Culture evolves from small choices. Once the shift starts, it doesn’t stop.
P.S. Accessible Design Isn’t a “Decoration.” You Build Accessibility.
Culture is shaped by decisions. Accessibility shows up when onboarding decks frame it as strategy, not afterthought. When disabled audiences are expert voices.
This is a design imperative.
See the difference between:
“Are you accessible?”
and
“Are you designing like you mean it?”
Big thanks to Venngage for creating a space where conversations like this deepen. Their roundtable was a gathering of sharp minds pushing past compliance into culture, where accessibility is a design value. If you were in the room, you felt it. If you weren’t, this is your invitation to start where they left off.
Want to Go Deeper?
A Voice Actor’s Guide to Audio Description Performance at roysamuelson.com/book is a cultural blueprint, showing how AD becomes immersive narrative, not just compliance. It’s already guiding studios, training programs, and strategy teams.
If you care about storytelling, design, or culture? this is your next move.
Read it, live it, build with it.