Accessibility Must Be Usable—Not Just Conformant

April 15, 2026·22 min·1 clip

Aileen Hackett warns that AI trained on inaccessible code may produce more inaccessible code.

1. Digital Accessibility examines how Aileen Hackett approaches usable accessibility beyond formal conformance. 2. Joe Walensky hosts Aileen Hackett, ServiceNow’s Director of Product Management for Accessibility, whose team works across the company’s platform and products. 3. The episode asks how organizations can make accessibility part of usable product development rather than treating it only as compliance. 4. Hackett says ServiceNow distinguishes WCAG conformance from whether products are usable for people with disabilities. 5. ServiceNow requires more than 20,000 employees to complete accessibility training annually. 6. ServiceNow’s Accessibility Center of Excellence includes partners from engineering, design, and UX research. 7. A confidential volunteer panel gives feedback on new features from employees with disabilities and allies. 8. Hackett began as a software engineer before moving into product management and design systems. 9. Junior engineer Tally Marcus invited Hackett to the Bay Area accessibility camp organized by Jenison Asuncion. 10. At that conference, a blind screen-reader user demonstrated how a carousel made a web page difficult to access. 11. Hackett recommends talking with people who are deaf, blind, or have limited physical mobility to understand software pain points. 12. ServiceNow shifted accessibility earlier in the software development life cycle instead of leaving it to defect testing. 13. About four years before the interview, ServiceNow placed accessibility in the product organization with a roadmap for improvements. 14. Hackett says innovation days and customer feedback have produced ideas that moved toward delivery. 15. A customer with a visual disability proposed an idea that ServiceNow implemented. 16. Hackett advises accessibility leaders to connect the work to priorities such as AI, sales opportunities, and user experience. 17. Hackett says AI may help through summarization, cognitive assistance, and voice tools that can understand accents or stutters. 18. A session at the CSUN conference in Anaheim raised both positive reactions and concerns about AI for the deaf-blind community. 19. The interview uses a practical, collaborative format focused on workplace processes, product development, and emerging technology. 20. Accessibility practitioners and product teams will find the operational examples most relevant.

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