Panel: Barriers to Implementation of Accessibility Research in Industry Practice – and Vice Versa

As public policy advances the rights of people with disabilities, and as corporations begin to recognize disabled people as core market segments, industry practice in accessible technology design and development improves day by day. Yet, as with other research domains there are lags and gaps in the implementation of accessibility between the lab and industry practice. In this panel, we describe multiple barriers to collaboration between academia and industry and how these barriers manifest as issues in implementation of research findings in industry and lack of adoption of best practices in academia, and vice versa. We then discuss how these specific cases complicate the imagined divide between academic and industry approaches to accessibility. How can notions of accessibility be expanded in both contexts to include overlooked dimensions like ethics, dark patterns, and cognition? This discussion moves towards more inclusive, impactful, and actionable accessibility practices across industry, academia, and public policy.