Reimagining Digital Accessibility: From Compliance to Collective Responsibility at King's Digital Lab

Digital accessibility is often seen as a compliance issue, but King’s Digital Lab’s experience shows it is deeply rooted in human connection, team dynamics, and strategic thinking. We share our current approach to embedding accessibility within research software projects. Informed by years of learning and feedback, the updated process is designed to be both practical and collaborative, ensuring accessibility is actively considered across software development roles and project phases, encouraging shared ownership across disciplines. In 2023, we formed a dedicated accessibility team involving a designer, engineer, and project manager to lead a procedural shift. The approach builds on lessons learnt from previous efforts and is structured around our Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC), supported by shared documentation and visual artefacts, with stages aligned to clearly defined roles and responsibilities. The process was trialed on active projects to test its usability, refine documentation, and identify areas for improvement within ongoing project workflows. This iterative rollout ensured the approach stayed responsive to real team needs, while encouraging open feedback and continuous refinement. We focused on building a process that promotes engagement, adaptability, and sustained momentum over rigid compliance. The poster outline key principles and elements that shaped our process, offering RSE teams to reflect on, adapt, or build upon in their own contexts. Our process begins by prioritising accessibility requirements using the MoSCoW method, followed by scoping with the project team. Assessments and fixes are integrated continuously during development. Fixes are documented in GitHub; unresolved issues, tools, and methods are recorded in the accessibility statement when needed. We welcome feedback, collaboration, and insights from others exploring inclusive, process-based strategies for accessibility in technical and research-focused environments. Our goal is to foster accessible outputs through approaches that are inclusive not just of users, but of the research software teams that create them. Acknowledgements The contributions of the King’s Digital Lab team members involved in the trial projects, as well as the valuable feedback and insights from all contributors, are gratefully acknowledged in the development of the current digital accessibility approach.