Foreword
This article was published initially in French on the website 24 jours de Web (24 days of Web), on December 13th 2025.
The Elves Oli Daynight and Any Goodcookie have been called into Santa’s office. Oli Daynight is the elf responsible for the design of the platform and Any Goodcookie is the accessibility expert, hired recently following Candy Canes’ recommendation.
The Elves enter Santa’s office. Everything is huge in Santa’s office, but they themselves are very tiny… of course they are, since they are Elves! Oli and Any therefore have to literally climb to be able to sit on the armchairs Santa is showing them. Oli grumbles, mumbling that those chairs are not very accessible to Elves.
“As you already know, we have worked on our corporate identity, ensuring it is both inclusive and accessible. We received a lot of mail from kids and their parents from all over the world, thanking us for the work we have done. We also had a lot of very good feedback from the Elves and from our toy suppliers. However, many mention that our platform is not accessible. What do you think? Where should we start with this?”
Santa sets both his elbows on his giant desk and settles his round face in his hands, arching an eyebrow.
Both Elves explain to Santa that the platform of the Christmas Factory is very dense, with numerous functionalities: some destined to their toy suppliers, others to the Elves of the Factory.
Oli Daynight explains that a good starting point would be to work on the components of the design system because they represent a good part of the elements used in the platform.
“What’s a design system?”, asks Santa, a little vexed, as usually, he’s the one who knows everything.
“In layman's terms, a design system is a set of components that are found repetitively across a website or an application. It allows to unify the design of those recurring components, and even to provide a coded version that designers and developers will be able to integrate to the pages.” explains Oli.
Any Goodcookie intervenes, explaining that it’s unfortunately not magical and that, although it is a good way to start, it won’t make the whole platform fully accessible instantly. To reach this goal, it will be necessary to also review the different pages, the rest of the components, and the interactions between each of them as well as between the pages. If the means allow it, then this work could be done in parallel. Else, it will need to be done afterwards.
Planning & Inventory
Oli and Any review what is necessary to put in place for this huge project.
Training the teams
Any insists on the fact that, before anything, it is important to set up a series of training sessions for the teams of Elves responsible for the design and development of the platform. The elf organises training sessions with Candy Canes for each job type (e.g.: elves that are designers, developers, project managers…).
Audit or immediate revamp?
Oli asks Any to audit the different components to evaluate the extent of the work to be done. After giving it some thought, Any doesn’t find it very efficient. Indeed, the components will need to be entirely reworked following the changes linked to the new corporate identity. In addition, considering the little time granted to them, it seems more pertinent to ensure the accessibility of the components directly from the beginning of their revamp.
Oli is not very convinced as it implies that there won’t be any traces left of the initial components, and with that, no way to know their initial accessibility level.
“True. But, if you think about it, you didn’t need to measure the height of the chair in Santa’s office before sitting on it, did you? You knew at a glance that it was high. Yet you climbed it anyway and comfortably sat on it, didn’t you? Well, it’s the same here. The step is high, but if we climb it directly, we will reach our goal more quickly. Then, we will be able to evaluate our level of accessibility and already know that we reached a relatively comfortable level.” explains Any Goodcookie with a wink.
With those arguments, the elf manages not only to convince her coworker, but also Santa: for him, the faster, the better! (And the cheaper, too, because an audit would cost him a lot in cookies and sweets…!)
Compliance or accessibility?
Any asks Oli and Santa if they would prefer:
- To comply strictly with accessibility guidelines, thus ensuring access without any major blocking issues to their users as well as compliance with multiple accessibility and inclusion laws across the world?
- Or to comply with accessibility guidelines, but also work further towards more accessibility and usability for proper comfort for all users?
Although all of them would rather go for the second option, the little time left before Christmas does not allow for this. Therefore, Oli suggests that they work to ensure compliance, all the while trying, through little touches here and there, notably on the design, to ensure better accessibility and usability, as long as it doesn’t require much additional work.
Once this decision is established, Any suggests to use the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) as main guidelines. Indeed, as the Christmas Factory works with toy suppliers across the world, it needs to follow a standard that is legally recognised across the world. Moreover, these guidelines were recently recognised as an ISO standard (ISO/IEC 40500).
In action
Integrating accessibility in the processes
Any explains to Oli and Santa that, to ensure the components are as accessible as possible, it is important for her to be involved at each and every step: from conception to development, as well as during the testing phase.
Gradually, Any becomes the designers’ and developers’ favorite elf. She’s always there to help them by sprinkling little bits of knowledge here, watching out for them with benevolence there, or even making new ideas spring to life and swirl in their minds…
Sprinkling little bits of knowledge
For each component, Any writes documentation including basic recommendations for designers and developers.
This documentation is available to all teams, not just for the design system team. Thus, other teams will be able to start making all custom components accessible based on the recommendations provided in this documentation.
Watching out with benevolence
To better support the elves, Any defines a set of control checkpoints at two levels.
As soon as designers and developers start to have something concrete to show, Any checks it out.
Often, this allows her:
- to immediately help correct the biggest accessibility issues;
- to immediately spot frustration points disabled users may encounter — for example, when facing a component that is too complex;
- or, to spot functional or technical accessibility issues.
She also checks their work right before the final validation of each step, in order to ensure nothing was forgotten.
Test Phases
Any and Oli would have loved to have organised user testing sessions with various disabled users of the Factory’s platform as well as disabled elves and Toy suppliers.
“We don’t have enough time with Christmas approaching fast! We will be able to do it after Christmas, as an improvement phase.” says Santa. “The toys I create are never perfect at first! I observe kids playing with them over the first year to improve them the next year. Let’s do the same in this case.” he adds with a wink.
Any explains that the test phase is important when it comes to accessibility. All the more since the Christmas Factory does not have a QA team, which implies designers and developers often use the “peer review” technique, asking the other members of their teams to test out their work.
Any has the idea to create shared testing sessions that she calls “In their slippers” where designers and developers meet to test their peer’s work and test its accessibility.
To that end, Any proposes a few magical test ideas:
- A red and green powder that simulates some types of color blindness and visual impairments;
- A rainbow-colored powder to make the code-based accessibility errors stand out;
- A magical keyboard that prevents the mouse from functioning;
- A golden powder that makes your computer speak…
Any also provides them with a checklist of various things they should check during the sessions.
Conclusion
We’re now in November, and Christmas is right around the corner. Santa summons Oli Daynight and Any Goodcookie again so they may explain where the project is at.
The elves revel: almost all the components of the design system have been revised and are now mostly accessible.
Even if the platform isn’t fully accessible yet, good efforts have been made and the design system’s components provide a solid foundation for the accessibility of the platform. Processes defined by Any have paid off, and the “In their slippers” sessions have also brought an unforeseen perk: it has allowed the teams to learn more and further their knowledge of accessibility!
Indeed, the hands-on approach, as well as Any’s daily advice, have allowed the teams to find new solutions, test further, and to learn much more than they had during their initial training.
Throughout the year, some of the other design and development teams’ elves have followed suit and have contacted Any to ask her help to improve some of the pages they manage in the platform.
Santa is extremely happy to see that Christmas magic is operating at all levels thanks to the drive and enthusiasm of elves for accessibility!
However, he remains well aware there is still work remaining and steps to follow for the platform of the Christmas Factory to be fully accessible. He has assured Any Goodcookie that next year, everyone in the factory will buckle up for the remaining work — he has already informed Lena Candelight, the elf responsible for the whole platform (Oli’s manager) about it. But he has also assured Any that he would love to organise those user tests Any had talked about. Any is glad and she already knows she will recommend Molly Chamalow for the job!
Author’s notes:
- Many many thanks to my little elf Eléa for the illustrations!🥰
- Many thanks as well to Corey Psoinos for proof reading this article!🧐
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