Digital accessibility and inclusive design
Building inclusive and accessible digital services that work for everyone
Accessible and inclusive design ensures that everyone can use the products and services we create. Hippo helps you embed inclusivity and accessibility at all stages of development, ensuring a diverse spectrum of users can get the most out of your product or service.
What is digital accessibility?
Digital accessibility means designing and building digital products and services so that everyone – regardless of disability, device or context – can use them effectively.
It’s not just a legal requirement – it’s a design quality standard that benefits every single user.
- 1 in 5 people in the UK have a disability
- 98% of home pages have WCAG failures
- £274 billion: the spending power of disabled people
What is inclusive design?
Inclusive design ensure that the diverse needs, backgrounds, and perspectives of users are considered at all stages. This includes protected characteristics, like race and age, plus factors like socio-economic background.
Why digital accessibility matters
Digital accessibility is not optional - it is a legal duty, a commercial opportunity, and the right thing to do
The Public Sector Bodies Accessibility Regulations 2018 require all public sector websites and apps to meet WCAG AA.
Inaccessible services exclude 1 in 5 potential users. Accessible design improves usability for everyone, reduces support costs, and protects your organisation from legal risk.
People with disabilities deserve equal access to information and services. Inclusive design is human-centered design - it reflects an organisation’s values and commitment to its users.
Accessibility services and inclusive design solutions
Accessibility audit and assessment
We combine automated scanning, expert manual testing and assistive technology checks to give you a complete picture of your accessibility position.
- Expert-led WCAG review: Manual testing against WCAG 2.2 AA and AAA criteria by experienced specialists, producing a prioritised issue log
- Assistive technology testing: Real-world testing with VoiceOver, NVDA, Narrator and ZoomText across browsers and platforms
- Automated and manual testing: Axe, Lighthouse and bespoke tooling surface quick wins; expert review uncovers the issues automation misses
Design for inclusion
Accessibility shaped into every design decision - not bolted on later. We work inside your design system to build patterns that are inclusive by default.
- Colour, contrast and typography: Designing to WCAG AA contrast ratios, scalable type systems and colour palettes that work for colour-blind users
- Focus management and keyboard flow: Every journey completable by keyboard. Logical tab order, visible focus indicators and skip navigation built in from the start
- Inclusive component libraries: GOV.UK Design System patterns, ARIA roles and landmark structure baked into Figma components and coded design tokens
Accessibility upskilling and training
Too often, accessibility is owned by a single specialist. We build organisation-wide capability so accessibility becomes everyone’s responsibility
- Accessibility Champions programme: We embed champions within delivery teams - equipping designers, developers and testers with the knowledge to catch issues early
- Tailored workshops: Role-specific training: accessible design patterns for UX teams, semantic HTML and ARIA for engineers and developers
Our experts are ready to support your ambitions
Whether you have a clear brief or are just starting to explore a new idea, we can help you find the best path forward.
Our team is ready to support you through:
- Explore your requirements: Let's discuss your high-level ideas to identify and shape the key requirements for your project.
- Workshops and discovery: We'll collaborate with you to define the scope and vision, ensuring a clear and shared understanding from the start.
- Maturity assessments: We can help you understand your current capabilities, pinpointing areas for improvement and future growth.
