A Q&A with ERI’s Chief Accessibility Strategist, Christine Serdjenian Yearwood
Q: What are feedback loops?
Feedback loops are the repetitive practice of gathering information from users and implementing changes to improve a design and/or service. When I was a teacher, we did this with our students all the time! You can think of it as a quiz or survey – you want to know if someone can’t meet a goal or complete an assignment, because it’s your job to change how you’re delivering the information to them if so. If even a subset of students don’t respond the way you expected or wanted, you have to make adjustments to the process on your end.
Q: Why should I take the time to set up feedback loops?
Engaging in feedback loops will give you information to create a better user experience and drive business; in a recent Level Access survey, 81% of organizational respondents said customer satisfaction is a key area where digital accessibility contributes to improved business performance. For you, that could mean making sure all of your visitors are able to complete check out in Shopify, successfully fill out a form online, or attend a conference on your campus.
Q: When should you set up and use feedback loops?
First, an initial feedback loop should be put in place to test interactions and identify barriers for developers, designers, and planners. You can think of this as a more internal and early loop. In the recent Level Access webinar I referenced earlier with CEO Tim Springer and CMO Ian Lowe, they call this practice “shifting left,” or encouraging a mentality of “building it in, not building it on.”
Consider these two examples:
When ERI is building a website, we’re looking to conduct authentic user testing in early phases of development, especially hiring testers with disabilities to test our designs long before they go live. Building in a feedback loop like this will save you time and money later on, because you’ll have fewer changes to make retrospectively, or plug-ins and products to try to layer on.
Or, if you’re planning an event, ask what accommodations people need during registration — to prepare before they arrive. If you don’t ask these questions ahead of time, you have to scramble to try to accommodate them with band-aid solutions. You might even find you have no way to provide them what they need on the spot, thereby offering an unequal or discriminatory experience.
More publicly and broadly after the product or service has been launched, it is important to put continuous feedback loops into place for ongoing adjustments and improvements. Both digitally and physically, things are constantly updated, standards change, new vendors and products are added, and actual users are engaging on an ongoing basis.
Q: What are some best practices for continuous feedback loops?
There are so many! I’ll narrow it down to five.
Establish systems to collect and process feedback. Organizations that address accessibility in planning are two times more likely to report improved customer retention and over two times more likely to report improved revenue.
Have a standard process for intake of information, routing concerns, and what do about them. When information is collected haphazardly (even with the best of intentions), it falls through the cracks. A single person or team should be responsible for collecting, coordinating and sending all feedback to the development team or those who can make changes, and should also own the metrics for progress. When the feedback has been implemented by various parties, the loop is considered closed; this person or team opens a new one to meet changing user needs and compliance standards, or improve updates.
Collect maximum feedback with multiple accessible methods. This can include:
- Social media inboxes or polls,
- Targeted emails,
- Intake forms,
- Surveys online, by phone, or in-person,
- Focus groups,
- Internal audits, and more.
Use technology where you can. Automated reporting tools like WAVE, AXE, Lighthouse, DubBot, marker.ieo, and HotJar can be helpful to identify and solve technical accessibility issues. ChatGPT can save you time and resources, and AI may help with automated user testing.
But remember, nothing can completely replace actual people. Jutta Treviranus, PhD, Director of the Inclusive Design Research Centre at Ontario College of Art and Design University, presented some great research at HighEdWeb’s recent Accessibility Summit. At one point, she explained that AI automation can underserve people with disabilities, because its algorithms and prompts are based on mainstream users. When I tested automated chat bots on a few of our client sites, indeed they could not answer some of my questions about accessibility itself at these institutions. So, the lesson here is that along with technology, always include manual user testing sessions AND provide a real human as an alternative way for users to provide feedback.
Modify and add as is feasible. It’s very easy to feel overwhelmed by the amount of feedback you receive. Look for trends. And try to figure out if changes you intend to make to assist one group of people will hinder accessibility for another before moving forward. Keep ideas and information institutionalized for the future, for if/when additional resources become available.
Be transparent and accountable. People get frustrated to have given their opinions and shared difficult, often personal experiences if they don’t ever hear anything back after they take the time to submit their feedback. Provide internal and external updates on changes you’re making. Respond to individual and group feedback whether or not you’re able to make adjustments or improvements. Explain rationale where you can.
Q: Any final thoughts on feedback loops we didn’t touch on?
We engage with feedback loops all the time without thinking twice – asking our friends why they couldn’t come to an event, reading reviews online, even being asked to scan a QR code to rate the customer service experience after we mail something at the post office! I bet you’re already using feedback loops on some level at your institution or in your company to get information and make decisions and changes as well. So take a minute: Where do you already incorporate feedback loops in your role? How will you improve them if so? Where can you add them if not? And keep going! It’s a process with no finish line, but every change you make moves us all forward.
