Accessibility and Inclusion in Design Practice - Swedish Perspectives on the European Accessibility Act

Even though standards and legislation exist to improve digital accessibility, their implementation depends on how accessibility is negotiated within everyday design practice. This study was conducted in Sweden in spring 2024, before the European Accessibility Act (EAA) became applicable, to investigate how UX/UI designers incorporated accessibility into their work and perceived forthcoming legal requirements. We conducted 11 semi-structured interviews with UX/UI designers and subsequently consulted two accessibility experts in two asynchronous rounds to evaluate and complement the interview-derived themes. Our findings show that designers frequently take on an informal accessibility advocacy and brokerage role: they educate colleagues and clients, translate accessibility requirements into design practice, seek external expertise, and repeatedly keep accessibility on the project agenda. However, they often lack authority over the budgets, timelines, staffing, and organizational priorities that determine whether accessibility is implemented. We conceptualize this tension as a responsibility–authority gap and show how it is produced through interactions between individual practice, organizational conditions, education, standards, and legislation. Based on these findings, we present empirically informed recommendations at micro, meso, and macro levels.