Accessibrand

Who We Are

We are an accessibility focused design, marketing, and communication agency that is a collective of professionals all impacted by disability in their lives.

We provide user testing with real people (where software fails) and accessible document remediation.

We also offer training seminars for teams. We have trained other marketing firms and various government departments.

Why We Are Involved

I (Jolene MacDonald) owned another design agency previously for close to 15 years, and I’ve been a graphic designer for over 20.

When my youngest daughter was born with Dwarfism, I started heavily advocating for her. I was beginning to notice just how inaccessible my own industry really could be, finding myself getting frustrated with clients at my old job who didn’t seem to take my concerns about this issue seriously. I liked my job, and I liked the industry, but the projects I was working on didn’t feel like they had any real purpose. They weren’t creating a positive impact on the world, they weren’t changing lives for the better.

My heart has always been into social good, and I needed something that would allow for that.

My life also became pretty overwhelming at this point. The three kids, one with a lot of medical needs, two with all sorts of struggles of their own, and I started experiencing chronic pain, fatigue, memory issues at the same time. I really wasn’t doing well. I was struggling. Call it a mental breakdown or just the universe screaming at me, but something needed to change.

You can read my full story.

Accessibility Initiatives

Because we are completely focused on accessibility—everything we do is accessible. Not only is our website 100% accessible, plus an additional talking website added, our team is also comprised of flexible work to help assist with helping them contribute to our work however they need.

85% of our team have a disability themselves, and we focus and lead with empathy and education on the importance of digital accessibility and including people with disabilities on teams—not asking them to volunteer their time.