Operationalizing Accessibility: From Strategy to Practice

Accessibility is increasingly framed as a rights and justice issue, yet many organizations still treat it as compliance rather than learning. This study examines how accessibility professionals conceptualize and operationalize accessibility across organizational contexts. Drawing on semi-structured interviews (n = 14) and one dyadic group discussion (n = 2), analyzed through reflexive thematic analysis, we identify four themes: empathy as organizational competence; policy, governance, and change management; technology, digital transformation, and collaboration; and capacity building for inclusive education and workplaces. The findings show that accessibility is operationalized not solely through technical standards but also through organizational learning, shared responsibility, and role-specific competence development. We contribute an empirically grounded, cross-sector account of how accessibility is translated from strategy into everyday practice, while delimiting the study to professional perspectives rather than compliance outcomes.