Karen Hawkins
Karen Hawkins — Principal, Accessible Design at Level Access. Talks and sessions delivered at UXDX.
Principal, Accessible Design
Karen Hawkins is a Human Factors engineer and a certified accessibility professional with more than 13 years of experience. She is a member of the IAAP OPDC (International Association of Accessibility Professional Organizational Professional Development Committee) Career Pathways Working Group, as well as a member of the W3C’s Accessibility Roles and Responsibilities Matrix (ARRM) Working Group. As both a user experience designer and director, she honed her skills leading multi-disciplinary teams in creating digital solutions for leading global companies. Today, she leads the accessible design practice at Level Access, teaching customers and colleagues alike to apply accessible design thinking to all their work.
Past talks
5 talks · 2 eventsFull Day Masterclass: How to Integrate Accessibility in UX Design Systems
Dive into the essential skills of integrating accessibility into UX design systems in this full day workshop. You'll learn the nuances of creating accessible styles, components, patterns, and pages, ensuring that your designs meet the needs of all users. Utilizing Brad Frost's design system methodology, you'll learn to apply accessibility principles across different levels: enhancing styles with design tokens, refining components for accessibility, ensuring interactive patterns are keyboard-navigable, and developing responsive and orientation-friendly templates and pages. This hands-on session will include a mix of insightful presentations and practical exercises using Figma, where participants will create and integrate accessible UI elements such as buttons, links, and checkboxes into an accessible toolbar, filters, and a complete data details page. You'll gain essential skills to not only understand the structure and role of design systems but also to implement accessible design and documentation at every step. Learning Outcomes - Create accessible design elements and integrate them into practical, user-friendly layouts. - Learn and apply accessible design requirements across the different design system levels. - Learn the documentation your developers really need to build accessible components and patterns, as well as various ways for how to document the requirements. Note: Attendees are recommended to have access to Figma or PowerPoint for the practical exercises. Due to limited accessibility features in design tools like Figma, PowerPoint is a viable alternative.
Embedding Accessibility in your Design System
Product teams are harnessing the power that design systems offer, creating digital solutions efficiently, consistently, and at scale. But, as teams move towards this level of maturity, are they similarly maturing in their application of accessibility into their processes and output? Sadly, many design systems are failing to address the needs of all audiences. From tokens to annotations, each step in the creation of a design system must consider and incorporate digital accessibility. Teams are facing issues regarding who is responsible for which aspects of accessibility, and where and how to document accessibility considerations. In this forum we will openly discuss how product teams can incorporate more accessibility considerations into their design systems.
Accessibility in the Spotlight: Navigating the New EU Accessibility Requirements and More
Join our expert panel, hosted by Patrick Mooney, as they dive into the game-changing EU accessibility standards and their impact on UX and development professionals. Featuring insights from Karen Hawkins (Level Access), Gareth Crossan, and Mick (Optum), this session bridges the gap between compliance requirements and practical implementation. Discover how these new regulations are reshaping the digital landscape and learn actionable steps to prioritise accessibility in your work, whether you're a newcomer or a seasoned professional in the field. Key Outcomes/Learnings: - Understanding the implications of the EU accessibility requirements for UX, development, and product teams - Practical strategies to integrate accessibility into existing workflows and design systems - Debunking common myths about accessibility and its impact on creativity - Actionable steps to start prioritising accessibility immediately - Insights into the future of accessibility and its potential to drive innovation
Embedding Accessibility in your Design System
Product teams are harnessing the power that design systems offer, creating digital solutions efficiently, consistently, and at scale. But, as teams move towards this level of maturity, are they similarly maturing in their application of accessibility into their processes and output? Sadly, many design systems are failing to address the needs of all audiences. From tokens to annotations, each step in the creation of a design system must consider and incorporate digital accessibility. Teams are facing issues regarding who is responsible for which aspects of accessibility, and where and how to document accessibility considerations. In this forum we will openly discuss how product teams can incorporate more accessibility considerations into their design systems.
How to Integrate Accessibility in UX Design Systems
Dive into the essential skills of integrating accessibility into UX design systems in this interactive workshop. You'll learn the nuances of creating accessible styles, components, patterns, and pages, ensuring that your designs meet the needs of all users. Utilizing Brad Frost's design system methodology, you'll learn to apply accessibility principles across different levels: enhancing styles with design tokens, refining components for accessibility, ensuring interactive patterns are keyboard-navigable, and developing responsive and orientation-friendly templates and pages. This hands-on session will include a mix of insightful presentations and practical exercises using Figma, where participants will create and integrate accessible UI elements such as buttons, links, and checkboxes into an accessible toolbar, filters, and a complete data details page. You'll gain essential skills to not only understand the structure and role of design systems but also to implement accessible design and documentation at every step. Learning Outcomes: - Grasp the structure and function of design systems in digital product development. - Learn and apply accessible design and documentation requirements across different system levels. - Create accessible design elements and integrate them into practical, user-friendly layouts. Note: Attendees are recommended to have access to Figma or PowerPoint for the practical exercises. Due to limited accessibility features in design tools like Figma, PowerPoint is a viable alternative.