We'd like to thank Maxwell Ivey Jr from The Accessibility Advantage for his helping us with this project. If you're interested in improving the accessibility of your company, he can help!
At Less Annoying CRM, making software that’s easy to use isn’t just about simplicity—it’s also about accessibility. That’s why we recently dedicated an entire week to improving accessibility of our software.
Accessibility ensures that our app works for everyone, including people who use assistive technologies like screen readers or navigate the web using only a keyboard. It’s something we’ve always cared about, but this time, we went all in. And we wanted to share what we learned, what we fixed, and why this work matters for all our users.
Why we did this
From the beginning, our plan has been to make accessibility a shared responsibility across the whole dev team, not just something handled by one or two people. For the past year, two developers (Grady and Reno) took the lead on laying the groundwork: building reusable components (like accessible buttons and icons), setting up systems to handle things like keyboard focus in pop-up dialogs, and identifying areas of the app that needed improvement.
But our devs hit a common challenge: the easy fixes were done, and the remaining work required more time and attention than we could give in small bursts. That’s when we decided to hold Accessibility Week: a full week where the entire dev team could focus on learning, testing, and fixing accessibility issues together.
How we approached it
We had a solid starting point. Over the year, we’d collected a backlog of known issues: some flagged by our own testing, others surfaced by Max, an LACRM customer and accessibility tester who’s been helping us evaluate our CRM with assistive tools.
During the week, we combed through those cards, prioritized the work, and got to fixing. Some issues had already been solved, others weren’t reproducible, but many were just waiting for focused time and attention—and that’s exactly what they got.
What we fixed (spoiler: a lot!)
We wrapped up 19 accessibility-related improvements during the week. Here are just a few highlights:
- Labeled form fields and buttons, especially in the Add Contact form and note sections, so screen readers can clearly describe what each element does.
- Added a "Skip to Main Content" button, letting users bypass navigation menus and jump straight to what matters most.
- Improved keyboard navigation in places like file upload fields, the Attach Items section, and our "Show password" button.
- Fixed misleading or confusing labels, including one on our signup form that tripped up screen reader users.
- Made our color picker and icon picker dialogs accessible, including proper focus handling.
- Improved how screen readers interact with contact photos, eliminating unnecessary or confusing elements.
- Ensured focus returns properly after closing dialogs, a detail that makes a big difference in usability.
- Cleaned up how videos are labeled, so users get meaningful descriptions, not just vague "Video player" announcements.
- Fixed a bug where the 2FA (two-factor authentication) section was tab-able before login, which could be confusing or even misleading.
We also explored our mobile site using screen readers, gaining insight into how our mobile experience holds up with different tools, browsers, and operating systems.
All of these experiences allowed us to integrate accessibility into the core framework of our codebase as well, so that the next feature we build will automatically be screen reader accessible and visually optimized.
What we learned
A few key takeaways stood out from the week:
- Good prep pays off: Creating detailed issue cards with video examples meant fewer questions and faster fixes.
- Everyone leveled up: Even devs who hadn’t worked much on accessibility before jumped in and made meaningful changes.
- The team crushed it: We moved so quickly that midway through the week, we had to create more issue cards to keep up.
- Mobile screen readers are a whole different ballgame: Testing on different combinations of devices, browsers, and screen readers showed us just how varied the experience can be.
- This also helped us out with designing our upcoming dedicated mobile app!
- Accessibility is becoming second nature: Our hope? That next year, we won’t need a dedicated accessibility week because this kind of thinking will be baked into how we develop every day.
Why this matters (even if you don't use a screen reader)
You might be thinking, “That’s great, but I don’t use a screen reader. How does this help me?” The truth is, accessibility improvements benefit everyone. Clearer labeling, better keyboard navigation, and more consistent design all make the app easier to use—whether you’re navigating by voice, mouse, or touchpad.
And more than that, this work reflects a core belief at Less Annoying CRM: software should be easy to use for everyone. Accessibility isn’t a bonus feature— we believe it's why LACRM continues to be the #1 easiest-to-use CRM on the market.
Beyond the week
Accessibility Week was a huge success, and while we’re proud of what we accomplished, this isn’t the end. We’re committed to continuing this work, refining our systems, and making accessibility a natural part of our design and development process.
If you use assistive technology and have feedback, or just want to share your experience, we’d love to hear from you. Your input helps us keep improving!
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