The Shopping Dead: A Zombie's Guide to Web Accessibility

Imagine waking up as a zombie and trying to use today’s web. Interfaces now depend on dynamic notifications, warnings, and alerts that appear and disappear in moments. For screen reader users, these updates can be confusing, overwhelming, or completely invisible.

In this talk, we step into that experience as Romero, a zombie navigating the modern web. Using immersive demos and “zombie vision” screen recordings, we explore how dynamic content behaves for assistive technology users and where it commonly breaks down. From there, we uncover how ARIA live regions work, when they should be used, and how to design notifications and status updates that are inclusive, reliable, and understandable.

Blending storytelling with practical implementation guidance, this session helps teams move beyond treating accessibility as a checklist and toward designing dynamic experiences that work for everyone, undead or otherwise.

Technical Requirements:
This talk uses pre-recorded videos using screen readers. Audio support for these demos will be required.

Accessibility Adventures: The Lost Secrets Of Forced Colors Mode

Join a treasure-hunting journey into one of the web’s most overlooked accessibility environments: Forced Colors Mode. Used in Windows Contrast Themes by millions of people every day, this mode replaces an interface’s carefully chosen color system with a limited, user-defined palette. In a single click, every carefully crafted color and UI design can be overwritten.

Through real interface demos and guided exploration, we’ll learn what happens when design decisions give way to system-level color preferences and how to build products that still work when that happens. We’ll cover how browsers apply color in Forced Colors Mode, what happens to our CSS and how to test and emulate these environments during development.

Blending story-driven narrative with practical technical guidance, this session equips teams to design and build resilient interfaces that remain clear, usable, and trustworthy even when users, not designers, control how it's rendered.

From Codebase to Community: The Renewal Story of a Legacy Design System

What happens when a design system releases frequent breaking changes, doesn't document itself and builds in isolation? It breaks trust and builds a company-wide attitude of "it's faster to do it myself."

In this practical case study we review the design systems of two of Finland's largest institutes, as we modernize not just their technical foundations but their communities. We’ll explore how shifting our focus from code to people, through transparent processes, community-driven releases, and robust documentation, turned neglected and fragile legacy systems into a trusted, long-term platforms.

Attendees will leave with practical lessons on rebuilding a design system’s reputation, re-engaging stakeholders, and balancing technical updates with human-centered change.