Accessibility and Inclusive Design Across the Systems Development Lifecycle (SDLC)

Defines Accessibility and Inclusive Design as lifecycle disciplines for enabling people with diverse abilities, technologies, environments, languages, and circumstances to use a Solution effectively.

Governing Principle

Design for human diversity from the earliest lifecycle decisions instead of treating accessibility as a late conformance test or accommodation request.

Required Lifecycle Treatment

Application Through the SDLC

Apply this discipline across the full lifecycle, from Intake through Retirement. Establish applicability and ownership during Planning, translate it into testable requirements and decisions during Design and Build, generate decision-ready evidence through SIT, UAT, and Staging, verify and monitor it in Production and Operations, and close out remaining obligations at Retirement.

Governance and Evidence

Assign clear ownership — an enduring Solution owner, Release Owner, discipline owner, evidence producers, and Risk Owner — and scale rigor to the work’s criticality, complexity, and reversibility. Record Risks, exceptions, and Technical Debt in authoritative systems, not narrative status. Generative AI may assist with analysis and evidence organization, but only accountable roles may approve outcomes, accept Risk, or authorize Production.

Connections to Related IF4IT Practices and Inventories

Use the Non-Functional Requirements (NFRs) Framework for Software Systems to define measurable quality, security, resilience, usability, interoperability, maintainability, and operational requirements, together with explicit validation methods and evidence.

Weave security, privacy, Risk, compliance, audit, and authorization controls through the decisions and responsibilities addressed in this chapter so evidence, exceptions, residual Risk, and accountable approvals stay visible and governed.