You Hired Capable People. Are Your Systems Helping Them Succeed?
Finding and keeping good employees is hard enough without your own technology, hiring processes, or workplace practices getting in the way.
An applicant can’t complete an online application. A new employee struggles with inaccessible onboarding materials. An experienced team member can’t use a critical software application independently. A manager wants to help but doesn’t know what to change.
These problems affect productivity, employee satisfaction, retention, and your organization’s ability to attract and develop talent.
Real Life Access helps HR professionals and organizational leaders identify barriers that prevent people from doing their best work, then develop practical solutions that make hiring, training, and everyday operations more effective.
Let’s Talk About Your Workforce Accessibility Needs
Let Me Be Your Candidate
You have an applicant tracking system. You’ve invested in a careers website. Your recruiting team has established a process for attracting qualified candidates.
But can everyone actually use it?
Let me find out.
As a blind accessibility professional and experienced job seeker, I can evaluate your recruiting process from the perspective of an actual candidate using a screen reader.
With your organization’s authorization, I’ll navigate your careers website, search for positions, complete an application through an agreed-upon test process, and examine the communications and instructions applicants encounter along the way.
I’ll identify the barriers, explain their practical impact, and recommend specific improvements.
What Can We Discover?
- Whether applicants can find and review job openings using assistive technology
- Whether application forms, resume uploads, and required assessments are accessible
- Whether instructions, error messages, and confirmation notices are understandable and usable
- Whether candidates can complete the process independently without unnecessary assistance
- Whether third-party recruiting platforms introduce accessibility barriers
- Whether your application process creates unnecessary frustration or discourages qualified candidates
What Will You Receive?
You’ll receive documented findings describing where the process breaks down, how those barriers affect candidates, and what your organization or technology vendors can do to correct them.
Recommendations are prioritized so your team can distinguish immediate problems from longer-term improvements.
This is more than an automated accessibility scan. It’s a practical examination of whether your recruiting process works for someone trying to get hired.
Take It Further: Let Me Be Your Employee
Getting through the application process is only the beginning. What happens after someone accepts the job?
With your organization’s cooperation, I can take the assessment further by participating in a simulated hiring and onboarding experience as a new employee.
Give me the same instructions, training materials, technology, and tasks you would give a new hire. I’ll work through the process using assistive technology and identify where things work, where they break down, and where unnecessary barriers make it harder to succeed.
What Can We Evaluate?
- Offer letters, employment documents, and electronic signatures
- New-hire paperwork and benefits enrollment
- Employee account setup and authentication
- Orientation and mandatory training
- Learning management systems and training assessments
- Internal communications and collaboration tools
- Job-specific software and everyday work assignments
- Procedures for requesting technical support or workplace accommodations
You’ll receive documented findings, explanations of the impact on employees, and prioritized recommendations for improving the experience.
Assessments are conducted through an authorized test arrangement using appropriate accounts, materials, and permissions. There is no need to create a real employment relationship to evaluate the process.
The goal isn’t simply to find out whether someone can get hired. It’s to find out whether your organization gives that person the tools and processes they need to succeed.
Ask About Candidate and Employee Experience Assessments
Accessibility Doesn’t End When Someone Gets Hired
An accessible application process is a good start. But what happens on the employee’s first day? During training? When they need to use company software, communicate with coworkers, or complete everyday assignments?
Organizations can lose valuable time and talent when employees are forced to work around systems that weren’t designed with their needs in mind.
Real Life Access helps employers identify those problems and develop solutions that support employee independence, performance, and retention.
Our HR and Workforce Accessibility Services
Recruitment and Applicant Experience Audits
We evaluate careers websites, applicant tracking systems, online applications, assessments, and candidate communications for accessibility and usability barriers.
Services can include a hands-on candidate journey assessment, technical accessibility testing, and recommendations for improving the overall applicant experience.
Employee Technology Accessibility Audits
Can employees use the tools they need to do their jobs?
We evaluate workplace software, internal websites, forms, documents, and digital workflows using screen readers, keyboard navigation, and established accessibility testing methods.
Our findings help employers understand where technology is creating barriers and what developers, IT teams, or vendors need to address.
Onboarding and Training Accessibility
New employees shouldn’t have to struggle through inaccessible training platforms, documents, or onboarding procedures before they can begin contributing.
We review onboarding and training experiences to identify barriers affecting access to information, participation, and successful task completion.
We can also help organizations develop more accessible training materials and delivery practices.
Workforce Friction Assessments
Not every workplace problem is a technical accessibility failure.
Sometimes the problem is an inefficient process, unclear instructions, conflicting expectations, or a system that requires employees to develop elaborate workarounds just to complete ordinary tasks.
Our workforce assessments examine how people, technology, policies, and processes interact.
We help leaders understand where work is breaking down, why employees are struggling, and which changes are likely to make the greatest practical difference.
Accessibility Consulting and Remediation Support
Identifying barriers is only useful if someone can do something about them.
Real Life Access provides practical recommendations, works with internal teams and outside vendors, and can retest identified issues after changes are made.
We can also help organizations evaluate accessibility considerations when selecting or implementing new workplace technology.
HR and Leadership Training
Managers and HR professionals don’t need to become accessibility engineers. They do need to recognize when something isn’t working and understand how to respond effectively.
Our training and workshops address topics such as:
- Recognizing accessibility barriers in hiring and employment
- Working effectively with employees who use assistive technology
- Understanding the difference between accessibility and usability
- Reducing unnecessary barriers in workplace policies and processes
- Improving communication and problem-solving across teams
- Creating more effective employee training and support practices
Training can be tailored for HR departments, managers, IT teams, leadership groups, and employees.
Start with One Problem Worth Solving
You don’t need to overhaul your entire organization to begin improving accessibility.
We can start with a focused assessment of one process, platform, or employee experience that’s causing concern.
That might mean testing your online job application, examining an inaccessible employee system, reviewing an onboarding process, or investigating why a workflow isn’t producing the results you expected.
We’ll define the scope together, evaluate the problem, and provide actionable findings your organization can use to move forward.
For organizations that need broader assistance, Real Life Access also offers ongoing consulting, accessibility audits, remediation support, training, and follow-up testing.
Why Work with Real Life Access?
Real Life Access was founded by Angela Fowler, an accessibility strategist, user experience professional, and organizational leader who has been blind since birth.
Angela brings extensive experience in digital accessibility, assistive technology, training, user experience, and organizational problem-solving. Her professional background includes work with government agencies, businesses, and organizations serving the public.
She understands accessibility from multiple perspectives: as a professional evaluating technology, as an employee navigating workplace systems, and as someone who uses assistive technology every day.
Angela has also presented for SHRM California and other professional organizations, helping leaders understand how accessibility connects to business performance, employee experience, and organizational effectiveness.
Our approach is straightforward: identify what’s getting in the way, understand why it matters, and recommend practical improvements that help people do their jobs.
Speaking and Professional Development for HR Organizations
Looking for a conference speaker, webinar presenter, or workshop facilitator?
Angela delivers engaging, practical presentations for HR professionals, business leaders, and professional associations.
Topics include accessible hiring, workforce technology, disability inclusion in practice, employee experience, and the organizational cost of unnecessary barriers.
Explore Speaking Opportunities
Let’s Make Your Workplace Work Better
Whether you want to test your hiring process, evaluate employee technology, improve training, or solve a persistent workforce problem, Real Life Access can help you figure out where to start.
Let’s talk about what’s happening in your organization and what we can do to improve it.