The following is an interview with Andrew Chung, the Chief Product Officer at Level Access.
Andrew, how did you get into the field of accessibility?
At the time, I was already working on a startup and looking for a new challenge. My passion for social responsibility and change led me to volunteer work and nonprofit boards. I wasn’t actively searching, but I came across an opportunity in Toronto with a company focused on helping businesses achieve and sustain accessibility.
I was drawn to the role because it involved a new, broad field, the company was growing, and it aligned with my desire to create social change. It felt like a perfect fit—getting paid to drive social impact and helping companies rethink how they build products was truly a dream opportunity.
When you were out there looking for that next step in your career, where did you look?
At an event, I met someone who introduced me to accessibility. Before joining Level Access, I had created a product for regulated industries like finance and insurance. Banks began asking us to ensure our digital experiences were accessible, which exposed me to WCAG standards.
Later, I was headhunted by a recruiter after speaking at an event where someone was offering accessibility solutions. Initially, I found accessibility intriguing, and the more I learned, the more excited I became about the opportunity. Although I had some exposure to accessibility before, it was challenging, and that gave me a sense of user empathy from the start.
When you made this career switch into accessibility, what made it exciting for you? And now that you're settled in the role, you've been doing this for a couple of years, what keeps that excitement going?
As a product person, one of my core principles is creating behavioral change, which ties into social responsibility. It's exciting to shift mindsets, and that’s been a key focus in my work. When I joined the company, I expected steady growth, but COVID triggered hyper-growth instead. We expanded from just me and five developers to over 100 people in product and tech today.
What keeps me engaged is seeing organizations come to us not knowing how to handle accessibility, and then evolving their approach from project-based to a sustained, product-oriented mindset. Watching this transformation in a still-maturing field like accessibility is incredibly rewarding.
As head of product, you make a lot of decisions to shape the product roadmap for the next year. How do you think about building your portfolio for the next couple of years?
In the early stages of an organization, I focused heavily on execution, with less emphasis on research, which fit my style as a product leader. As the company grows, the need for strategy becomes essential because decisions at scale have broader implications. When you're small, mistakes are manageable, but as you grow, they can have greater consequences.
To align our product efforts with overall business strategy, I work closely with cross-functional teams like sales, customer success, and marketing. Prioritization is based on how each feature supports primary business objectives, ensuring everything ties back to the company’s strategic pillars. As we scaled, structuring the product portfolio became key to preventing overlap among product managers and aligning their work with specific outcomes and metrics. The goal is always to connect what we're building to measurable business outcomes.
How would you advise someone within an organization to advocate for more resources for accessibility?
For us, the focus is on software, where trends show that customers now request a Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT) when purchasing software. This demonstrates a company's commitment to accessibility. In the U.S., most accessibility-related litigation targets public-facing websites, so organizations need to consider the risks of non-compliance, like losing business or litigation.
At a recent CSUN session, a key point was that the most effective way to secure resources for accessibility is by emphasizing the risks of inaccessibility—whether it’s the inability to sell software, potential lawsuits, or damage to brand reputation. Organizations in the digital realm are also under increasing public scrutiny for accessibility lapses, especially in social media.
To get started, there are free tools and resources online (like those from W3C) to help organizations take initial steps. Early successes can help justify the need for more resources and prioritization, especially as many companies don’t fully understand the scope of accessibility requirements. Starting small and building momentum can make a big difference.
So it sounds like basically two options: one - be really good at articulating risk, and build a business case around risk; two - MVP, minimal viable product or minimal viable impact, and then measure that impact. You can then bring those to leadership and say, “I've proven the small case for this work. Help me get some resources so we can build the bigger case for this work.”
There's often an assumption that more resources are needed to address accessibility, and while that may be true if there’s a lot of technical debt, accessibility should be treated like usability—it’s just part of what you do. You don’t always need extra capacity to start making improvements.
For example, you can use free tools like the WAVE accessibility scanner to run a quick check on your website. You don't need permission to fix obvious issues, like missing form labels on a login button. Start by addressing critical problems, and over time, you can make broader improvements without needing extra resources upfront.
What are the skill sets that you look for in PMs?
Beyond technical product management skills like discovery, working with engineers, and stakeholder management, two key qualities stand out that are difficult to teach: curiosity and ownership.
Curiosity means going beyond your daily tasks, constantly asking "why" and "how" things work, such as how a browser returns a result or how AI products like ChatGPT function. This drive to explore helps product managers adapt and grow in different environments.
Ownership, or entrepreneurial thinking, is the second critical trait. It’s the mindset that if you don’t take responsibility, no one else will, and the project could fail. Successful product managers feel a deep sense of responsibility for their product’s success and find joy in seeing the impact of their efforts.
These qualities—curiosity and ownership—are essential for product managers to excel and thrive in a fast-paced, ever-evolving role.
You mentioned a couple of AI tools in that answer. How do you think about AI in your accessibility role?
When we started working with AI, we saw the hype around tools like ChatGPT, but noticed many AI-powered features failed to gain traction. The key issue was not focusing enough on solving user problems. AI is just another tool, like a pivot table or robotic automation, and should be applied thoughtfully to complex challenges.
Our approach is to identify the hardest problems and evaluate if AI offers a 10x improvement. We use a framework to assess use cases and integrate AI where it adds value. It’s also critical for product professionals to understand how AI works on a basic level—such as why models like ChatGPT hallucinate—before effectively applying it. Combining technical understanding with user focus is essential to successfully using AI.
With new technology, have there been any examples where you thought, “I've always wished we could do that, but we couldn't do it before, and now we can!”
One of the biggest advancements in technology is information retrieval. We now have the ability to ask a question and receive a clear, plain-language response instead of just search results. This is especially powerful when dealing with large amounts of data and knowledge bases.
However, large language models (LLMs) aren't perfect. They lack precision, so it's important to understand their limitations and avoid using them in situations where accuracy is critical. Despite these imperfections, LLMs have significantly expanded possibilities for information retrieval.
What is AI's role in the field of accessibility?
AI can greatly enhance accessibility by automating many of the manual tasks involved, like fixing inaccessible code and improving workflows. For example, AI can streamline accessibility processes that are usually time-consuming and manual.
There are exciting developments in computer vision, which could extend automation beyond current testing methods, and help visually identify accessibility issues. Additionally, AI can leverage large amounts of data to help organizations better understand and progress their accessibility efforts.
On the consumer side, AI is also making a big impact, such as Meta’s recent partnership with Be My Eyes, which uses AI to automate and enhance accessibility services. This shows how AI can fill gaps and boost productivity for everyone. The future looks promising for AI in accessibility.
One anecdote I've heard living in Silicon Valley is that focusing on accessibility slows down innovation. What would you say to them?
Accessibility is often compared to usability, like twins separated at birth. Just as usability was once overlooked, it’s now an essential part of design. Accessibility is following a similar path. Early on, usability wasn't prioritized because people thought it would slow things down, but that mindset changed. Today, we have user experience designers and researchers to ensure products are tested before they’re built, preventing costly fixes later.
Accessibility is no different. If you wait until the end to address it, it can slow down innovation because fixing accessibility issues after a product is developed is expensive. However, when accessibility is prioritized from the start, it enhances user experience by simplifying and improving the overall design. It’s a mindset shift, and embracing accessibility early helps prevent technical debt and creates a better, more intuitive product.
What are you most excited about for the future of accessibility?
I'm excited about the continuous evolution of the accessibility industry. When I started four years ago, accessibility felt different—fewer customers were familiar with it. Now, more organizations are speaking the language of accessibility and seeking long-term solutions, showing a clear shift in mindset.
What excites me is the increasing number of solution providers. This competition fosters innovation, which benefits the entire industry and community. Cluster theory, which suggests that competition in a constrained environment drives innovation, applies here.
The accessibility market is growing, and while North America is more mature, I'm thrilled to see global participation increasing. As more regions adopt accessibility solutions, we move closer to a more accessible world where everyone can fully experience technology. That aligns with our mission.