Accessibility @ STIHL
An accessibility focused UX initiative that turned international standards into practical guidance,
design system improvements, and scalable processes
for digital product teams.
Project Type
Internship, Working Student
Timeline
Sep 2022 - Feb 2025
Team
Agnes Kloos
Problem
Accessibility is widely recognised as essential, yet still difficult to apply consistently in global product work. Legal requirements, standards, and expectations vary across markets, while product teams need clear and practical guidance instead of abstract rules. Without shared principles and integrated workflows, accessibility is often addressed too late, applied inconsistently, or reduced to compliance only, creating business risk and avoidable barriers for users.
Solution
This project established a practical accessibility foundation for digital product development at STIHL. It combined research into German, European, international, and US standards with stakeholder alignment across teams, including exchange with the US UX team. Based on these insights, company specific guidelines, design system recommendations, and workflow oriented guidance were developed to help teams apply accessibility consistently within everyday product work.
The value of the project lies inmaking accessibility usable in everyday product work. Complex standards were translated into clear guidance, design relevant principles, and actionable recommendations. This improved consistency across teams, strengthened the quality of digital experiences, and helped anchor accessibility as an ongoing part of design, product thinking, and collaboration rather than a one time check.
More Details
The project started with a strategic research phase focused on accessibility in digital product design. Because STIHL operates internationally, I looked across German, European, international, and US regulations, standards, and best practices. My goal was not only to understand the differences between these frameworks, but also to identify what they mean in practice for a globally active company and its digital products.
From there, the focus shifted from research to translation. I organised interviews and internal exchanges to connect external requirements with the realities of product development. This included collaboration with the US UX team in order to align perspectives, compare approaches, and build a shared understanding of accessibility across markets. Through this process, I was able to highlight where knowledge already existed, where inconsistencies remained, and where stronger guidance was needed.
Based on this foundation, I developed accessibility guidelines tailored to the organisation. Rather than staying on the level of theory or compliance language, I structured them so teams could use them in their regular workflow. The aim was to translate accessibility into design relevant principles, concrete recommendations, and practical decision support for everyday product and interface design.
In parallel, I reviewed the existing design system through an accessibility lens. I assessed components, patterns, and interaction principles against relevant accessibility criteria and derived focused recommendations for improvement. These recommendations were prepared so they could be integrated into the further development of the system and adopted by teams in their ongoing work.
