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Introducing ARRM: Assigning Ownership to Get Things Done

Jen Chadwick, Bill Tyler, SeAn Kelly

The Accessibility Roles and Responsibilities Mapping (ARRM) Methodology is a proposed W3C resource through the Education and Outreach Working Group (EOWG). It’s also been described as a “gift to digital teams” as they start to shift left and implement accessibility efforts earlier in their processes. The ARRM is a highly effective tool when you’re identifying what tasks need to be done – the next important question after “how” and “when” is “who”. It’s a flexible and adaptive framework that can be applied at an organizational level or project level - assigning ownership of those tasks in a collaborative team exercise, where they also find solutions. Team members recognize the impact of their content, design and development decisions when it comes to accessibility and take ownership at a primary, secondary or contributor level. It leads empowerment and adoption and reduces apathy and uncertainty around accessibility.

The outcomes are team collaboration, education, clarity, ownership, and finally empowerment. Helpful exercise guides and documentation make it easy to run an ARRM exercise in your own organization.