2025 Retrospective
Overview
- milestones: lead accessibility governance, accessible design stakeholder, co-lead accessibility meetup group
- accomplishments: mentor to student associates for Blue Cross NC, 200+ pdfs made accessible, every BCBSNC design system version update came with multiple accessibility improvements
- technical skills: took on a lot more pdf remediation and audits, for both WCAG 2.2 and Section 508, and learned a lot more about EAA
- other: visited the NC Outer Banks, visited Sylvan Heights bird sanctuary, fostered a kitten, and biked a total of 43 miles
What’s happened since last year?
Big career/job news! After 3 years and 4 months I made the decision to leave Level Access. From January through the end of March my team at ‘Level’ (as well as the rest of the Delivery department) made huge improvents to the ai governance that was starting to roll out after the product and service offerings were being updated as a result of the UserWay Merger in 2024. In April, however, I joined Blue Cross NC as a Senior UX Accessibility Specialist and it has been amazing! I am happily working directly with the Design Systems team and consulting with the Graphic Design, Sales, and Development teams on creating accessible documents and web/app experiences.
Outside of work, rollerblading unfortunately has been put on indefinite hiatus. The health of my knee through the last half of 2024 made the activity not a good option. Taking care of one’s health is important so the unfortunate bit is really only that I had just decked myself out in pure pastel gradient gear, blades, and accessories. 👌 I am still staying active though with an ebike that is thankfully taking the strain off my knee. And of course, I decorated the bike with really cute stickers.
2025 was also a year my spouse and I really leveled up our cooking and barista-like skills. I purchased a molcajete and started making my own salsa, have been really getting into adding seasoned tofu to meals, and have sautéd and fried more chicken at home then the past two years combined. In terms of gaming I’ve found that I really love solo rpg games, often called journal rpgs. My collection has grown from one (the first being Thousand Year Old Vampire I bought back in 2022) to seven. I’ve been playing small and quick to play board games more this year and the large epic ones less. Although there’s a huge backlog of games that can be played with one player I want to play in 2026.
Photo Highlights
Achievements, celebrations, & team feedback
Accessibility is a team effort and the design system participated in and facilitated a huge portal release that already has seen a wonderful positive reception. Customers and Agents reported that the application changes are “very user friendly”, “clear and easy to understand”, and also noted improved hierarchy and access. Analytic tracking of performance, SEO, and accessibility all showed improvements and I’m so excited to keep pushing for more improvemnts as the design system keeps getting more internal adoption.
Kind words received this year from current team at Blue Cross NC and previous team at Level Access:
“Proven team player and invaluable!”
“You are so AMAZING at what you do.”
“Your patience, kindness, and unwavering support have left a lasting impact on so many of us. You didn’t just share knowledge—you built foundations, nurtured growth, and inspired confidence.”
“Your mentoring was fundamental in helping me develop my technical skills, especially with testing.”
“Wonderful a11y mentor”
“Absolute asset on client accounts!”
2026 goals
- expanded department-wide pdf accessibility governance
- release design system ‘fully accessible’ update (for components that exist to date 12/2025)
- get involved in accessible internal training efforts
- improve internal accessible monitoring
- host quarterly accessibility events and apply as presenter/speaker for UX and accessibility conferences