• Vitality, a global health and wellness company, is committed to making people healthier and enhancing and protecting their lives—values that extend to all members, regardless of disability.
• While the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA success criteria were applied to the product development process, Vitality recognized the need for deeper expertise to ensure truly accessible experiences.
• This aligned with the upcoming European Accessibility Act (EAA) requirements, reinforcing Vitality’s accessibility goals not just as best-practice, but also business-critical priorities.
• To ensure that its specialist and science-backed solutions met EAA requirements, Vitality partnered with Level Access. Through this partnership, accessibility has been embedded into every stage of the product development life cycle with testing, tooling, and training.
• Today, accessibility is a critical part of how Vitality builds, delivers, and scales its products. The company’s commitment to accessibility promotes both a culture of inclusivity and legal responsibility.
• The benefits of enhanced access are considered a competitive advantage for Vitality as a whole.

As a leading provider of health and wellness technology, Vitality is driven by a single mission: to make people healthier and enhance and protect their lives. This mission extends to all people, regardless of disability. To achieve this, Vitality works hard to ensure that all users can fully engage with its digital products and get the most out of their Vitality membership.

Digital accessibility is the inclusive practice of ensuring there are no barriers that prevent interaction with, or access to, digital experiences by people with disabilities. Accessibility also benefits many other users including older individuals, people with situational disabilities, and those with restrictions on internet bandwidth and speed.

Often, accessibility is only considered after digital experiences are built, a reactive approach that is slow and resource-intensive. To avoid these challenges during a major front-end rebuild of their mobile application, Vitality proactively referenced WCAG 2.1 AA standards. Vitality saw this redesign initiative as an opportunity to enhance how accessibility was delivered and integrated into the product development process—moving from consideration to an intentional, embedded approach from day one.

Vitality’s need for a streamlined, sustainable approach to accessibility was compounded by the upcoming European Accessibility Act (EAA) deadline. This new legislation, which will be enforced beginning in June 2025, applies to many of Vitality’s clients across the EU market. These clients needed assurance that Vitality’s mobile app met the EAA’s accessibility requirements to mitigate any compliance risks.

Vitality recognized that embracing a proactive approach to accessibility, and aligning with new legal mandates, would require expert support. This led to the decision to find a strategic partner who could provide the right guidance, training, and tools to help build accessibility into products from the start.

To better strengthen product accessibility ahead of the EAA deadline, Vitality partnered with Level Access. By harnessing Level Access’s practical tools and deep accessibility expertise, Vitality has been able to ensure all existing content aligns with EAA standards, as well as to bring new accessibility practices into the business for future content generation and digital development.

As part of the partnership process, Level Access experts performed a thorough audit of Vitality’s mobile application, which provided a detailed breakdown of accessibility issues, along with guidance on what to prioritize. Vitality took quick action to address findings, thanks to the Level Access Platform, which allows teams to easily drill into specific categories of issues, view real examples, and even access remediation recommendations.

In their most recent audit, Vitality passed 44 out of 64 accessibility best practices, with nearly all design-related issues already resolved. The remaining work is being tracked against a clear, actionable roadmap that is aligned to the EAA compliance deadline. Some of these improvements include enabling users to resize text up to 200%, avoiding the use of color as the sole means of conveying information, and ensuring sufficient color contrast for readability.

As part of an effort to build internal expertise and confidently deliver fully accessible experiences, Vitality is moving beyond fixing accessibility issues to embedding inclusive design practices from the start. Through live consultations with Level Access, designers receive real-time feedback directly in Figma, enabling them to understand accessibility requirements more deeply and apply them early in the product development lifecycle—well before development begins.

In addition to engaging with experts at Level Access, Vitality has built internal expertise through the Level Access Academy. With multiple training slots distributed across departments, Vitality teams can follow role-specific learning paths and apply accessibility best practices directly in their day-to-day work. The goal here is to empower internal teams to feel confident and capable building accessibility into products from the get-go.

Thanks to this new proactive approach to product accessibility, Vitality has developed an efficient, reliable strategy for building inclusive digital experiences and supporting client compliance on a global scale.

Vitality’s partnership with Level Access has not only strengthened internal practices—it’s empowered Vitality to educate their clients on accessibility requirements and help them prepare for the EAA. “Our goal is to be compliant around the world,” says Anthony Maris, Senior Product Manager. “And to help our clients achieve compliance, too.”

Ultimately, Vitality’s commitment to accessibility extends far beyond legal compliance. By embracing accessibility as a way of work, Vitality upholds their promise to serve every individual—regardless of age or disability—in alignment with their mission and values.