Building Accessible EdTech: How Estendio Designs Inclusive AI Tools for Disabled Students
Every product decision we make at Estendio starts with the same question: How will this help the users who need us most?
Hey, I’m Ben, and I work in the marketing team here at Estendio - the team behind Tailo and Present Pal, two accessible learning tools built to support disabled and neurodivergent learners.
Today, May 15th, marks the 14th Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD), a moment to reflect on how we can all do more to make the digital world inclusive by design. One of the reasons why I love working at Estendio is that for us, accessibility isn’t a nice-to-have; it’s a must-have. It's at the foundation of everything we do.
To mark GAAD, I sat down with Rick and Steven from our Product team to go behind the scenes on how we build accessible features, what inclusive AI means to us, and how we design with real student experiences in mind.
“What drew me to Estendio was the commitment to accessibility.”
To start, I wanted to take a step back and ask what first drew them to work in accessible EdTech, and what keeps them committed to it every day.
Rick, our Lead Product Designer, didn’t hesitate. “What drew me to Estendio was the commitment to accessibility,” they told me. “When you apply an inclusive design approach, accessibility is baked into how you work. We consider people at every stage of the design process, and everyone on the team is empowered to make our products more accessible, bit by bit.”
That shared responsibility was a recurring theme. Steven, our Senior UX/UI Designer, explained that in past roles, accessibility often fell to one person. “At many of the companies I’ve worked in the past, I was the sole driver for accessibility at every stage of the design process,” he said. “And it can be tough taking that role on alone.”
At Estendio, that weight is shared by the whole team. “Everyone is equally invested in ensuring that our products are as accessible and inclusive as possible,” Steven said.
Both Rick and Steven also spoke about education as a universal right and how design should reflect that. “Great education can fuel curiosity,” Rick said. “Our goal is to make that experience universal and open to as many people as possible. Accessibility hurts nobody and helps everybody (eventually).”
Steven added, “I believe education should be accessible to everyone on our planet — it’s what helps us grow and evolve as a species. And going by that logic, the tools that we use within education should also be accessible to everyone.”
“Accessibility considerations are baked into every stage of our design process.”
After we talked about what brought them to Estendio, I asked Rick and Steven to walk me through their design philosophies and how accessibility shows up in their day-to-day work.
For Rick, it all starts with the user. “Our design process is user-driven,” he explained. “In defining a problem, we gather insights about the people who encounter it - their needs, their context, their environment. Every learner is different, but research helps us discover patterns and build archetypes.”
That research-led approach helps the team stay focused on what really matters. If a solution doesn’t work? They rethink it.
“Solutions that don’t work usually don’t make it past the ideas stage. We find a different approach or consider affordances. Innovation and accessibility aren’t in conflict - they’re just different ways to more effectively understand and solve complex problems.”
It’s a mindset that’s supported by practical tools. Rick pointed to WCAG as the gold standard for most web-based tools and highlighted resources like the A11Y Project checklist as a great place to start.
Steven echoed a similar approach, but with a breakdown that really stuck with me.
“Accessibility considerations are baked into every stage of our design process, with each stage building on the previous one,” he said. “In design, we concern ourselves with the following:
How users perceive information (colour, text, layout, iconography)
How users operate interfaces (touch targets, navigation, input methods)
How users understand information (language, errors, instructions)”
From there, the team uses WCAG guidelines, not as a checkbox, but as a framework, and combines that with real user feedback to validate what they’ve built.
“Gathering feedback allows us to see a problem in new ways.”
Of course, designing accessibly isn’t a one-time task. It’s a continuous process - one built on listening to real users and making meaningful changes based on what we hear. As Rick put it, gathering user insights helps the team focus their energy where it can have the most real-world impact.
“We ask users about challenges they face in their studies, and what kind of support would help them,” they said. “It’s important to be considerate in the way we do that, but we don’t shy away from big questions.”
The team uses a mix of in-app prompts, surveys, and interviews to reach a broad and diverse group of students, especially those with lived experience of access barriers. It’s that feedback that reveals the real shape of a problem — and often, its hidden consequences.
“Gathering feedback allows us to see a problem in new ways,” Rick explained. “We can see the impact of unintended consequences, and it encourages us to find a better solution.”
Looking Ahead: What’s Next for Accessibility in Higher Education?
To close our conversation, I asked Rick what trends he’s seeing in the world of accessible design — especially in the fast-changing landscape of higher education. One thing that stood out to them? The growing presence of AI.
“We’re starting to hear more about students embracing AI, to varying degrees of success,” he said. “There’s definitely room for more tools that support the learning experience, without replacing it.”
Rick also left me with a reminder that really sums up the Estendio mindset: that accessibility isn’t something you check off — it’s something you build in from the beginning.
“There is no perfectly accessible product, but you can make it better,” he said. “Prioritising accessibility means understanding it’s a forethought, not an afterthought. If you spend time upfront understanding your audience, it becomes way easier to effectively meet their needs in what you design and build.”
Final Thoughts
Spending time with Rick and Steven left me feeling energised — and proud. Proud that accessibility isn’t a siloed responsibility at Estendio, but a shared mindset across our whole team. Proud that we’re asking the big questions and doing the deep listening. And proud that we’re building AI-powered tools that make studying not just possible, but personal.
As we celebrate Global Accessibility Awareness Day, I hope this gives you a window into what inclusive design looks like behind the scenes. If you work in EdTech, accessibility, or student support, we’d love to connect, collaborate, and keep learning together.
Let’s make education better for everyone.
Want to learn more about how we’re building accessible, AI-powered tools for education? Explore Tailo and Present Pal, or get in touch — we’d love to hear from you.
