Season 2 Episode #23: Adrián Bolonio picked accessibility as a conference talk topic almost at random. It became a career-defining commitment that took him from Willhaben to GitHub, where he built the platform's first accessibility settings, to Miro, where he turned a visual canvas into audio with footsteps and trash can sounds.

We explore why the same accessibility issues top the WebAim survey every year and nobody fixes them, how to convince leadership to prioritise accessibility under shipping pressure, and why AI is simultaneously helping and hurting the cause. Adrián also shares what it takes to build accessibility into design systems rather than bolt it on, and why no ARIA is always better than bad ARIA.

From DuckTales on floppy disks to frontend engineering - how curiosity, accessibility, and a conference talk shaped a career across four companies

A computer at home in the early 90s made him want to know how things worked inside - frontend was the creative side that stuck
He became an accessibility advocate not through personal experience but by recognising it as a core engineering skill like security or performance
Needing a topic for his first conference talk led him to dig into accessibility, and he never stopped
His career spans Willhaben, GitHub, Miro, and kununu - each with radically different users and challenges that made him a better engineer

From leading cross-functional teams back to individual contributor - and why that's not going backwards

He proposed a React migration at Willhaben, it was approved, and suddenly he was building and hiring the frontend team
A reorganisation added backend, iOS, Android, DevOps, and QA engineers to his scope overnight
The biggest lesson from management: disagree inside, but present one voice to stakeholders and always back your team
Joining GitHub's accessibility team as an IC wasn't a step back - it was a deliberate move to grow in a field he was passionate about

Building accessibility in, not bolting it on - design systems, common gaps, and convincing leadership it matters

Components should be accessible-ready from the start, with limited freedom so consumers can't misuse them
The same accessibility issues top the WebAim survey every year: colour contrast, empty buttons, missing labels, missing lang attributes
His approach to convincing leadership: become the expert, audit the current state, build automation quietly, then show the data
The EU Accessibility Act means inaccessibility will eventually cost companies money, not just users

AI is a co-pilot not a pilot - and it's already making accessibility both better and worse

He's seen AI-generated pull requests with ARIA attributes that make absolutely no sense
At Miro he built AI-suggested image descriptions, but the key rule was the user must accept it, never auto-apply
No ARIA is better than bad ARIA - AI tends to duplicate roles and add labels where none are needed
Footsteps approaching, trash can sounds, and pop notifications turned Miro's visual collaboration into audio for screen reader users

Adrian Bolonio

Senior Frontend Engineer at kununu

Adrian Bolonio is a Senior Frontend Engineer at kununu who has built accessibility into products used by millions. At Willhaben he led a cross-functional team through a React migration, at GitHub he helped build the platform's first ever accessibility settings, and at Miro he figured out how to make a visual collaboration tool work through footsteps, trash can sounds, and pop notifications for screen reader users. He speaks at conferences across Europe about design systems and accessibility, and is driven by helping engineers understand not just the what but the why behind every line of code they ship.

Josh William Burmistre-Griffiths

Digital Marketing and Paid Ad Specialist

Josh William Burmistre-Griffiths works at TestDevLab, focusing on digital marketing and paid advertising across multiple platforms. His past experience working at agencies and unicorn startups in Latvia has equipped Josh with the expertise and a unique perspective that combines hands-on experience with a deep understanding of how technology shapes modern marketing practices. Helping him bring valuable digital marketing insight to the Tech Effect podcast.

#42 Adrián Bolonio (Kununu): No ARIA Is Better Than Bad ARIA - And AI Is Making It Worse

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