The Challenge
LiveSpecial connects families of individuals with autism and developmental disabilities to more than 1,900 trusted providers across Northeast Ohio. Many of the people using it live with disabilities themselves or care for someone who does, so accessibility isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s the job.
The old site didn’t meet that bar. Its directory page alone had 233 accessibility issues in an automated scan, mostly text too faint to read, and its pages had no main heading for screen readers to navigate by. Finding a provider meant working through 3 unlabeled dropdowns and a long list.
What I Did
I was the entire team: strategist, designer, developer, and project manager, using agentic AI development (Claude Code) to deliver the work of a small agency on its own.
- Rebuilt the directory around search: a single search box, popular categories one click away, and filters for location, distance, service, age group, and funding.
- Designed for the family, not the database, with provider cards that show category, location, and age range at a glance.
- Made accessibility the baseline: a skip link, a proper heading structure, accessible color contrast, and labeled form controls throughout.
- Made it faster on phones, so the main content appears in under 3 seconds.
- Managed scope, timeline, and stakeholders with the JWA/Cleveland team through a formal Statement of Work.
The Result
The new home and directory pages pass an automated WCAG 2.1 AA scan with no issues, down from 249. The Lighthouse accessibility score rose from 91 to 100, and the main content now appears on a phone in 2.7 seconds instead of 4.6.
