Led procurement and implementation of new accessibility tooling under a regulatory deadline, bringing Honda's European digital platform into EU Accessibility Act compliance across 18 markets.
→ EU Accessibility Act compliance achieved across 18 markets.
Problem
The EU Accessibility Act applied directly to Honda's European digital platform as a legal requirement across all 18 markets, and the tooling in place hadn't been built for the systematic accessibility testing needed to prove and maintain compliance at that scale.
Context
This ran alongside live platform delivery across all 18 markets, on a timeline set by regulation rather than internal planning, with no room to slip because a supplier deal took longer than expected.
Business objective
Procure and implement a new Digital Experience Platform and a Digital Quality Management tool that gave the platform genuine, provable accessibility compliance ahead of the regulatory deadline.
Customer/user objective
Customers across all 18 markets needed a platform that was genuinely accessible, not just compliant on paper, delivered without disrupting business-as-usual work.
Constraints
The procurement and implementation had to run alongside live platform delivery, without pausing business-as-usual work, and the deadline was set by regulation, not something that could be renegotiated internally.
Stakeholders
Legal, who reviewed the chosen approach, security, who signed off before go-live, and market teams across all 18 territories who needed the tooling embedded without disruption.
Research and discovery
I evaluated vendors against what the platform actually needed for systematic accessibility testing at scale, not just against a feature checklist.
Options considered
I considered a phased rollout starting with the most exposed markets versus implementing across all 18 markets at once. I chose the full rollout, since a phased approach would have left some markets non-compliant past the deadline.
Prioritisation
Legal review and the GDPR assessment came before implementation began in earnest, since a tool touching the platform couldn't go live without both cleared first.
Delivery
I led the full procurement process end to end, evaluating vendors, taking the chosen approach through legal review, running the GDPR assessment, and getting security sign-off before anything went live, then managed implementation alongside live platform delivery across all 18 markets.
Decisions made
Running procurement and implementation in parallel with live delivery, rather than pausing business-as-usual work to make room for it, was the decision that mattered most, it kept the platform moving but required tight coordination to avoid the two workstreams colliding.
Trade-offs
Not pausing business-as-usual work for this meant less dedicated focus time on the procurement itself. I accepted that trade since the regulatory deadline gave no flexibility to slow other delivery down instead.
Business outcome
Honda's European platform met EU Accessibility Act requirements, and the new tooling is now embedded as standard practice across all 18 markets, not just the markets most exposed to the immediate deadline.
Customer outcome
Customers across all 18 markets now interact with a platform actively tested for accessibility, not one relying on assumptions about compliance.
Lessons learned
Compliance tooling under a regulatory deadline still needs the same legal, GDPR, and security rigour as any other platform change, the deadline is a reason to move efficiently, not a reason to skip steps.
What I'd improve today
I'd start vendor evaluation earlier relative to the deadline, so there was more buffer if a supplier deal took longer than expected, rather than the timeline being as tight as it was.
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