Interview with Valeria Malacasa

Valeria Malacasa is a web designer and UX/UI designer from Turin.

Since 2016, she has been designing and developing websites and web interfaces, both for private brands and for Italian public administration entities.

In 2026, she created the Switch newsletter on LinkedIn, through which she shares insights on web accessibility, inclusivity, web design, web usability, and web performance optimization. She is the author of the book "Switch on - Accessibility".

1. Valeria, let's start simple: why a book on web accessibility right now? Was there an episode, a project, or a professional frustration that made you say: “Okay, this needs to be organized”?

Here (on LinkedIn ed.), I started publishing educational and informative content on web accessibility around early 2026, and I immediately found a good response. 

In particular, one of my followers commented on a post about skip links: “I’m learning more from you than in many courses I’ve taken”. Others wrote to me, privately and publicly, that with my simple language I was able to explain even complex concepts without making them boring.

This gave me the push I needed!

I realized I had things to say and that there was a need for a tool that would bring professionals closer to web accessibility, in an “entry level” format that got straight to the point.

2. Switch On: Accessibility is your first book. What motivated you to transform skills, examples, and checklists into a structured guide?

I have been working on public administration projects since early 2022, and over the years I have understood that there are still many prejudices and barriers regarding web accessibility that discourage designers and developers.

First and foremost: the idea that web accessibility is difficult, both to study and to apply.

In reality, many of the best practices are simple, more than one might think!

But if you start studying accessibility from the official W3C documentation or from a 350-page manual on regulations, the history of digital accessibility, and a complete explanation of the WCAG (the international standards for web accessibility), it’s clear that one can get discouraged and abandon the topic, delegating it to specialized figures.

This is mainly why I wanted to create a practical, well-structured, agile guide focused only on what is truly needed in the daily work of web designers and web developers, so that by the time readers reach the last page, they think: “So, it’s not that complicated to create an accessible website!”

3. Who did you think of while writing it: designers, developers, agencies, freelancers, end clients? Who would you like to keep it open next to their monitor while working?

It is primarily written for web designers, or anyone involved in graphic design and website development.

I wrote the book drawing from my experience as a web designer and followed exactly the process of working on my projects, starting with an overview of accessibility, then moving to graphic design, development, content creation using inclusive language, and finally testing.

4. Many treat accessibility as a final check, almost a review to do when the site is already finished. Why do you think this is a mistake?

The idea that a product or service must be usable by all people, regardless of their physical and mental conditions, whether or not they have disabilities, must be integrated into the project from the very beginning.

Addressing it only at the end of the project leads to two main disadvantages:

1. low or nonexistent level of accessibility;
2. greater investment for the review.

A concrete example: curb ramps.

If a sidewalk does not have a ramp that allows smooth passage for wheelchair users, people with reduced mobility, or those pushing a stroller, what happens? The two scenarios are usually:

1. in the worst case, the sidewalk remains as is, along with the architectural barrier;
2. in the best case, the sidewalk is broken up and a ramp is added, incurring costs for the community in terms of money and time.

If, however, that sidewalk had been built from the start with the appropriate ramps, the problem would not have arisen, the timelines and costs of construction would have been virtually identical, and the architectural barrier would never have appeared.

I’ve simplified a bit, but the concept applies to web accessibility as well.

Revising the code and graphics of an interface can take weeks of development, with resulting costs that would be practically eliminated if accessibility were included from the outset.

Often, it is these rework costs that block progress, and interfaces remain inaccessible.

5. What is the toughest myth to debunk about web accessibility? The one you hear repeated most often that makes you want to throw a WCAG validator out the window.

There are quite a few, and the reaction is more or less that!

Probably, the one that bothers me the most - and that I also included in the book - is that web accessibility only concerns a few people.

There are two aspects of this myth that need to be debunked.

First of all, web accessibility potentially concerns everyone, not just people with disabilities. Think about color contrast: it is useful for visually impaired individuals, but also for those using their phone in the sun or with reduced brightness. A bit like the curb ramp I mentioned earlier: it is essential for wheelchair users, but also helpful for me when I’m pushing my child in a stroller or for someone temporarily using crutches.

Secondly, there is a more ethical reason why this prejudice makes no sense.

If the people who could benefit from an accessible website were indeed few, would that be a good reason to exclude them? Why should a blind or deaf person “count less” than a hundred non-blind and non-deaf people? And if that one person with a disability were the right one for the website, needing to request a quote or a demo of the product sold?

Another significant advantage in web design is that clean and semantic HTML code is beneficial for both screen readers and search engine bots and AIs, which has positive repercussions on SEO and GEO.

6. In the book, you talk about accessible design, color contrast, semantic HTML, ARIA, screen readers, and keyboard navigation. Where should someone who feels like they are facing a maze start today?

I won’t lie to you: there are many accessibility rules, some simpler, others less so, and not all good practices are codified in the WCAG. Web accessibility involves various aspects, both visual and non-visual, all equally important.

The good news is that you don’t necessarily have to know them all!

Design is the first step because if there are accessibility issues, they will also arise during development, but it cannot be denied that using semantic HTML code is fundamental for an accessible interface.

This is why my book is a good starting point, as it identifies only the essential rules and provides an overview of the topic.

7. If you had to indicate three common mistakes that make a website less accessible, which would you choose? Those small, everyday, seemingly harmless ones that can close doors in users' faces.

These are the mistakes I see most frequently - and, by the way, those that are also easier to fix - :

1. insufficient contrast ratio between text and background;
2. using HTML <button> tags for links and <a> for buttons;
3. lack of a skip link at the beginning of the page.

These are three "small" mistakes, easy to fix, but for a person using a screen reader, with visual impairments or difficulties using a mouse and trackpad, they make navigation complex and frustrating.

8. How much does accessibility weigh in the overall quality of a website? In other words: is an accessible website "just" more inclusive, or is it also better designed?

For me, accessibility weighs as much as all the other qualitative aspects, from aesthetics to conversion optimization.

Many accessibility best practices have significant implications for SEO, usability, and conversions.

A very beautiful website, but not accessible, will likely have messy and non-semantic HTML, content that changes via JavaScript, complex visual elements to perceive and use, and this is not just a problem for people with disabilities: it is a problem for all visitors and a potential loss of business and branding opportunities for those who have invested money in that website.

An accessible website benefits anyone who visits it, and consequently also benefits the brand that wants to achieve tangible results with that site.

9. What can agencies and teams concretely do to integrate accessibility into the process without turning it into a bureaucratic mountain?

First of all, it is essential to understand what web accessibility is and why it is important.

It is an indispensable part of our work and is the reason I included this topic in the first part of my book.

We must abandon any prejudice, understand the principles on which accessibility is based, and what benefits it brings, not only to the visitors of a website but to all stakeholders.

Subsequently, one can start from my book, or study more comprehensive manuals, but undoubtedly at some point, one must open the W3C website and study the WCAG, at least those at level A and AA that apply to the project being developed.

There are also other regulatory aspects to explore, such as the accessibility statement and the feedback mechanism. Here, dealing with bureaucracy is inevitable if the website falls under the obligations set forth by the Stanca Law or the recent European Accessibility Act. 

10. If a person finished your book and decided to change just one thing in the way they design or develop websites, what would you want it to be?

I would like that person to learn to always ask themselves questions, which is the reason I created the Switch project.

If the person who read the book started a new website, and at the moment of writing the HTML code for the logo in the top left corner asked themselves: “Wait, if I write it this way, will the screen reader read it correctly?” then I will have certainly achieved my goal!

You can learn more about Valeria on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/valeriamalacasa/ or on her website: valeriamalacasa.it