Untapped’s website renovation: how iilo Creative Alliance made it accessible and easy to see our impact

Overview

Untapped Accessibility partnered with creative services studio iilo Creative Alliance to renovate our website into an accessibility-first digital presence. We aimed to reflect lived experience, support our national growth, and make it easier for organizations to engage with our expertise.

We’ve worked closely with the values-based team at iilo on several communications and design projects since Untapped’s inception. Their deep understanding of our business, paired with clear, direct collaboration with our team, always results in high-quality, impactful work. This joint effort on our website was no exception.

The creative challenge

While our existing website was accessible and visually modern, we were ready for a stronger digital presence to support our expansion across Canada and position ourselves as a national thought leader in the accessibility space. We engaged iilo to complete a website renovation focused on a comprehensive content overhaul, user experience and design upgrades, and supporting web development.

This work was done at a pivotal moment in the accessibility landscape. More organizations are choosing to comply voluntarily with the Accessible Canada Act ahead of its January 2040 goal to make Canada barrier-free. With proposed digital accessibility updates to the Accessible Canada Regulations approaching in June 2027 and June 2028, Untapped is well-positioned to articulate our expertise and readiness to support this growing demand.

iilo took a collaborative approach and listened closely throughout the project. Through working sessions and iterative reviews, they aligned strategy, writing, design, and development around a single goal: creating a digital experience that centres users and makes accessibility actionable.

The project focused on repositioning the website around diverse client needs and real-world use cases. iilo applied plain language principles and accessibility-first best practices throughout, to communicate accessibility concepts clearly and confidently. They also created a flexible site structure to support our future growth and new offerings.

Outcomes

Strategy: By prioritizing user experience and clear communications, we refreshed what was already working, while repositioning the site to feel distinctly user-focused. The result is a website that supports Untapped’s national reach and communicates our value with confidence.

Writing: All existing content was rewritten, and new sections were added to better reflect Untapped’s strength in the “how” of accessibility, all grounded in the lived experience of disability and real-world implementation. The content now clearly connects services, frameworks, and outcomes, helping our clients understand how each offering supports measurable progress towards accessible workspaces, services, and communities.

Design: Working with Untapped’s existing brand, which already stands out in the accessibility space, iilo introduced more visual energy and consistency. Our expanded use of imagery, graphic elements, icons, and easy-to-process layouts brought new life to the site while maintaining focus and usability.

Web development: The site was programmed to enhance functionality while elevating accessibility. iilo introduced a search function, improved filtering for the blog and resource-rich content, and strengthened usability across the site to support user exploration and interaction.

Client empowerment: A key goal was ensuring our team could confidently manage the new website independently after iilo’s work was done. The website documentation and training materials iilo delivered enabled a new Untapped staff member to manage the website backend without having been involved in the project—a clear indicator of long-term usability and sustainability.

Accessibility: To truly consider a website accessible and compliant with current standards, it should be tested by people with disabilities. Ahead of the site launch, an extensive audit by our friends at Easy Surf tested the site from the first-hand experience of disabled users.

The audit found approximately 35 accessibility issues—a significant outcome compared to the 100–200 issues typically found during Easy Surf’s website audits—reflecting the strength of the accessibility-first approach we took throughout the project. They wrote their own case study about this project to share the approaches that helped us produce the most accessible site possible.

We can now proudly say that the improved Untapped website is accessible and conforms to WCAG 2.2 Level AA standards, with two outstanding issues. We’re very pleased with our improved site and its potential to help us deepen our storytelling, showcase our clients and client work, and highlight our efforts to improve accessibility.

If you need a website refresh and are looking for similar outcomes, reach out to the iilo team! They’ll help you get there.