National Industry for the Blind
What began as a single website rebuild grew into a multi-year relationship spanning several sites, built for the nation's largest employer of people who are blind.
- Engaged
- 2016
- Engagement
- Multi-year
- Platform
- WordPress, Next.js
- Sector
- Nonprofit
The Brief
One accessible rebuild, for an organization that lives accessibility every day.
NIB is the nation's largest employer of people who are blind, and its website needed to practice what the organization preaches. The first engagement was a single project: move off an aging Drupal site and rebuild it on WordPress, accessible to the people who visit it and the staff who run it. Accessibility could not be a front-end coat of paint. Staff who are blind had to create and manage content on their own, by screen reader and keyboard alone.
The Solution
The first build went well enough that it never really ended.
We rebuilt the site on WordPress to a strict accessibility standard, then stayed to host and care for it. Over the years that one project turned into several, including more WordPress work and a set of Next.js and React applications that hold the same accessibility bar as the original site. We managed the infrastructure behind all of it. One rebuild became a long-term partnership across the organization's digital world.
Design & UX
Accessibility shaped in from the first sketch.
We started by learning how the people who depend on NIB actually use the site, then shaped the experience around them. Color and contrast, focus order, keyboard paths, and screen reader semantics were design decisions from the first wireframe, not a checklist bolted on before audit. For an organization whose whole mission is accessibility, the experience had to clear the highest bar.
The rebuild
Off Drupal, onto an accessible WordPress build.
The original engagement was a full move off an aging Drupal site onto WordPress, built to a hybrid of WCAG 2.0 AA and AAA. We handled the content migration ourselves rather than handing it back to the client. Every post type was simplified and every backend workflow was built for screen readers and keyboard navigation, so staff who are blind could publish and manage content independently.
Accessible Next.js development
Modern frameworks, held to the same accessibility bar.
As the relationship grew, the work moved beyond WordPress. We built Next.js and React applications for NIB that meet the same accessibility standard as the original site. Modern frameworks have a reputation for shipping inaccessible interfaces by default. These did not. Semantic markup, managed focus, and assistive-tech testing were part of the build, proving a fast modern stack and real accessibility can live in the same codebase.
Managed infrastructure
We hosted and cared for all of it, for years.
Across every site, WordPress and Next alike, we ran the infrastructure. Hosting on a managed cloud environment, daily backups, uptime monitoring, security patching, and a support channel the team could actually reach. As new projects came online they joined the same managed setup, so the whole of NIB's digital world stayed looked after by one team instead of scattered across vendors.
In their words
The relationship we formed with their team, it's not something that other organizations could buy or reproduce. It's based on their people, passion, and motivation to put out the best product possible.
Tech Stack
What it runs on.
WordPress and a set of Next.js and React applications, all built to a strict accessibility standard and hosted in a managed cloud environment Materiell ran across the engagement.
Next Project
Arlington Public Schools
Forty-plus school sites and 200,000 pages, brought into one accessible platform that teachers across the district can run themselves.
Let's Talk