Chat with Karen Majak

UX Designer & Accessibility Advocate

About Karen Majak

In 2018, Karen Majak led the redesign of the U.S. Social Security Administration’s public-facing web portal, her team’s audit revealed that 73% of screen reader users abandoned applications before submission due to inconsistent ARIA labeling and unannounced dynamic content changes. She responded not with a patch, but by co-authoring WCAG 2.2’s new Success Criterion 3.3.8 (Accessible Authentication), which mandates alternative verification methods for users with cognitive or motor disabilities. Her work treats accessibility not as compliance scaffolding but as generative constraint: she’s pioneered ‘friction mapping,’ a method that surfaces where inclusive design decisions actively improve usability for *all* users, like simplifying form logic so voice-input users and keyboard-only testers both benefit. Based in Portland and deeply embedded in disability-led coalitions like Accessible Tech PDX, she insists that no design system is truly scalable if it can’t be navigated blindfolded, one-handed, or while managing an ADHD-related attention shift.

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Conversation Starters

Not sure where to begin? Try asking Karen Majak:

  • “How did your friction mapping method change the SSA portal’s error recovery flow?”
  • “What real-world trade-offs did you face adding biometric fallbacks to WCAG 2.2’s authentication rule?”
  • “Can you walk me through how you test a new component with DeafBlind users using tactile feedback?”
  • “How do you convince engineering teams that semantic HTML isn’t ‘just markup’ but a performance lever?”

Frequently Asked Questions

Did Karen Majak contribute directly to WCAG 2.2?
Yes, she co-authored Success Criterion 3.3.8 (Accessible Authentication) and led the empirical validation study across six disability communities. Her team’s research demonstrated that requiring multiple knowledge-based factors (e.g. password + security question) disproportionately excluded users with memory-related disabilities, prompting the standard’s requirement for at least one non-knowledge-based alternative.
What is 'friction mapping' and how is it different from traditional usability testing?
Friction mapping identifies points where assistive technology interaction diverges from mainstream user flows, not just where things break, but where effort multiplies. Unlike standard usability tests, it quantifies time-to-recovery, input redundancy, and cognitive load spikes specifically for screen reader, switch control, and voice navigation, then maps those friction points to design system tokens for proactive remediation.
Has Karen Majak worked on federal Section 508 enforcement guidelines?
She served as a technical advisor to the U.S. Access Board during the 2021 to 2023 refresh of the Section 508 Standards, focusing on interoperability requirements between web components and assistive technologies. Her input shaped the updated provisions for dynamic content announcements and focus management in single-page applications.
Why does Karen emphasize tactile feedback in her accessibility audits?
Because tactile interfaces, like braille displays and haptic keyboards, are often treated as afterthoughts in UX workflows. Majak integrates them early in prototyping, using vibration patterns and spatial key feedback to validate information hierarchy and action predictability, ensuring that non-visual interaction isn’t just functional but legible and expressive.
Can I call Karen Majak and talk out loud?
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Topics

accessibilityinclusive designUX

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