Marcelo Paiva
I design experiences and ship accessible code that runs them.
I work across product, design, and engineering to turn complex problems into clear, accessible experiences. I define what should be built, shape how it should work, and write the code that brings it into production.
Selected work
Putting WCAG where the code gets written
Open-source accessibility tooling for AI coding environments — WCAG in the statusline, WCAG as an MCP server, contrast enforcement inside a coding agent runtime — plus a cockpit for running a team of agents at once.
Your vendor's accessibility is your accessibility
New hires sign onboarding documents in a third-party signing interface, often on a phone, mid-shift. So I forked it and fixed it, in a language I do not write daily.
W3C: reviewing standards before they harden
Invited Expert on the Accessible Platform Architectures Working Group, which reads emerging web specifications for their effect on people with disabilities — while those specifications can still be changed.
ClearCompany: an HCM platform, designed in code
Two years leading UX and accessibility at ClearCompany — fourteen applications, rebuilt so designers could work in running software instead of drawings of it.
WCAG Plugin for Figma
A free, open-source Figma plugin that puts WCAG guidance, annotation cards and accessibility utility tokens inside the file where design decisions actually get made.
Data about disabled students, in a tool they could not use
An accessible reporting system for IDEA data at the Rhonda Weiss Center, built with 80 stakeholders — including the people with disabilities the data is about, who had rarely been in the room when these tools were designed.
Great Place To Work Hub
I spearheaded the future vision for Great Place to Work Hub, mapping Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion demographic data with employees Belonging sentiment.
No Latin
A web app that turns content blocks into an accessible HTML prototype — built to get Lorem Ipsum out of early design, because placeholder text quietly excludes screen reader users from research.
Sketches
Paper-stage thinking across recruiting workflows, accessibility tooling and design system navigation — ideas at the point where they are still cheap to be wrong about.
UKG: five years inside an HCM suite
Senior UX Manager for the HCM product surface at UKG — HR, payroll, talent acquisition, talent management and workplace culture analytics, used by 5,000 organisations and 15 million employees.