Challenge

Daniel’s Music Foundation (DMF) is a nonprofit organization that is passionately committed to changing perception and diminishing isolation for individuals with disabilities. for over 18 years. They unite people with disabilities by fostering a shared passion for music, through their free Expressive Arts Program. These classes and events combat isolation through socialization, promote confidence and self-esteem through performance, and promote overall health and well-being - spreading joy to thousands of music enthusiasts worldwide, both in-person and online.

In response to the global pandemic, DMF launched an online community to serve their members during a time when they were most isolated , unlocking the potential to connect with a global audience. With 1.3 billion people worldwide living with disabilities—many excluded from the 90-98% of websites with accessibility barriers—DMF needed a website that could keep pace. That's why they turned to us for a solution: a new website that would build trust, spread joy, showcase their impact, and be accessible to people of all abilities.

“What an incredible accomplishment! The hard work and dedication of everyone involved jumps out at every click. It is clear how much thought and effort went into every detail.” - DMF Donor

Strategy

Accessibility is often stigmatized as a trade-off for beautiful, award-worthy design. The team set out to challenge that stigma and elevate the standard for accessible design.

Rather than treating accessibility as a checklist of requirements to be addressed late in the project, the team approached it in the same way Daniel’s Music Foundation (DMF) designed their lively music center: as a creative opportunity to build an enriching experience where everyone can participate in the ways that work best for them—without sacrificing any of the joy or impact. Instead of modifying an experience for a few, the focus was on finding ways to translate it for everyone to equally join the fun.

DMF’s brand and digital experience was refreshed and reimagined, transforming how the foundation serves its community online and communicates with a broad audience of parents, caregivers, donors, and partners—capturing the joy of the community without compromising creativity.

The color palette was revamped to create a more inclusive experience. High-contrast neutrals, punctuated with bright accents, enhanced legibility and reflected the diversity of the community.

To ensure inclusivity, a warm, conversational tone was crafted, and alt text was seamlessly integrated into the copy. Thoughtful language choices, like using "Play video" instead of "Watch video," ensured the experience was accessible without creating a sense of “otherness.”

The design system prioritized accessibility, favoring larger font sizes and explicit copy for UI elements. Content was carefully edited into digestible pieces, allowing users to explore at their own pace, reflecting DMF’s teaching philosophy.

An interactive feature called Daily Smiles was introduced, allowing community members to click and reveal a quote from Daniel, followed by smiley emoticons. Through testing, it was learned that repetitive clickable features could cause issues for neurodiverse users, so the interaction was designed to disappear after the first click.

Working closely with the DMF community helped gained a deeper understanding of their needs and designed with accessibility in mind. The experience informed future design principles and contributed to efforts aimed at challenging the wider industry to create a more accessible digital environment for all.

Method

During the discovery phase of the project, DEPT learned a great deal about Daniel’s Music Foundation's (DMF) workflows and recognized the need to implement a headless CMS solution, as well as a MACH architecture overall, to support these workflows. The goal was to empower the DMF team with a website that could easily adapt to the constant flow of new content they were producing.

Providing an accessible and inclusive experience for website visitors was the primary objective for DMF. Contentful enabled the team to meet people where they felt most comfortable by seamlessly distributing content across multiple channels. This approach allowed the team to view accessible design as a creative opportunity, offering both reach and scalability to DMF’s expanding user base. The ability to push various forms of content to the site contributed to the growth of DMF's community and supported their fundraising efforts.

In addition to Contentful, the team heavily leveraged Vercel, Google Cloud and AWS technologies for needs such as cloud hosting, work-based applications, content optimization, data collection, and measurement/conversion tracking.