2026 Progress Report

Introduction

This is Spotify's first annual progress report on our Accessibility Plan covering the period from June 2025 to June 2026. It tracks our progress against the commitments we made across six areas. The report was developed with input from teams across Spotify and provides an account of what we've delivered, what's still underway, and where we're focusing next.

How we consulted people with disabilities

"Nothing About Us Without Us" is a fundamental belief of the Disability Rights Movement, describing the need for the full participation of disabled people in any work and innovation on their behalf. The Accessibility Plan we published in June 2025 was shaped by extensive consultation with people with disabilities and we have continued that consultation throughout the past year. The work captured in this progress report is what those priorities looked like in practice.

This year we consulted people with disabilities through five channels:

1. Fable Engage usability testing at a cadence of roughly ten tests per month with screen reader, alternate navigation, and magnification users on iOS, Android, and Web. Approximately 90 tests took place during the reporting period, across core listener flows, newer surfaces, and our For the Record newsroom site.
2. The Accessibility Centre feedback form, which routes submissions directly to the Program Manager for the Accessibility Team and received 56 submissions during the reporting period (11 anonymous, 45 from registered users).
3. The Be My Eyes voice support partnership, which provides blind and low-vision users a live route to a human agent for help with Spotify.
4. EP 206, our flagship accessibility training program for R&D, co-created with Fable, with video segments of Fable testers built directly into the course content.
5. The Accessibility Advisory Board, which met quarterly during the reporting period and includes external representatives from Fable.

We also continue to draw on the Fable-led survey of 101 users with disabilities and the focus groups that reviewed our draft Plan, both of which were conducted in advance of publication and set the priorities the Plan committed us to deliver.

Feedback received

The priorities people with disabilities shared with us during the development of the 2025 Plan have continued to guide our work this year, and have been reinforced through ongoing feedback channels.

What people with disabilities told us matters most. Through the original Fable survey, respondents told us that meaningful accessibility work begins with testing alongside people with disabilities, that training is most credible when informed by people with disabilities themselves, that hiring processes need to work reliably with assistive technology, and that customer support is only as valuable as the responding agent's familiarity with assistive technology and accessibility. They told us that being able to reach a real person is a baseline expectation in any support experience, that vendor accessibility should be tested before purchase, that quality transcripts and assistive technology compatibility are what make corporate communications usable, and that they want commitments paired with clear timelines and measurable progress.

What we have heard this year. Across approximately 90 Fable Engage tests, recurring opportunities emerged to improve assistive technology support, navigation and discoverability, and friction in common user flows. Each test produced an Accessible Usability Scale score and entered the same remediation workflow as our third-party audit findings. The 56 Accessibility Center form submissions were triaged by Customer Service and either resolved directly or routed to the relevant product team.

How we listened

This year was the first full year of acting on the priorities people with disabilities had given us through the development of the 2025 Plan, and the examples below show how that consultation translated into delivery in each of the Plan's areas.

• Continuing the customer support example we cited as the headline in our 2025 Plan, the Customer Service workstream has moved beyond commitment to delivery this year. As described in the "Information and Communication Technologies" section of this report, we have designed and staffed a Dedicated Accessibility Support team, drawing on our Be My Eyes advisor community, with launch scheduled for May 2026.
• In response to feedback that training is most credible when informed by people with disabilities, the Education workstream delivered EP 206 in partnership with Fable, with Fable testers featured throughout the course content. Approximately 250 R&D employees and the full Customer Service team completed accessibility training this year.
• In response to feedback that meaningful accessibility work depends on testing with people with disabilities, we scaled our Fable Engage partnership to a consistent monthly cadence, and recurring testing themes now feed automated checks our engineers run during development, so the same problems don't come back. We also commissioned Fable to test our internal learning platform before launch, which led the vendor to make accessibility improvements before it reached our employees.
• In response to feedback that quality transcripts, assistive technology compatibility, and simple navigation are what make corporate communications usable, the Communications workstream tested our For the Record newsroom site with people with disabilities and is addressing the issues identified. Internally, alt text on image-based communications, closed captions on hosted videos, and accessibility-friendly color palettes for presentations are now standard, and we have enabled platform-level accessibility features on our social media channels.
• In response to feedback that hiring processes need to work reliably with assistive technology, the Employment workstream updated job descriptions and postings with an accommodations statement and arranged for the Talent Acquisition team to proactively offer accommodations at every stage.
• In response to focus group feedback that the procurement section of the original Plan had no defined standard, the Procurement workstream spent this year building the foundations the work depends on: a Governance Vision document, a draft set of vendor accessibility assessment questions, and a tiering methodology for evaluating vendors at the point of procurement.
• In response to feedback that commitments need clearer timelines and measurable progress, the Insights workstream established a third-party-anchored conformance measurement approach and built an accessibility health dashboard. This progress report itself, paired with the quarterly Accessibility Advisory Board, is part of our response to that feedback.

What we heard but have not yet acted on. Several items remain open. Focus group participants asked for additional ways to submit feedback beyond the form on the Accessibility Centre, which remains an open commitment. We have not yet established a scalable approach for alt text on social media or completed the Fable consultation on experiential marketing standards.

Employment

In our 2025 Accessibility Plan, we committed to making our hiring and HR practices work better for candidates and employees with disabilities. People with disabilities told us through our consultation that hiring commitments are only as credible as whether the application process actually works with assistive technology.

• Participate in the Disability Equality Index to benchmark our efforts.
  • Signed up to participate in the Disability Equality Index to benchmark our efforts in 2026 after being awarded “Best Place to Work for Disability Inclusion” in July of 2025.
• Identify an executive sponsor for our Disability & Neurodiversity Belonging Group.
  • In progress
• Improve the accessibility of our hiring process, including our external recruitment website, Life at Spotify, and our internal mobility platform.
  • Job descriptions and postings now include instructions about how to request accommodations at any stage of the application or interview process. We haven’t started tracking requests or reporting on outcomes yet.
• Continue to develop resources, programs, tools, and support for disabled and neurodivergent employees and managers.
  • Launched a global mental health platform for all bandmates. Focusing on better understanding the experiences of neurodivergent bandmates.
• Collaborate with our community experience team to ensure all internal employee engagement events are accessible—track requests for accessibility at events to help with future planning.
  • Partnered up with our community experience team for Spotify’s upcoming company-wide event to brief event staff on accommodations for bandmates with disabilities.
• Audit internal HR systems and applications and make progress in ensuring accessibility for all employees.
  • In the process of auditing our systems. We launched our newest platform in collaboration with the Accessibility team and Fable to make the experience as accessible as possible, making all necessary changes before launch.
• Review accommodations process to identify areas for improvement.
  • Not yet started.

Built environment

In our 2025 Accessibility Plan, we committed to creating physically accessible workplace environments for every employee and visitor. People with disabilities told us through our consultation that office accessibility depends on navigation, sound, lighting, and the availability of quiet spaces.

• Communicate with employees about the variety of spaces and accommodations available to them, like Focus Areas and Presentation Pods.
  • Planned new spaces in our New York City and Stockholm headquarters which reduce sensory overload and give neurodivergent employees the quiet, controlled environments they need to do their best work. To be implemented in the next year.
  • Working with our Design and Build team to identify all available accommodations and spaces in each office to share by Q3 2026.
• Update our accessibility guidelines and adopt them for all new projects.
  • Implemented guidelines for all new projects ensuring that physical improvements from door automation and signage to meeting room furniture heights and sensory environment design are delivered to a defined standard.
  • Added clearer wayfinding across interior circulation routes, improved lighting at entry points and in corridors, and configured more accessible meeting rooms (including table heights that accommodate wheelchair users and oval/round tables that support lip-reading for those with hearing challenges).
• Audit our guidelines to address gaps and address them in an update.
  • Identifying additional resources to audit and update guidelines.
• Provide accessibility training for our Global Workplace Services team.
  • Not yet started.

Information and communication technologies (ICT)

In our 2025 Accessibility Plan, we committed to building a Customer Service team with the specialized knowledge and tools to support people with disabilities, and to resolving accessibility issues across our customer-facing and internal support tools. People with disabilities told us through our consultation that the value of customer support depends on whether the responding agent is familiar with assistive technology and accessibility.

• Build a team within our team with the specialized knowledge, skills, and tools to support people with disabilities.
  • Finalized the blueprint for our dedicated Accessibility Support team, including role definitions, advanced technical training, and end-to-end case handling pathways.
• Coach all teams to provide a high level of support to users with disabilities.
  • Reworked training based on knowledge gaps we saw by reviewing cases and specialized accessibility team standards.
  • All Customer Service advisors completed accessibility training.
• Resolve existing issues and improve our Customer Service platform, self-serve surfaces, and bot experiences to improve their accessibility.
  • Resolved 100% of issues.
• Establish a process to continuously review and improve external-facing customer service tools.
  • Accessibility form now routes directly to advisors and is always monitored.
• Resolve existing issues and improve the accessibility of our internal operator tools.
  • Audited 100% of our tools. Started work on fixing issues identified in the audit.
• Establish a process to continuously review and improve internal operator tools.
  • New Accessibility Support team will continuously review and improve these tools based on feedback from internal channels.
• Build out our performance management framework to better cover accessibility-related interactions.
  • New Accessibility Support team will train Quality Assurance to understand issues and assess performance.
• Maintain and review our authorship philosophy to reflect accessible writing standards (as defined by Spotify's design system) and publish content that meets a range of customer needs and learning styles.
  • Not yet officially started, but any documentation considered in our first year of progress has met accessibility standards.
• Continuously monitor and improve based on customer feedback and regular auditing.
  • Working group established, meeting cadence in place with project stakeholders and Accessibility leadership. Progress reports distributed during monthly syncs.

Communication, other than ICT

In our 2025 Accessibility Plan, we committed to standardizing accessible formats and communications across our online experiences, internal and external assets, and social media channels. People with disabilities told us through our consultation that quality transcripts, assistive technology compatibility, and simple navigation are what make corporate communications usable.

• Adopt and standardize accessible formats and communications across online experiences like our newsroom or social media channels.
  • Tested newsroom site (For the Record) with people with disabilities and are working to address the issues they identified.
• Structure best practices for internal and external images, assets, and presentations.
  • All image-based internal communications are accompanied by alt text.
  • All internal hosted videos are distributed with closed captions.
  • All internal presentations are designed with color schemes from an approved list of accessibility-friendly combinations.
• Build a system for employees to share feedback internally on assets.
  • Not yet started.
• Audit marketing assets and resources to identify any potential improvements or helpful resources we could add.
  • Identified timeframe (Q1 2027) and point of contact for audit.
• Work with regions to ensure all social media channels have enabled auto-generated captions and other in-platform accessibility features.
  • Using burned in subtitles on videos as well as platform generated captioning (which can be autotranslated) to provide non-audio and non-english options.
  • Auto-enabled each social platform’s accessibility features (text to speech, screen reader capabilities, etc.).
  • Working on figuring out a scalable approach for alt text.
• Consult with Fable to assess our existing standards for experiential marketing and plan for additional measures.
  • Not yet started.
• Send pre-arrival communications to invitees for in-person experiences to prevent potential discomfort (e.g., "this event will feature a performance that includes flashing lights").
  • Learned that pre-arrival communications are not always feasible for events. Accessibility signage is available on site as standard practice.

Procurement of goods, services, and facilities

In our 2025 Accessibility Plan, we committed to ensuring third-party tools and vendors meet accessibility standards through our procurement and contracting processes. People with disabilities told us through our consultation that products should be tested for accessibility before they are purchased, and focus group participants asked us to define the standards we apply when assessing vendor accessibility.

• Prioritize updating the Spotify for Vendors website with our accessibility statement, which will support internal and external socialization of the policy.
  • Drafted communications plan to socialize the new requirements and raise awareness of vendor accessibility obligations internally.
  • Plan framework is complete. Individual communications are in progress.
• Assess key strategic vendors in relevant spend categories to evaluate accessibility considerations.
  • Not yet started.
• Develop a plan to incorporate accessibility questions into existing request for proposal (RFP) process and vendor onboarding process for in-scope categories.
  • Drafted accessibility assessment questions which will become the scoring methodology against which we will evaluate vendor accessibility.

Design and delivery of programs and services

In our 2025 Accessibility Plan, we committed to embedding accessibility across the full lifecycle of how we design, build, test, train, and improve our programs and services. People with disabilities told us through our consultation that meaningful accessibility work begins with testing alongside people with disabilities, that training is most credible when informed by people with disabilities themselves, and that commitments need to be paired with measurable progress.

Training and documentation

• Advocate for all Research and Development employees to complete accessibility training.
  • Trained ~250 R&D employees (~5%), as well as the entire Customer Support team.
• Update courses to make them more applicable to specific product areas.
  • Created a Product Management track and have received positive feedback.
• Encourage people to complete in-depth, role-specific training.
  • Scheduling new cohorts on a rolling basis.
• Develop a do-it-yourself accessibility kit for teams to train themselves.
  • Pivoted from creating a static checklist to creating a mechanism that embeds guidance directly in the developer workflow.
• Develop and schedule a communications plan for existing courses to increase internal awareness.
  • Complete.
• Review the program's outcomes and gather feedback to identify areas for improvement. Adjust the program as needed for future iterations.
  • Gathering feedback and tracking satisfaction scores after each cohort, adjusting the material on a continuous basis.
• Provide the insights team with key metrics from training, including enrollment and feedback data and improve training content and availability from this data.
  • Sharing the number of participants, what team they’re on, and which section they take which drives decisions on how to increase engagement and enrollment.

Team

• Create our internal accessibility champions network and encourage them to influence the business to retain accessibility as a first-class citizen alongside other non-functional requirements.
  • Created interconnected layers of accessibility advocacy across the organization with graduates of our training program, an advisory board, an active Slack channel, and engagement with cross-functional leadership rather than a single “champions network”.
• Grow our internal accessibility champions network and continue to advocate for accessibility.
  • Ongoing.
• Fold our mature internal accessibility champions network into a more formal career development framework at Spotify, for example, demonstrated proactivity in accessibility work as one new prerequisite in Spotify's career framework.
  • Not yet started.

Audits, research, and analysis

• Continually assess the state of accessibility at Spotify with regular audits, including people with disabilities, and keep track of response times to reduce time between problem discovery and resolution.
  • Completed a mobile audit cycle in H2 of 2025 and have remediated 100% of blocking issues, 99% of critical, ~60% of major, and ~65% of minor.
  • Running live usability testing sessions with people with disabilities through Fable Engage on core Spotify flows and generating Accessible Usability Scale (AUS) scores.
• Use data-driven analysis and storytelling to keep track of accessibility work and offer cross-org commendations for proactive work.
  • Evaluating Accessible Usability Scale methodology to see if it can serve as a single conformance metric or if it is better as a supporting signal alongside audit findings. Quarterly Advisory Board meetings recognize proactive work.
• Audit Spotify microsites and websites.
  • Audited some, not all.
• Expand audit and accessibility scope to internal products.
  • Not yet started.

Process

• For the product discovery stage: Map all primary points of design, product, and software development lifecycles that could benefit from appropriate tooling, testing infrastructure, and automation. Build/integrate appropriate tooling, testing infrastructure, and automation into relevant sections of our design, product, and software development workflows.
  • Accessibility tooling is being embedded at multiple points in the development lifecycle.
  • Running automated fixes for known issues, testing each fix rule against real production code, and building in design system guidance so teams land on the right components rather than workarounds.
  • Accessibility PR review rules are already active across several web-facing repos
• Iteration and maintenance stage: Invest in the appropriate tooling, testing infrastructure, and automation to allow us to shift accessibility thinking earlier into the product development lifecycle. Introduce workflows for Spotify employees to independently contribute revisions to relevant accessibility content.
  • Reliable codemod rules are promoted into a PR-level accessibility rule set that runs on every pull request, turning audit findings into enforceable lint rules.
  • On mobile, an automated iOS accessibility testing pipeline is approved and on track to merge, enabling scheduled test runs every six hours. Android pipeline work follows next. Three PRs this cycle moved test systems and documentation under the accessibility team's ownership.
• Rolling support for fixing issues as they arise.
  • Ongoing.
• Uphold accessibility standards with creative product branding.
  • Brand and creative employees have completed accessibility training.