Where accessibility gets complicated

A girl in a fur hat lying on the ground typing on a keyboard while an angry polar bear tries to drag her away — a framed cat photo and magnifying glass sit nearby

Hi, I'm Alexandra — a Frontend Engineer focused on accessibility and the modern web.

Most teams say accessibility matters. Few actually build it into their development process. Many now assume AI will help close that gap — but not many know how to verify whether the results are actually accessible. This blog is about what it takes to do that work in practice.

How it started

I was born in a remote part of Siberia. My path into tech started there, studying Computer Software Engineering through to a Master's degree. Looking back, the degree mattered less than the mindset: the confidence to figure things out, even when I didn't know where to start.

During my master's, I taught a course on Software Development Methodology — my first time explaining ideas to an audience. That experience gave me a principle I still carry: understanding something deeply means being able to make it simple for someone else.

Relocation(s)

Three panels showing a girl in a fur hat packing moving boxes: first in Novosibirsk with a bear and snow, then in Amsterdam with canals and tulips, then in Seattle with the Space Needle and a coffee mug

There are many reasons I left, but this thought first crossed my mind when LinkedIn got blocked in my home country.

I moved to the Netherlands in 2019. It was a bold step — I barely spoke English (I could read, though!) or Dutch. But I picked up the language quickly, and once companies started hiring again after the 2020 freeze, I landed a role on a large and well-known e-commerce project.

Whenever I told someone where I worked, the reaction was always the same:

"Oh wow! yeah-yeah, I love them!"

I enjoyed that a lot, but it also made me realize how much I wanted to be part of a company that makes a difference in people's lives.

E-commerce, data insights & frontend

I enjoy working with data (I used to work as a web-analyst back in Siberia), so my first major project was building an A/B testing strategy and development guidelines with the Data Team. Once the process was running, I moved to the team responsible for product listing pages (PLP), product detail pages (PDP), and search.

It was a real adventure: first, understanding a large legacy codebase (and the most challenging part — getting all of it running on my machine locally haha), then working with the team who rewrote the first pages — PLP & PDP on Vue, TypeScript, and Nuxt. Going from legacy to a modern stack was one of the most rewarding experiences of my career.

Accessibility in practice

Before moving to Europe, I studied web standards and accessibility seriously — I'd heard they were essential for the European market, a must-have given accessibility regulations. The reality turned out to be more complicated than that — but more on that in future posts.

I took the initiative and started changing how the team approached accessibility — the development process, the testing, the whole workflow. It was complicated — but if you've ever tried to change how a fast-moving e-commerce team builds software, that won't surprise you.

What's next

Since December 2025, I've been living in the United States — my second major move. Now that I have a bit more room to breathe, I want to write about the challenges and recurring questions frontend engineers and product teams face in e-commerce projects. Teaching showed me that explaining something clearly is one of the best ways to understand it deeply — and I hope writing will work the same way.

I'm starting with accessibility. I'll also write about other things that interest me — but you can always filter posts by tag if you're only here for the tech.

I'll soon be looking for my next role in the U.S.

If you're building something, send me a message or let's connect.