Hi, I'm Lidia

I didn't come to accessibility through UX — I came to UX through accessibility. After 7 years teaching math and working closely with autistic, disabled, and neurodivergent students, I now design WCAG 2.2 AA–conformant products that remove the barriers I watched my students hit every day. Native Spanish speaker, adept at cross-cultural research.

Recent Win #1 140% boost in EOC pass ratesInclusive, data-informed instruction at Bob Hope HS
Recent Win #2 9.8× increase in communication usageComBoard AAC tool for a disabled student
Location Seattle, WAOpen to remote & hybrid
Lidia grins while peeking through a stone opening at a desert ruins site.

Core Skills

What I Do

  • User Research
  • Wireframing
  • Prototyping
  • Usability Testing
  • Information Architecture
  • Journey Mapping
  • Personas
  • Affinity Mapping
  • Inclusive Design
  • Responsive Design Systems
  • Accessibility (WCAG 2.2)
  • Visual Design

Tools

  • Figma
  • Webflow
  • Astro
  • HTML/CSS
  • Miro
  • Adobe Suite
  • WCAG Audits

My Story

The Moment I Noticed

In my fourth year teaching, I met a nonspeaking student with cerebral palsy who had rejected every AAC device. They exhausted her, blocked her face, and weren't designed for her — just for the average user. Working with her and her family to co-create a communication tool became the most meaningful work of my teaching career. That effort became ComBoard, a personalized AAC tool that achieved a 9.8× increase in communication usage vs. her prior tools.

That experience changed how I saw every tool, every interface. I started noticing who was being left out — in assistive technology, in learning software, in finance tools. The defaults are not working for everyone.

Four students sitting at desks using Chromebooks, graphing calculators, and whiteboards in a classroom setting.

The Shift

I started learning UX the way I teach — by doing. I conducted user interviews, built affinity maps, ran usability studies, and iterated on wireframes and prototypes in Figma. Along the way, I earned Google's UX Design Professional Certificate, which formalized the methods I was already practicing. But the foundation — designing with the people you're designing for — came from the classroom.

An affinity map created in Miro showing clustered sticky notes from a usability study.
Lidia smiles in a black blazer at her Our Light Unbound art exhibition. Let's talk

What I'm Looking For

I'm looking for a product design role where accessibility is part of the design culture. I do my best work on teams that value research, care about the people they're building for, and give designers room to advocate for inclusive solutions.