Kateryna Porchienova
Senior Engineering Manager at Buffer
In this episode of Señors @ Scale, host Neciu Dan chats with Kateryna Porchienova — Senior Engineering Manager at Buffer — about her programming journey, the craft of animation, and why accessibility should be treated as a foundation of good engineering, not an afterthought.
Main Takeaways from my conversation with Kateryna:
🎨 Animation is the new differentiator.
With the cost of spinning up UIs dropping fast, the quality of motion and interaction defines product craftsmanship. Kateryna explains how details like view transitions and subtle microinteractions give products character — and why animation should serve accessibility, not fight it.
💻 Her path into programming wasn’t linear.
From Pascal and competitive programming in high school to optimizing payment widgets for revenue, Kateryna’s path shows how curiosity and frustration can turn optimization work into real engineering.
♿ Accessibility starts with understanding assistive tech.
She breaks down how screen readers, switches, and even sip-and-puff devices interact with the accessibility tree — and why every frontend developer should try navigating their own app using only a keyboard.
🧩 Learn to use semantic HTML and minimal ARIA.
Many teams overcompensate with ARIA attributes. Kateryna warns that websites using ARIA incorrectly have more errors than those without. Accessibility is about balance — not verbosity.
🛠 Use tools that do the hard work for you.
Libraries like React Aria, Radix, and testing setups in Storybook, Playwright, or Lighthouse help ensure consistent accessibility without reinventing patterns from scratch.
🤖 AI can both help and harm accessibility.
She discusses how AI-assisted code can “overdo” accessibility — overlabeling or injecting redundant ARIA attributes that break experiences. Yet the same technology can generate alt text, identify missing roles, and speed up audits when used thoughtfully.
🚫 Avoid common pitfalls.
From modal dialogs that trap focus to icon-only buttons without hidden labels, Kateryna outlines the subtle mistakes that make UIs unusable for assistive tech — and how to fix them.
💬 Advocacy has to become culture.
Accessibility shouldn’t be a ticket in the sprint backlog. Kateryna shares how teams at Buffer bake accessibility into QA, code review, and design processes — treating it like testing rather than a “nice-to-have.”
📚 Recommended Reads:
- Inspired: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love by Marty Cagan
- Nonviolent Communication by Marshall B. Rosenberg
🎬 Also in this episode:
- How early exposure to inclusion shaped Kateryna’s engineering mindset
- Practical tips for testing with screen readers and reduced motion settings
- Why over-animated UIs can make users physically ill
- How Apple’s AI-generated alt text pushes accessibility forward
- Building a cross-functional culture of empathy and inclusion
Episode Length: 40 minutes of accessibility insights, animation philosophy, and leadership lessons for modern engineering teams.
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