What is a Website Accessibility Audit?
The phrase “Website Accessibility Audit” can sound daunting whereas it is actually one of the most positive, inclusive actions you can take as a business or organisation.
It tells the world that you are serious about ensuring that the needs of all the visitors to your website, as far as possible, are met and that you truly wish to get alongside and support them.
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) have served as this critical framework, evolving over the years to meet the changing needs of the web and its users. The Foundational Standards: WCAG 1.0 Introduced in 1999, Version 1 of the Priority A Website Accessibility Standards set... read more »
Automated Website Accessibility Testing
What are Metrics and what are they used for?
There are 7 main areas that a website can be automatically tested for. They are extremely useful because they can give an indication of the build quality of a website and set the expectations of both Google and an individual who may be undertaking a website accessibility audit
WCAG Priority A
This set of building regs for websites, according to the WCAG, are the absolute minimum a website must achieve
Priority A covers the basic stuff, putting Alt Text with images, allowing websites to still load and function even with external scripts (such as animations) blocked, captions with videos and so on
WCAG Priority AA
This set of building regs for websites, according to the WCAG, are what a website should achieve
Priority AA Standards include audio descriptions for video content, captions for live audio content, sign language for all pre-recorded media, orientation not being restricted to a single display, contrast of text and images, ability to resize text, text flowing freely without required scrollbars in both directions, multiple ways of locating a particular webpage and so on
WCAG Priority AAA
This set of building regs for websites, according to the WCAG, are the standards a website could achieve
Priority AAA standards can, for the main, be seen as demonstrating a true willingness to provide alternatives, particularly with media content such as video. Text itself should be formatted in a certain way to ensure clear readability. Justified text, for example, is more difficult to read than standard, left-justified text
Priority 4
If you a sighted visitor to this website, I would ask you to closer your eyes for a minute. How are you going to navigate through this website? A mouse is of no use because you cannot see what to select. What are you going to do?
This is the problem that many people have to face every day. They have to rely on assistive technologies such as screen readers. A screen reader is software that attempts to "read" the contents of a website through the audio output of your computer, using a computer-generated voice.
Search Engines
If a website is not friendly to search engines, it will have poorer rankings and less people will be able to find it, including those with accessibility needs, so it is therefore very much an accessibility issue!
Search engines are, in effect, blind and they have to rely on the automated processes to assess the build quality (or otherwise) of a website. If their criteria are not met, it is to everyone's disadvantage
W3C Coding Errors
Coding Standards are, in effect, Building Regs for website. These lay out the coding standards that, if adhered to, would lead to websites displaying correctly on more devices, screen sizes and browsers and with fewer errors
This metric is one of many used by Google in determining the build quality of a website and is a significant ranking factor. Everything is relative with Google, the larger the number of errors, the more significantly its position in search engines' listings will be affected
Usability and Navigation Issues
The US Government is considerably more advanced than the UK Government when it comes to website accessibility. It has put together a comprehensive set of guidelines that, whilst not perfect, are extremely thorough and offer detailed guidance on creating the best possible website experience for everyone, regardless of ability or disability
As a business or organisation, your website exists to inform your visitors what you do and how you may be of service to them. The easier you make it for anyone to find out what they want, the more likely they will stay on your website, have a positive experience and feel welcome