Accessibility

This document outlines the guidelines, efforts, and approach to accessibility.

Levels of Compliance

WCAG 2.1 is the latest stable, reference-able technical standard. It has 12 guidelines that are organized under 4 principles: perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust. For each guideline, there are testable success criteria, which are at three conformance levels: A, AA, and AAA.

• Level A: Conformity has a minimal impact but also minimal effect.

• Level AA: Will cover a large number of people with disabilities, and affect some aspects of the site’s look, feel and functionality. Standard for non-governmentals, also the standard for the Department of Justice, used in court cases.

Level AAA: It will work for just about everybody, but design, performance and look and feel will be severely impacted. Required for federal & government level entities.

The Approach

1. Design impact:

   1. It should be considered that things like color, text on top of images, button and form labels may need to be adjusted along the way.

2. Development impact:

   1. HTML structure will need extensive evaluation, modification and technical adjustments along the way.

3. Leverage tools and developer resources to pass audits.

Identify and record all issues and their solutions along the way.

The Front-end

For all front-end pages and their processes to meet level AA standards we will utilize industry standard tools and developer resources testing:

1. Keyboard only usage

2. Screen reader usage

3. Color contrast

4. Color blindness

5. Code structure

• We prefer to develop in WordPress (an open source software), which holds level AA WCAG standards, out of the box. See the WordPress Accessibility site for reference.

To accompany WordPress we may use Foundation, a responsive framework that also holds level AA WCAG standards out of the box.

Tools of Choice

• WAVE Accessibility Tool
• Google Lighthouse
• Sim Daltonism
• Color Contrast Analyzer
• No Coffee
• High Contrast

Process

• WCAG Tool Checklist

  • Create a sitemap of all pages to be tested

  • Test each page, with 3 industry recommended tools, starting with the W3C recommended WAVE tool.

    • Each page is marked with: P (Pass), I (Issue), F (Fail)

    • Notes are allowed in the respective cell and should contain issues from the tool’s report, or possibly brief descriptive resolutions to the issues.

    • Develop tasks based on the results of the tests, discuss issues and possible resolutions.

  • The checklist will continually evolve through the process, ultimately aiming to reach all pages with a P (Pass) marking.

• The extra checklists. Once we are happy with our WCAG Tool Checklist status, we can safely move onto the checklists below to ensure we’ve got it all covered.

  • A11Y Checklist & Paperstreet Checklist

Proposed Accessibility Support Content

1. How does [COMPANY] provide accessible services on the web to individuals with special access needs?

2. [COMPANY] works hard to make sure that everyone who wants to use [COMPANY]’s online website can do so, and have a positive experience. We do this in various ways, including:

   1. Making links on our website descriptive and providing alternative text to help people using assistive technology such as screen reader software.

   2. We consider accessibility when we design features or pages on our website.

   3. We increase the contrast between fonts and backgrounds to make pages on our website easier to read.

   4. We make our website easier to navigate without using a mouse.

[COMPANY] welcomes feedback from users regarding the way our company provides services to persons with disabilities. Customer service representatives stand ready to assist persons with disabilities in relation to any feedback or complaints they may have. If necessary, the feedback or complaint may be escalated to designated individuals within the Customer Service department or other employees of [COMPANY] who will work with the user to address his or her concerns. [COMPANY] will promptly respond to and address all complaints that it receives.

Importance of WCAG 2.1

As we know, making a website accessible is becoming more important as the internet evolves. Knowing the landscape of web accessibility keeps your organization aware of today’s ADA compliance regulations. Addressing these issues reduces liability and potential risks of being fined. However, W3C and WCAG recognize that not all disabilities can be addressed, but we have to do our best and comply with current standards.

As mentioned before WCAG 2.1 is the industry standard for non-governmentals. Establishing an accessibility policy and implementing a plan & training for employees can be instrumental in avoiding fines. Below are some links for reference and inspiration:

• The Internet and ADA
• Customers with Disabilities Mean Business
• 2010 Department of Justice ruling that it will continue to enforce ADA website accessibility on a case-by-case basis
• Accessibility: The Mindful Undercurrent of the World