Accessibility Audit: Guidelines and Standards You Should Follow

A startling revelation of statists is that billions of people worldwide have some level of disabilities, and it continues unabated. In this grim situation, the only ray of hope stems from introducing technology inclusive and performing an Accessibility Audit. 

An accessibility audit is a process through which it checks a website or application to maintain accessibility guidelines comprehensively. It becomes a mandatory process that satisfies the guidelines of people with varying levels of disabilities.

Generally, the audits involve the following manner. Take a look:

• Conducting automated and manual testing conducted by accessibility professionals 

• Performing testing in the direction of people with cross disabilities 

• Checking and analysing the overall user experience and design of the website or applications 

• Finding out any potential accessibility chinks present in the website 

The main objective of Website Accessibility Audit is to evaluate the errors related to accessibility and recommended remediation to enhance accessibility.

What are the Common Guidelines and Standards You Should Follow?

It documents that there are various standards and guidelines that one can follow depending on your requirements. Among them, the most common and used standards are furnishing below:   

• Web Content Accessibility Guidelines or WCAG: It was initiated by W3C (World Wide Web Consortium). Besides, WCAG 2.1 and 2.0 are also associated with it. 

• EN 301 549: It is the standard set forth by European standards, and it takes account of accessibility for all ICT 

• Section 508 Rehabilitation ACT: It needs access to ICT developed, maintained, procured, or used by the Federal government.  

Which Technologies That You Require to Conduct Accessibility Audit?

There has been a myth that only a website can be conducted a Web Accessibility Audit test. In today’s world, the myth takes no time to bust. In the digital generation, accessibility is not only for websites but also for all web and non-web ICT (Information and Communication Technologies). Therefore, it is the time to ponder over: Now, see which things need to be accessible:

• Websites

• Mobile Apps

• Gaming 

• Software

• Web Applications

• Documents

• SAAS as a platform 

Those mentioned things keep on changing due to the changing in technology dynamics. 

What is there in the Ambit of Accessibility Audit?

An Accessibility Audit performs tests on multiple pages and involves in conducting applying the combination of the following:

• By incorporating assistive technology, such as a screen reader

• Browsers

• Automated Tools

• Devices that include smartphones, tablets, Desktop, etc. 

• Accessibility plugins 

What Does An Accessibility Process Involve?

Generally, three approaches are used to conduct Website Accessibility Audit. All the mentioned approaches should be 

used together: Let’s take a look:

Automated Testing 

It is no doubt an important resource to validate accessibility audits. It can permit you to scan and generate reports showing the accessibility issues of digital assets.  

The report of Web Accessibility Audit shows certain accessibility flags and their degrees and frequently states an accessibility overall health score. 

This score assists you in keeping track of the direction of accessibility improvement over time. It is to be noted here that automated testing covers 30% of WCAG conditions. It can report only to pass and fail. 

It happens when a particular condition is met on a website—for example, Alt text presence or colour contrasts. Even though automated testing does not cover all the parameters of accessibility, it comes in handy for validating repetitive tasks.

Manual Testing 

 It does after the automated testing is performed. It tests 70% of WCAG criteria. There is an occasion when automated testing shows false positive that does not indicate any barriers. 

At this stage, human accessibility checks the truth of it. Besides, more judgment must be afoot for the further initiative of particular features.  

For instance, an automated test reveals that alt text should include in the image, but it fails to answer whether the text is relevant. This gap perfectly covers by manual testing. So, Web Accessibility Audit merits significance.

Functional Testing 

Functional testing also considers important aspects. It is because that website seems to be accessibility but, in certain users with disabilities are inaccessible to this website. 

Functional testing is mainly focused on people with varying levels of disabilities, and it can be seen that using assistive technology rightly interacts with disabled users. For example, whether a screen reader can effectively interact with the website and content.  

Wrapping Up 

The need for accessibility testing cannot be denied. It is generally recommended to perform an accessibility audit daily. The main intention is that you can keep investing in the accessibility aspect of enhancing your business credibility.