Website Accessibility Audits
Note: all audits listed below use the W3C’s WCAG 2.1 guidelines at the AA level. This is the level of adherence required by the Department of Justice in web accessibility-related lawsuits and, as such, is the de facto “web accessibility standard.”
Option A: Web Accessibility Audit – LITE
A website accessibility audit is a detailed evaluation performed by an accessibility expert that involves automated tools (such as scanners) and manual testing. After the audit is completed, a detailed report will be provided to the client that will show the websites successes or failures based on the WCAG’s objective success criteria. Some of those criteria in this report include:
- Non-Text Alternatives: checking images and videos for text alternatives, including captions, transcripts, “alt attributes,” and more. This enables users relying on screen readers to read and understand the website content.
- Keyboard Navigation: checking to make sure the essential functionality of the website is navigable by users relying on a keyboard (most users with visual disabilities including blindness rely entirely on a keyboard for navigating websites).
- Form Input Labels: checking web forms to ensure that all fields are properly labeled so users relying on assistive technology can submit the form.
- Focus Visible: ensuring that the keyboard “focus” is visible at all times. Without the ability to verify the focus, keyboard users and other users relying on assistive technology will not know “where they are” on a website.
- Contrast: ensuring that proper contrast between text or icons and web page backgrounds as required in order to assist users with visual disabilities.
Deliverables:
- Audit Report: A final report in PDF format will be provided which includes the success or failure of the criteria listed above (and more).
- Plain-English Summary: an additional report will be created that attempts to explain the website’s accessibility status in non-technical, jargon-free language that most people can understand.
- Recommended Steps: a list of recommended next steps will also be included, whether we are the ones selected to provide remediation or not.
- Accessibility Statement: providing an accessibility statement is one of the most important mitigative efforts website owners can undertake in order to reduce the liability of ADA-related lawsuits. We will create an accessibility statement for your website that is accessible to the public.
- Contact Form (optional): a web form will be embedded on the website that is solely for the purpose of providing feedback and support for users with disabilities that cannot access certain parts of the website. (Note: providing support for this is an additional charge).
Cost: $1,500 per website (discounts available for multiple websites)
Option B: Web Accessibility Audit – PRO
(We’re working hard on pricing for this… more information will be coming soon).
Option C: Web Accessibility Remediation
After an audit is performed, the client organization will often say “it looks like we have a lot of problems. Can you help us fix them?” The answer to this can be very tricky and can rely on several factors. Fortunately, we are WordPress website specialists, and WordPress can be made fairly accessible. The overall time and effort required to do this, however, will depend on:
- What version of WordPress core software the website is running.
- How many widgets, plugins, or add-ons the website uses.
- How much custom development has been done on the site, and whether the custom work done adheres to best practices.
- What WordPress theme the website uses, and what version of that theme it is currently running.
- Integrations with other services (payment processing, CRM software, web forms, multimedia players, etc.).
- Embedded content (external pages pulled in via Iframes or embedded via shortcodes or JavaScript, etc.).