Accessibility Audit

What?

Following the lead of the US, Internet accessibility is about to become a very public issue in Europe. In the past, designing for accessibility was simply an afterthought. Now with the advent of accessibility standards organisations are acknowledging that having an accessible Website is paramount. In the future legal action may be taken against those Website owners who discriminate against the disabled community.

But there are also accessibility problems stemming from design, Most designers use a Mac, the latest browser version, high-speed Internet connections, high-resolution screens and super-large monitors. Most Internet users, use a PC, an outmoded browser version, slow Internet connections, low-resolution screens and small monitors. Therefore, many sites are inaccessible for many users.

Many non-for-profit organisations provide guidelines for creating accessible sites. The rules are relatively straightforward and easily implemented provided you have the necessary guidance. The Accessibility Audit examines your site's compliance to these guidelines and offers recommendations where breaches occur.

A Usability Specialist will carefully scrutinise your site using automated tools and walkthroughs to determine instances where accessibility guidelines have been violated. Each of the violations is given a priority rating - indicating how immediate the need to resolve is.

A report is compiled detailing each of the violations that have been identified - where the violation occurred, how it causes accessibility problems, a priority rating (indicating how immediate the need to resolve is), and a recommendation to solve the violation.

If required the specialist can work very closely with a design team to rectify the problems very rapidly.