Accessibility Audits
We have conducted accessibility auditing for compliance with the W3C’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) since 2002. More than 200 audits have been conducted using WCAG 1.0 and more than 30 audits have been conducted using WCAG 2.0.
Manual testing is the only way to fully audit a website for compliance with the WCAG because automated tools can only verify a small subset (approximately 25%) of the checkpoints.
Most websites are based on a relatively small number of page templates so it is sufficient to test a subset of the pages. The process is usually as follows:
- Using a combination of mapping tools and manual exploration (e.g. secure pages which require a login), identify the minimum subset of pages which need to be tested.
- Test individual pages against a fixed set of accessibility criteria, providing an assessment of the level of accessibility the website should achieve. Each page is tested using a combination of the following techniques:
- Manual inspection of the source code.
- User interface testing via the graphical user interface of standard web browsers.
- Lightweight tools such as W3C validators, accessibility toolbars and colour contrast analysers (based on WAI algorithm).
- Assistive technologies such as JAWS screen reader.
The results of the tests are presented in a spreadsheet containing the result for every checkpoint for every page. This highly granular detail is ideal for developers to use as a checklist during remedial work.
A fully descriptive management summary can also be produced to provide an overview of the testing and statistics.
