Web accessibility audit: the business benefits
Our web accessibility audit provides practical guidance to help your web site comply with the Disability Discrimination Act.
What is a web accessibility audit?
A web accessibility audit is an expert evaluation of your web site against accessibility guidelines and standards. Complying with these standards ensures that disabled people can use your web site.
Why do a web accessibility audit?
Web sites that are not accessible run the risk of costly legal settlements and a potential loss of business by being “named and shamed” by pressure groups. As well as the reduced risk of litigation, accessible web sites rank higher in Google, they are easier to maintain, they increase brand equity and they can be used more easily by the large group of people who surf the web with new technologies like mobile phones.
When should I do a web accessibility audit?
You can do web accessibility audit once web pages have been coded. An additional benefit of taking an accessibility audit from Userfocus is that we can simultaneously carry out a expert usability review. Accessibility is no guarantee of usability. Our expertise in both areas means you can achieve both of these objectives at the same time.
What does it cost?
Prices start from £4,750.
Our approach to web accessibility audits
Our approach complies with the evaluation strategy recommended by the W3C’s Web Accessibility Initiative.
Our accessibility audit has three steps:
- Compatibility testing with various browsers, resolutions, and markup validation tools.
- Site evaluation using automated tools such as Bobby and Cynthia Says.
- Manual accessibility evaluation of sample pages in the site.
Once we have completed the review we count the number of non-compliances, and from this determine the site’s overall accessibility rating. If a high enough accessibility rating is gained then the web site may be approved to use the WAI single A, double A or triple A logos.
Our reports normally run to about 30 pages and we present our results at various levels of detail.
- Our executive summary shows strengths and weaknesses of the site at-a-glance, including the level of accessibility attained.
- The body of the report offers practical solutions to any violations that we find.
- We illustrate many of the problems with screen shots to help you understand the problem from the disabled user’s perspective.
- We prioritise the violations so you know which ones to fix first.
- We then make practical design suggestions to show you how to fix problems quickly.
All feedback is specific, balanced, honest and solution-oriented.
Read a case study describing an accessibility assignment that we carried out for WoltersKluwer UK.
What should I do next?
- Read an accessibility case study.
- Read one of our web accessibility articles.
- Complete the form below and one of our consultants will contact you within 24hrs to discuss your situation.
“The information was invaluable in helping us identify key areas for change within our organisation.”
– Kathryn de Ferrer, eCRM manager, WoltersKluwer UK.