A disturbing trend that is emerging in the market is for developers who build accessible websites also ‘certifying’ that the website they have built is fully compliant.
“A web development company simply declaring a website as ‘accessible’ or ‘certified’ is a first order mistake,” said Dr Scott Hollier, internationally recognised web accessibility expert and Media Access Australia’s representative for the W3C, the standards organisation for web accessibility compliance.
“There are good reasons why accountants aren’t allowed to sign off on their financial statements, instead of using a trained, independent auditor, and the same applies to meeting accessibility standards. Development companies, who often lack in-house accessibility knowledge, work to a fixed price and have little incentive to identify issues, then spend more time fixing them.”
A web accessibility audit checks the website (normally that somebody else has created) against the international benchmark, the W3C’s WCAG 2.0 standards. The audit is then usually presented in a report form with clear, detailed outlines of which components of the website don’t meet the required standards.
A good checking process also includes some testing by users with disabilities. After all, if the intended audience, which includes people with disabilities, can’t actually use the website then it is clearly not accessible.
An audit process does not have to be on a completed website. More commonly, particularly when a complex website is being created, compliance testing can be undertaken at the wireframe and template stages of development to ensure that the basic building blocks are accessible.
Accessibility compliance is an ongoing process. The role of an accessibility statement is crucial in that it invites users to provide feedback on any issues that they encounter with a website, newly created or well-established. That way your website can continue to meet the required standards as it evolves and develops.
Dr Hollier also teaches web professionals about practical web accessibility through Australia’s only university-accredited course, the Professional Certificate in Web Accessibility. This helps upskill Accessibility Champions who can undertake some internal auditing and vetting of external consultants. These champions can also play an important role in the initial evaluation of a consultant’s accessibility credentials.
Dr Hollier’s final tip is about the other form of compliance auditing, automated tools.
“Automated web accessibility checkers are not a substitute for a proper review by a qualified, independent person. At best they still pick up less than half of the potential issues and also can highlight problems that don’t exist. In the hands of an expert they are very useful for speeding up a checking process, otherwise they give a sense of false hope that you have picked up all of the issues.”
An obvious question is: Does Media Access Australia, a world expert on digital accessibility, with a wide-range of expertise and experience on staff, use independent vetting of its websites? Of course. Good practice is to seek external review and checking and Media Access Australia always follows good practice.
Three expert tips to ensure accessibility compliance
- Get a third party to audit or review the work when it is finished, or better still as the project is in progress.
- Equip yourself to do the basics through upskilling courses such as the Professional Certificate on Web Accessibility.
- Don’t rely on blanket statements of expertise in accessibility – ask for examples of accessibility work that the consultant has done and check them for basic compliance and a thorough accessibility statement.
The Digital Accessibility Services team at Media Access Australia can assist with audits, advice and training around accessibility and business processes to ensure the needs of all your customers are being met.
