Accessibility auditProcess & lessons learned

Elizabeth Rogers & Jonathan WoodcockCommunications & Public AffairsSeptember 18, 2013

Overview

• Purpose: why is this important?

• Process: step by step

• Scope: implications and what we learned

ACCESSIBILITY AUDIT

AODA accessibility compliance deadline of January 1, 2014.

ACCESSIBILITY AUDIT

AODA accessibility deadlines

ACCESSIBILITY AUDIT

Date WCAG Level

January 1, 2014 A

January 1, 2016 AA

January 2, 2021 AA with multimedia

The University of Waterloo is committed to striving for WCAG Level AA by January 1, 2014 wherever possible.

PurposeWhy is this important?

• Pinpoint issues so they can be fixed by Jan. 1, 2014

• Develop a process to audit content, provide feedback and fix issues

• Estimate time & effort required to audit websites for accessibility.

ACCESSIBILITY AUDIT

ACCESSIBILITY AUDIT

ProcessHow do we begin?

Inventory content

Audit content

Correct content

Inform stakeholders

Report on findings

Inventory content

• Create or update the content inventory for each website that details auditable items

– Webpages

– Headings

– Images

– Multimedia

– Links

– Files (PDF, DOC, etc.)

ACCESSIBILITY AUDIT

Audit

• Evaluate webpages using software and humans

– WAVE online checker and WAVE Toolbar

– Readability indices for plain language assessment

– Checklist for items requiring human evaluation (such as effective alt text, link text, headings, images)

– PDF Accessibility Checker (PAC)

– Contrast ratio analyzer (for text and images of text)

ACCESSIBILITY AUDIT

Why is a human check important?

To check things the tools can’t evaluate.

ACCESSIBILITY AUDIT

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Why is a human check important?

To check things the tools can’t evaluate.

ACCESSIBILITY AUDIT

-- Is the alt text effective?- Are headings used correctly?- Does link text describe where the link takes

you?- Are tables used to communicate data

effectively rather than for layout?- Is the language appropriate for the website?

Report on findings

• What’s working well? Where are we meeting the requirements?

• What errors are the tools detecting? (Headings used out of order, for example.)

• What habits/patterns need to be addressed? (For example, are we missing the mark on link text or alt text?)

• Recommendations for soft (training) or hard (development) solutions.

ACCESSIBILITY AUDIT

Follow up

• Meet with stake holders

• Make the fixes

ACCESSIBILITY AUDIT

ScopeHow much work was involved?

• 22+ websites managed by CPA

– Homepage and Pathway pages

– About Waterloo

– News

– Office of the President

– Office of the Provost

– Strategic Plan

– Prestigious event websites such as LINC and Canada Day.

ACCESSIBILITY AUDIT

Not including individual news items, stories and events --

•Websites ranged from 7 to 90+ pages each.

•More than 930 pages audited* in total

•Approximately 22 FTE days spent

ACCESSIBILITY AUDIT

ScopeHow long did it take?

*Source: http://www.xml-sitemaps.com

How does our audit compare to what our colleagues will face?

Including news items and events*:

•Find Out More: 538 pages

•Faculty of Engineering: 563 pages

•Faculty of Arts: 719 pages

ACCESSIBILITY AUDIT

*Source: http://www.xml-sitemaps.com

Tools and resourcesWhat’s available?

• Content inventory/audit template• Report template• Checklist for writers• Checklist for images• Checklist for PDFs (in progress)• WCMS accessibility SEW courses (and ongoing

support from instructors)

ACCESSIBILITY AUDIT

ACCESSIBILITY AUDIT

Questions?