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accessibility.co.uk

Website Accessibility Testing

Is Your Website Accessible?

How would you know? Most existing websites were not designed with accessibility in mind, and many design techniques and technologies are inherently less accessible than others.

You could ask the designers but they are hardly impartial. You could use one of the online accessibility checkers but they are only a partial solution and there are many tests they cannot do. So what can you do?

Ask the Experts

Ideally you would be able to ask an independent company that has specialised in accessibility testing for several years and has all the necessary expertise and tools. A company that has no vested interest in the outcome of the tests and has clients ranging from the smallest website designers to the largest corporations. A company like ours.

What's Involved?

This is a bespoke service and we work with our clients to identify the most appropriate types of testing for their purposes. We currently offer the following services.

Preliminary Site Audit

Most websites are template-based so it is sufficient to test a subset of the pages. During the preliminary audit we use manual inspection and automated tools to determine which pages should be tested.

Technical Testing

The W3C's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) specify 65 technical criteria to be tested, these being divided into Priority levels 1 to 3. These tests are important but they are generic and only indicate what the level of accessibility should be, not what it actually is.

User Testing With Assistive Technologies

To determine how accessible a website actually is it is necessary to test it with real users. An expert review service is available but the most representative results are obtained by involving users with a range of visual, cognitive and physical impairments. The testing incorporates assistive technologies such as speech browsers, text browsers and screen magnifiers.

Browser Compatibility Testing

Some browsers do not have full support for accessibility functions such as accesskeys, overriding the website's colours and font sizes and navigation using only keyboard controls. Testing helps you design your site to minimise the effect of these limitations.

Accessibility isn't just about access for the disabled. It's about allowing all users to interact with your website using the hardware and software they choose, and that means ensuring it displays and works correctly with all the commonly used browsers.

Actionable Results

We present the test results in a format that allows your developers to understand the issues and implement any necessary changes. These highly granular results are presented in a spreadsheet, while the Management Summary provides a top-level view.

The deliverables are tailored to the needs of each client and can include the production of remedial code, consultancy and production of design guidelines for designers and content editors.