Often enough, we find ourselves auditing a website to find the same inaccessible problems throughout the website or online software application. Sometimes one inaccessibility passes to all affected pages through a Content Management System (CMS), but just as likely is the case of the inaccessibility having been in the design template modified manually for many pages. Or an inaccessible widget or application integrated deep into the design when an accessible one was available at the outset.
This is not the result of incompetence. Accessibility is a specialty many talented web designers simply haven't gotten around to learning. There are so many fast-changing technologies related to web design that web designers tend to focus on what they can use every day.
The result is a website design project stuck in its tracks. With a federal project, compliance to Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act is required, so it's back to the drawing board with its delays and costs. With other projects, management may be pressured to accept an inaccessible deliverable in the interests of expediency, hoping to stay under the radar of a complaint from the Department of Justice (DoJ) or the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) citing Title II or III of the American Disabilities Act (ADA).
If you are about to take delivery of a website redesign, immediately commission an accessibility audit so you can bring the results to the web developer and negotiate remediation while you still can. A proper audit cites the specific WCAG 2.1 standard sections violated to reduce arguments and get right into remediation.
Better is to allow Access2online to become a resource to the team as the design gets under way. You would find us far more interested in helping prevent inaccessibilities than to collect violations. Contrary to the misconception that only a final web page can be audited for accessibility, everything from the requirements document to the proposed design concept to the mockups can and should be audited.
Auditing such intermediate design components takes less time and money than finished web pages. Our suggestions are easier to adopt in the early stages, and less expensive than reworking finished web pages. The big cost savings, however, is avoiding a second audit after failing the first one
If you are about to release a request for a proposal (RFP) for website development, Access2online can quickly help you integrate accessibility into your requirements. We have the experience to be precise and clear so vendors realize that merely saying their deliverable is accessible will not be enough. We also help Procurement Departments review the accessibility parts of proposals for capability, feasibility, and pricing.
Our solution is to get it right the first time.
Use any of our contact options to tell us about your website redesign or online software application, including schedules. We will respond with a fixed-price proposal to do our part supporting your design team, but you will also have the option to task us at our affordable $49/hr to help the design team as needed.
We can, but we won't. For starters, it's a conflict of interest for one outfit to audit and to also remediate what the audit has found. That's why self-auditing is an oxymoron. Lastly, website developers wouldn't trust us as a resource if they had to fear us replacing them.