Things to Look for in Your Next Web Accessibility Audit

Anyone who doesn’t think web accessibility is important has never dealt with a web accessibility audit. You will find that web accessibility audits are a web developer’s best friend, and they can point out all of the things wrong on your website before you even know there was a problem. It is very important to have your website ADA compliant if you want it to be taken seriously by those in the business world today.

When you’re looking to do a web accessibility audit, there are a number of important things to consider.

• Will the audit be done by an expert that is web development NY certified?
• Is the company ADA compliant?
• Does your website have web content accessible?

On top of this, there are some important aspects that you need to look into, especially when it comes to your website design. Your website design plays an important role in determining accessibility.

So, let’s take a look at how to conduct an accessibility audit on your website.

#1 Review the WCAG 2.0 Guidelines

Before auditing your website for accessibility, review the web content accessibility guidelines for reference and suggestions. You will want to make sure that these web accessibility guidelines are followed at the time of auditing. One of the most important things is making sure you have all web content on your website accessible in an easy-to-read manner. This means there can’t be any parts or pages that require audio, video, pictures, and text. To make your website ADA compliant, make sure that the following WCAG 2.0 guidelines are met:

• Present content in different ways
• Provide time-based media alternatives, such as video-only, captions, etc.
• Provide text alternatives for non-text content, such as images and infographics
• Make audio distinguishable and color contrast
• Offer enough time to consume content
• Make navigation keyboard operable and accessible
• Make language/text readable and understandable
• Make it easy for users to find and navigate content
• Help users avoid common mistakes

#2 Conduct a Risk Audit

Conducting web accessibility risk audits is necessary for making sure your website is suitable for people with disabilities. This will help you identify any deficiencies in web content and the design of a website that could cause problems for people with disabilities. Common problems that disable users may encounter include poor contrast, design issues, and difficulty in navigation, among others. This is something that should be done every six months to make sure that website is up-to-date and accessible.

#3 Usability Testing

When web accessibility audits are being conducted, you will want to do a usability testing session. This is highly important for websites that have been created with an increase in web content and website design changes since the last audit was done. Usability testing is done to make sure that the designs work well with all devices (phones, tablets, and desktops. The process involves making pages responsive, providing text alternatives when needed, and ensuring all web content is accessible in an easy-to-read manner. Such a test will help you make sure that the website development process was conducted according to the accessibility best practices.

#4 Create a Review Checklist

In web accessibility audits, it helps to create a review checklist. This will allow you to make sure that all web content and web design are compliant before the audit begins. To create a review checklist, you may want to ask yourself the following questions:

• Do all links work properly?
• Do images have alt text?
• Do the videos have subtitles?
• Can the text be translated into other languages?
• Can the users navigate through the site using only their keyboard?
• Can they comfortably navigate between pages?

Conclusion 

Keep in mind that web accessibility audits are one of the most important ways to make sure your website is designed for users with disabilities. These web accessibility guidelines should be reviewed before any web content or web design changes are made, and you will want to conduct a review as soon as possible after website updates have been completed.