Make your product more usable by more people in less time. That’s a great aim, and it is the opening line in the IBM Equal Access Toolkit. With many websites remaining inaccessible, this toolkit assists web developers and designers increase accessibility. It comes with Accessibility Checkers and has reporting tools for accessibility conformance.
Non-tech people should also have a look at this Toolkit especially if they are in charge of contracting a web developer for their website. Or when they update their website.
There are five steps: Plan, Design, Develop, Verify, and Launch. The process inolves the whole team regardless of their level of expertise.
The Equal Access Checklist is where it gets technical and links to the WCAG2.0/2.1 Checkpoints. There are four principles underpinning the process.
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- 1: Perceivable – Information and user interface components must be presentable to users in ways they can perceive.
- 2: Operable – User interface components and navigation must be operable.
- 3: Understandable – Information and the operation of user interface must be understandable.
- 4: Robust – Content must be robust enough so it can be interpreted reliably by a wide variety of user agents, including assistive technologies.
For an overview, G3ict has a media release explaining why this toolkit is needed. Accessibility is an issue that comes up in legal and policy discussions in many organisations. While many websites have improved their accessibility there is still a long way to go. It is worth noting that a new site might be fully accessible but as new material is uploaded, it isn’t always checked for accessibility over time.