With many things in life, getting started is the hardest part. The same can be said for addressing accessibility in your digital ecosystem. Even if you know all the reasons why it’s the right thing to do, for your business and for humanity, getting started is sometimes the highest hurdle.
If you put it off long enough, something else will most likely force you into a reactive mode and have you scrambling to address web accessibility.
Some common action-spurring scenarios we’ve helped our clients address and that you might encounter include:
- Getting a notice from your internal legal team that questions how you address web accessibility
- Receiving complaints from people using your web properties
- Launching of a corporate DEI initiative that focuses on accessibility
- Receiving a legal challenge brought by external parties
Regardless of what gets you to the starting line, beginning your accessibility journey doesn’t need to be intimidating. When we partner with clients on web accessibility, we start with an audit. The audit allows us to see what is out of compliance and what needs to be prioritized. From there, we build a plan to tackle the action items that need to be addressed.
How to begin fixing website accessibility issues
We find a phased approach that helps our clients prioritize and execute against a clear plan works best. Here are the steps we follow:
1. Perform a web accessibility audit of all digital properties.
JPL’s audit is a combination of machine (software scans) and human review of your web properties. The human element is key because software scans can’t evaluate all the elements that factor into web accessibility.
2. Review and interpret the web accessibility audit findings.
The web accessibility audit’s feedback, especially from the software scans, is highly technical and requires an accessibility professional to determine exactly what is being flagged as out of compliance. It’s common to see some false positives. False positives are usually issues that the software thinks are out of compliance but may not actually be an issue. Our accessibility professionals can identify where this is happening and remove these items from the action list.
3. Prioritize the web accessibility issues that need to be addressed to be compliant.
Each issue is assigned a priority. The prioritization of the list is based on the level of impact and the level of effort. An issue that is easy to fix and will make significant accessibility progress gets a high level of impact with a low level of effort—a top priority. An issue that would not make a large impact and requires a high level of effort gets a lower priority.
Along with prioritizing issues, we provide recommendations (called a remediation plan) on how to fix each issue. There are often different solutions that can be applied to resolve accessibility issues. We’ll consider each issue and determine the best solution.
4. Implement against the action plan.
Once a list of action items exists, each with a priority and a remediation plan, it’s time to move on to implementation.
Since every client’s list and priorities are different, there’s no one way to approach a web accessibility implementation. Experience has revealed to us that it’s best not to try to tackle them all at once. We encourage our clients to work through the to-do list in monthly increments.
Once we help the client establish a monthly budget, we then collaborate with them (based on priority) on what should be completed each month. Some issues can be dealt with by the client, while others require our professional assistance. Our goal is to help clients make tangible, forward progress. As part of our process, we create a shared worksheet where issues can be tracked, and progress can be demonstrated.
Web accessibility isn’t “once and done”
Unfortunately, you can’t check the box on web accessibility. It’s a lifestyle and a commitment to DEI for your digital properties. I rarely see a website that has zero accessibility issues. Digital properties are constantly changing. You have web authors making content changes, the software that is running the site is constantly updated and patched, web browsers change how they work over time and accessibility rules get refined. Since the digital landscape is forever in flux, accessibility is never a once and done task.
To ensure your company’s investment in web accessibility keeps you in compliance, we recommend a cadence for re-auditing your digital properties on a schedule. We refer to this as a web accessibility maintenance plan. A good rule of thumb is to run a web accessibility audit every quarter. You can also invest in software that constantly monitors your digital properties for new issues.
Make web accessibility a part of your culture and your brand experience
Encourage your company to embrace making your digital experience welcoming for everyone. Make it part of your process to always monitor and improve your digital properties for accessibility. I encourage you to make an accessibility point of view document for your business or organization. Define your approach and commitment to accessibility and describe how you strive to improve over time. Provide ways for users to reach out with issues. Be proactive.
Lastly, it’s important to train your content contributors and web admin team about accessibility. If your site administrators are familiar with accessibility, they can create and add content that meets accessibility requirements. Preventive education is far better than fixing mistakes. Addressing accessibility in a reactive state is never a good way to go.
Audit. Develop a plan. Make progress. Document your improvements. Train your team. And repeat.
