Accessibility Quick Audits
EasyA11yGuide.com • May 2, 2024
Quick Audits
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Purpose of Quick Audits
Instant Automated: Easy, Fast, Cheap
Doesn’t require people with much training.
Good at:
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Instant Automated: Low coverage
Drawbacks:
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Comprehensive manual: Slow, Expensive, Good
Requires experienced testers & multiple testers.
Good at:
Slides & links available at easya11yguide.com/learn
Comprehensive manual: Slow, Expensive, Good
Drawbacks:
Slides & links available at easya11yguide.com/learn
The middle ground: quick audits
Takes a couple of hours.
Requires one trained person.
Keeps costs reasonable.
Identifies pain points for remediation.
Enough to generally scope work.
Slides & links available at easya11yguide.com/learn
Quick audits: scoping the work
Where accessibility errors are coming from:
Whether these issues are small fixes or significant changes.
Whether people using assistive technology are blocked from using the site.
Slides & links available at easya11yguide.com/learn
When to do Quick Audits
Good times for quick audits
When you are taking on a new client with an existing website.
When discussing a redesign.
When talking a client out of “this website they absolute love and want to copy”.
Early in your build to make sure you are on the right track.
If you receive an accessibility inquiry or a demand letter.
Slides & links available at easya11yguide.com/learn
Good times for quick audits
When you just discovered your client needs WCAG 2.1 level AA for ADA Title II.
Any time you don’t have an answer for “how good or bad is this site’s accessibility?”
“You may delay, but time will not.” – Benjamin Franklin
Slides & links available at easya11yguide.com/learn
Taking on a new client with an existing website
Great time to talk about legal aspects of websites, show off your knowledge.
Evaluate how much work will be needed to get this site manageable.
You are not at fault!
Slides & links available at easya11yguide.com/learn
Discussing a redesign
Benchmark the current site accessibility so you have a value for comparison.
Highlight the importance of accessibility and get client sign off.
Slides & links available at easya11yguide.com/learn
Talking a client out of “this website they love”
Many times clients arrive with “this site is awesome, I want to copy them”.
They are only looking at “prettiness on desktop”.
Talk about using phones in different locations. Like bright sunlight.
Ease of use.
User expectations.
Slides & links available at easya11yguide.com/learn
Early in your build
When you’ve built up just one or two pages.
Make sure your build is on track.
Make sure you are using good practices.
Make sure your builder elements are working as you expect.
Slides & links available at easya11yguide.com/learn
If you receive an accessibility inquiry
Your client is likely to be very willing to address issues.
You need to quickly scope, do a gap assessment and get a budget together.
Slides & links available at easya11yguide.com/learn
State & Local Government: ADA Title II
The law has changed, and state & local government websites now need to comply.
A number of other entities including for profit and non profit organizations will be affected.
Slides & links available at easya11yguide.com/learn
Who can do Quick Audits
You need a certain person or people
Typically done by a single person, but could be done by a couple of people.
Slides & links available at easya11yguide.com/learn
Good vision
Someone who can’t see the screen can’t tell if anything is missed.
Proper alt text for images.
See keyboard focus.
Check issues with text zoom.
Headings & page title.
Slides & links available at easya11yguide.com/learn
No color issues, sensory issues, or reading issues
Automated color contrast can find about 83% of issues, you need to see well to find the other 17%.
Pages being tested are unknowns, so people with sensory issues could become sick.
Must be able to read transcripts and captions and hear videos.
Slides & links available at easya11yguide.com/learn
Uses standard input devices
Need to identify hover states, focus states.
Identify difference between keyboard navigation and mouse navigation.
Slides & links available at easya11yguide.com/learn
Basic screen reader user
Many items aren’t identified until a screen reader test is done.
Many people who depend on screen reader users are basic level users.
Almost all lawsuits cite a legally blind person using a screen reader.
Slides & links available at easya11yguide.com/learn
Fluent in language of website
Be able to navigate the website.
Proper captions & transcript.
Understand headings.
Run screen reader.
Slides & links available at easya11yguide.com/learn
Knowledge of proper accessible markup & code inspection
In addition to identifying that there is an issue, the goal is to also identify the cause of the issue.
Identify the specific issue and what it would need to look like to pass.
Not only reading code, but knowing what code needs to be. Including CSS.
Slides & links available at easya11yguide.com/learn
How to do Quick Audits
Video instructions
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Tools used
Use 2 or more browsers (optionally some browser extensions).
One screen reader (NVDA or VoiceOver).
Code inspection.
Keyboard & mouse or trackpad.
Slides & links available at easya11yguide.com/learn
Checklist used
Quick Audit checklist from https://easya11yguide.com/checklist/
Overview of the quick audit checklist: https://easya11yguide.com/quick-audit/
Slides & links available at easya11yguide.com/learn
E-ZPass New York
ADA Title II will require WCAG 2.1 level AA for state & local government websites & many organizations which are funded by state & local funds.
https://www.ada.gov/notices/2024/03/08/web-rule/
https://www.e-zpassny.com/en/home/index.shtml
Slides & links available at easya11yguide.com/learn
Understanding Results
What does one page tell us?
Website header.
Website footer.
Stylesheet, overall theme issues.
Content issues.
Website addon issues.
Slides & links available at easya11yguide.com/learn
Look at conformance level of issue
You’ll have a conformance level, these are the main levels to look at.
Others levels:
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Look for common issue sources
Once a quick audit is done, you’ll have a source attributed to each issue.
Slides & links available at easya11yguide.com/learn
What to do next
Based on results decide what to do
Some components may be best to just replace.
Some items may need setting adjustments.
Content training for people doing data entry.
Consult with developer for wider changes.
Slides & links available at easya11yguide.com/learn
What change needs to be made?
Contact form example:
Slides & links available at easya11yguide.com/learn
Get straight to work fixing things
Hundreds to thousands of errors can be fixed site wide from the quick audit.
Once quick audit has no issues, then move into broader scope audits.
Don’t spend time & resources writing up repeated issues.
Slides & links available at easya11yguide.com/learn
Multiple pages for Gap Assessment
Quick audit on a sampling of website pages to create a gap assessment.
Get a sample of each page type or template.
Gives broader overview of the whole website.
Slides & links available at easya11yguide.com/learn
Remodel vs remediate in place
Page builders which take over vs page builders that work with themes.
Swapping themes is not always a large endeavor.
Updating pages & templates one by one.
Correcting content.
Slides & links available at easya11yguide.com/learn
Be noisy - Speak up about accessibility
The squeaky wheel gets the grease.
Tell plugin and theme developers why you aren’t using their products. Tell them why they are losing sales. Most only do work that impacts their wallet.
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Questions?
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