Accessibility Compliance App - by Xperienz. A useful tool when fixing accessibility errors
January 25, 2023
Accessibility improves the usability for everyone
We live in a world where more and more products and services are available online or through digital tools. We shop online, fill out tax returns, make payments at ATM terminals, among many other things. But what about someone who’s blind or has low vision? Or someone with a physical limitation? Or someone who’s deaf? Any person, with ou without a disability, has the equal right of navigating a website, using a ticketing machine or an ATM.
In order for people with physical or cognitive disabilities to be able to access websites and digital tools, they need to be designed and coded properly. The problem is that, in most cases, they are built with accessibility barriers that make them very hard or even impossible for some people to use.
When developing accessible digital products and services we’re not only making their access available for people with disabilities, we’re also benefiting users who experience a temporary limitation (when we have an arm injury and are incapable of using the mouse, we can navigate a website using the keyboard), or a situational limitation (when we’re in a noisy environment, without headphones, and need to turn on subtitles to understand what’s being said).
Accessibility has a legal requirement
The recent European Accessibility Act has been alerting companies that offer everyday products and services, such as banks, public transportation, e-commerce, to the need of offering websites and digital tools (such as payment terminals or ticketing machines) accessible to all users, regardless of their ability.
This Directive, recently transposed to the Portuguese National Law (Decreto-Lei n.º 82/2022), states that companies have until 2025 to comply with accessibility requirements.
Evaluating and fixing accessibility errors
One of the ways to be compliant is evaluating if all users can navigate and complete the necessary tasks in websites, apps or digital tools.
In this context, Xperienz has been conducting accessibility evaluations that seek to determine the conformity of websites and apps with WCAG 2.0 guidelines and the legally imposed rules.
What are the WCAG?
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines are a set of web accessibility standards published by the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium), accepted and adopted universally.
The guidelines and success criteria are organised under 4 principles: Perceivable, Operable, Understandable and Robust. These guidelines are organised into three levels of conformance: from A (the most basic) to AAA (the highest and most complex).
The creation of the Accessibility Compliance App
We identified in our clients the need to have a tool that would help them when fixing accessibility errors.
To simplify the presentation of the accessibility evaluation of websites, Xperienz has created the Accessibility Compliance App. We start by doing a content inventory in which we collect all the pages of the site. Then we evaluate each page and list all the aspects that need to be fixed.
Each page presents the visual location of the error, suggestions to fix the code, among other things.
To streamline the progression of the correction work by developers and designers, it is also possible to mark the correction of each page as completed.
View of the list of web pages in the App
Advantages for both companies and users
By making the Web accessible, we’re not only facilitating its access to the approximately 87 million people in the European Union who have a disability (1,5 million in Portugal). We’re also making access easier to the growing aging population or anyone who experiences a temporary (e.g. arm injury) or situational (e.g. holding a baby) limitation.
Besides users, also companies will benefit. Cross-border trading and mobility will be easier and there will be more market opportunities for their accessible products and services.
More content on Web Accessibility:
- White Paper - “Accessibility - Creating accessible digital experiences”
- Infographic - “Web Accessibility”
Want to offer a service accessible to everyone?
Xperienz can help you assess if all users can navigate and complete the necessary tasks on your website, app or digital tool.
We perform accessibility audits to access compliance with WCAG guidelines, identifying errors and providing a possible resolution so they can be easily addressed by your team. We also conduct usability tests with users with disabilities to identify possible needs, difficulties or obstacles when using the website.
Tell me moreRelated Articles
-
Digital Accessibility Strategy Course [starts in January 2025]
The new Digital Accessibility Strategy course aims to equip participants with the essential skills to understand the digital accessibility landscape.
-
Looking to be EAA compliant? — Don’t fall for easy web accessibility solutions
Choosing an overlay is just a band-aid solution, and shows a true disregard for users with disabilities. Instead, we need to work towards a mentality where websites, apps and other digital products are designed and coded with accessibility in mind from day 1.
-
Prompt-based — The birth of a new human-machine interaction model
The ways humans interact with technology has evolved significantly over the decades — and it’s still constantly evolving. The rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and natural language processing (NPL) has brought to light a new way of interaction — prompts.
-
A glimpse into the future — Here’s the UX design trends we expect to dominate 2024
Emerging technologies and tools constantly influence the way people use the Internet and interact with digital products. And as user behaviours and preferences evolve, designers must keep up with new tools and solutions to deliver interfaces and user experiences that cater the needs of an ever-demanding audience.
-
How can insurance companies make their digital products more accessible?
Millions of people who live with a disability struggle to access important information online because websites and apps are built with major content and technological barriers. And insurance websites are not an exception.
-
Barrier-free banking - From branches to mobile apps accessible for all
In the banking and financial industry, accessibility is about empowering everyone, including people with disabilities and the elderly, to enjoy bank's products, services and facilities, by making them convenient and easy to use.
-
Design for a better world - How working together and applying design approaches is improving people's lives
9 November is World Usability Day 2023. This year's theme is Collaboration and Cooperation, which intents to focus on how we can work together to create solutions, both globally and locally, to solve the world's biggest problems.
-
Be an Agent of Change - Check these resources to help you build more ethical designs
The role of today's designer goes far beyond simply creating beautiful interfaces and experiences. You can no longer design without considering the consequences of how what you're creating impacts individuals, society and the world.
-
E-commerce and Accessibility - Creating an inclusive online shopping experience
Now it’s the time for online stores to improve their website accessibility and ensure they offer an inclusive experience for everyone.
-
The future is today — How can we leverage AI to improve our UX Design work
AI has now become a big part of several areas of our lives, and UX Design is no exception. It’s actually becoming more and more applicable to the UX design process.
-
Conducting usability testing with people with disabilities
Drawing on our experience conducting usability tests with users with disabilities, we’re sharing a few things to take into account when planning and conducting research with people with disabilities and make sure everything goes smoothly and you can collect valuable insights.
-
Accessibility Compliance App - by Xperienz. A useful tool when fixing accessibility errors
To simplify the presentation of the accessibility evaluation of websites, Xperienz has created the Accessibility Compliance App. We start by doing a content inventory in which we collect all the pages of the site. Then we evaluate each page and list all the aspects that need to be fixed.
-
What does the UX future hold? - Here's the UX Design trends we expect to dominate 2023
Businesses must stay up to date on emerging user experience and interface trends so we've selected 7 top trends that are already making, and will certainly continue to make, an impact on website and app development.
-
Raising Awareness for Web Accessibility [Infographic] — International Day of Persons with Disabilities
Last December 3 we celebrated the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. To help promote a more accessible Web we’ve put together an easy-to-digest infographic about Web Accessibility.
-
Why hiring external UX services even when you have an in-house UX team?
Even if you have an in-house UX design team, there might be times when additional resources and professional know-how can be useful. Bringing in an external UX team might be exactly what you need for your company to excel in all projects.
-
Health and UX: when design has a life-saving potential
A good experience with healthcare technology and services, that is both useful, accessible and reliable, can make a huge different in improving peoples’ well-being, as well as the work of healthcare professionals.
-
Trust — Breaking or Building it Through Design
Trust is more valuable now than ever. 68% say trusting a brand they buy or use is more important today than in the past (Edelman, 2019). We live in an ever-growing digitalised world, where we increasingly interact and transact online. At the same time we constantly crave for trust-based interactions in digital environments. Questions like "Will the personal data I provide here be misused?", " Will my email be used to spam me incessantly?" or "Do I really want to share my bank details to a website I've never heard about?" have certainly come to our mind more than once.
-
Innovation Sprint — Exploring and validating a business direction in 2 to 4 weeks
During an Innovation Sprint, a new method created by Xperienz, the Sprint team joins efforts with the organisation team and in 2 weeks (minimum) they identify three strategic business directions, taking into account the organisation’s current state and structure. These innovative ideas are prototyped and tested and in the end the organisation will know the best path to follow.
-
Creating accessible digital experiences
Accessibility is of major importance for organisations who deliver web products and tools. Accessibility issues can affect not only a website’s usability for people who have disabilities but also for those who don’t. By offering accessible products, organisations will show they are inclusive, reach a wider market, be legally compliant, and offer a better user experience. For everyone.
-
"You're on Mute" - Lessons Learned After a Year of Conducting Remote User Research
After more than one year of engaging with users remotely, we want to reflect on the pitfalls of remote user research, share some of the lessons we learned and reflect on what’s going to be “the next normal” after Covid’s impact.
-
Quick & Dirty User Research
Tight timescales and budgets are no excuses to ditch user research altogether, specially when we all know it’s essential to make sure you deliver easy-to-use products. Quick and dirty research is a great way to get user insights fast and on a budget.
-
How bad metrics are hurting your business and your users’ experience
Businesses are deceiving themselves and annoying their customers as a consequence. They do so when they apply biased surveys only expecting to confirm what they want to hear.
-
UX Writing — Create better experiences with better content
Imagine a website or an app with no words. If it wasn’t for the logo, would you be able tell what this page is about? Would you know which button to click? Where navigation would take you? What you’re supposed to write in the search bar? No matter how good-looking an interface is, without words users will simply not be able to accomplish any tasks in it.
-
10 Bad User Research Practices You Will Want to Avoid
Some might think user research is as simple as watching people perform a few tasks on a website or asking them a few questions, but user research is definitely not walk in the park. Let’s go through some of the mistakes that can arise when planning and conducting research.
-
Responsive Illustrations
Can the same illustration be used the same way on a desktop screen, on a tablet or on a smartphone? How is it possible to make them look great on every screen without losing quality or the idea the brand is trying to convey?
-
UXLx Masters — Wrap-up
From 10 to 13 February attendees from 25 countries and 14 world-renowned UX experts joined online for 3 days of learning. The programme included 12 live masterclasses, 2 keynotes, 2 live podcasts, and more.
-
The Design Role in Digital Transformation
As the world keeps evolving and digital becomes more crucial to our everyday life, companies are feeling pressured to keep up and level up their game.
-
Remote UX Research — our selection of the best online tools to conduct it
As a company that focus on UX research and design, we gathered some of the best tools to conduct remote research and combined them, with our personal knowledge, in this article.
-
Why We Need Parametric UI Design Tools
In Design, parametric refers to a process based on algorithmic thinking that uses parameters and their interrelations to define a geometric form (which can be buttons, containers, panels, etc.).