Technical Service Bulletin Week 1 - Steps to improve Accessibility

06 Jan 2020 | Accessibility | Tech Update

Helen Grimbly
  • Tweet this item
  • share this item on Linkedin

This week, Support Lead, Helen Grimbly will be looking at the steps to improve accessibility.

Web accessibility is the inclusive practice of ensuring there are no barriers that prevent interaction with, or access to, websites on the World Wide Web by people with disabilities. When sites are correctly designed, developed and edited, generally all users have equal access to information and functionality.1

When a (scheduled or on-demand) Sitemorse assessment is run for a site, Sitemorse carries out automated checks for many accessibility crieria as specified in the recommended Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 document. The document devides checks into 3 levels of conformity A, AA and AAA. Within each conformity there are 4 categories: 

  • Perceivable - for example, providing text alternatives to non-text such as images 
  • Operable - for example, all functionality available from the keyboard 
  • Understandable - for example, making sure text is readable and understandable 
  • Robust - for example, that valid markup language is used for content

Step 1

Following as assessment, (from the Sitemorse assessment email) select the Priorities link, or from the Sitemorse site (Digital Properties or Dashbboard) select Priorities GRC (Governance Risk and Compliance) triangle, to access the report's Priorities page. Under the Governance, risk and compliance heading you will find a list of Accessibility actions that should be resolved first.

Step 2

Once the priority accessibility actions have been resolved, from either Digital Properties select the 'Report' link for a site, or from the Dashboard use the Content tab's 'View full report' link (the first icon under the Content tab). From the Report page, select the Accessibility category. There will be a priorities chart and three conformity charts A, AA, AAA. Select the first chart A and you will see all the automated checks carried out by Sitemorse that need action for single A. Likewise select the charts AA and AAA to see these. We recommend resolving these in order.

If you select the 'View All' button top right of the WCAG 2.1 Compliance Checks page, you can view all checks. Once all the automated checks that Sitemorse covers have been resolved and so you pass the Sitemorse checks, then consider the manual checks listed.

1https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_accessibility