Complete Accessibility for Digital
There’s two types of accessibility that we’re trying to consider when working on digital products. 1. The federal act Section508 to make digital products accessible to people with disabilities 2. The other is related to ease of usability in terms of user experience. Available does not equal accessible. For example the text on a webpage can be Section 508 accessible, but if the words used and the amount of text provided make it difficult for the audience to understand, it’s not truly accessible. This also applies to forms on the website. If important steps to understanding, verification or application are only available as PDFs or Word docs, that presents a substantial barrier for customers to access information and services.
Accessibility for people with disabilities¶
Required: All federal agencies and contractors must, among other revisions, comply with WCAG 2.0 A/AA levels.
Ideal: comply with WCAG 2.1 A/AA levels.
WCAG Reference: https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG21/quickref/
WCAG 2.0 guidelines are categorized into three levels of conformance in order to meet the needs of different groups and different situations: A (lowest), AA (mid range), and AAA (highest). WCAG does not recommend that Level AAA conformance be required as a general policy for entire sites because it is not possible to satisfy all Level AAA success criteria for some content.
Resources should be dedicated to monitor local, state and federal accessibility laws, WCAG guidelines, and industry best practices and make adjustments and improvements to the website accordingly.
Accessibility for Usability¶
Availability does not equal accessibility. We want to work with our customers and the communities we serve to get rid of the barriers that create differentiation and separation. To provide equal access to everyone, regardless of identity factors. When working on a digital product, the contractor should do a thorough UX process to understand the users, their needs, goals, journey. The product cycle should include user-testing throughout the research, design and dev process, to try and ensure that the final product meets their needs. Key considerations: 1. Direct engagement with end-users in a reasonable manner to obtain representative approval or acknowledgment of content’s availability, comprehension, and consumption. 2. Tailoring language to achieve comprehension, inclusion and task completion for intended end-users. 3. Evaluation of website content to produce descriptive metrics tracking intended end-users’ ease in finding information, speed in completing tasks, and general satisfaction with the experience. 4. Allocation of resources to review and implement ongoing improvements in a concerted manner.