Web accessibility- tips to optimize effort
I have seen accessibility requirements taking a back seat due to budget constraints. If we want to see accessibility being welcomed by clients, reducing the cost is essential. Here are some tips to optimize the process and effectively controlling costs.
- Don't go by guidelines; go by tags
HTML provides many tags and elements to create and present web content. But web authoring statistics, reveals that not all tags are used equally. Naturally, tags which occur more frequently will contribute more to accessibility problems on the page. In my opinion, if we start analyzing the site's accessibility on the basis of the most frequently used HTML tags, we would be able to quickly pinpoint and remediate the accessibility problems.
For example if a 100 page site has 1000 informational images, 2000 hyperlinks and, 200 form fields, we can start with assessment of hyperlink accessibility, followed by images and then the form fields. This progressive approach will help cover maximum content in minimum time. - Don't test every page, test everything on a page
Most professional websites today are powered by CMSs and templates. Testing similar pages/screens individually is not a fast track option. Instead, choose unique screens and pages for review. By doing this you preempt the possibility of detecting same defects multiple times. - Don't go for user testing before you bridge code level gaps
Testing with real users is essential and useful, but effectiveness of user's involvement depends on when you involve them in testing. As per my experience, unless all coding issues are fixed, user testing is not very effective. In such a case users tend to report accessibility issues which are caused by missing tags and attributes. Missing tags and attributes can be best uncovered by an automated tester. User testing should essentially reveal usability issues in accessibility implementations.
Shrirang Prakash Sahasrabudhe
Accessibility Specialist- SETLabs
Shrirang_s@infosys.com
