Most of the online services and e-commerce portals are now actively ensuring accessibility compliance, and there are many consultants also offering support for accessibility compliant web development. However, while consulting the accessibility services, many brands may wonder what one can do to ensure accessibility and avoid penalties from ADA lawsuits, etc.
From the web content to YouTube videos, it is essential to do a meticulous analysis by an expert to ensure web accessibility compliance.
With the right people with the knowledge and abilities to ensure accessibility, your business can be fully accessible. You can ensure accessibility compliance by yourself, but it is advisable to find the right accessibility partner to work closely with you and understand your needs for business websites. This article will discuss a few important questions to ask while looking for a reliable and knowledgeable accessibility partner.
Questions to accessibility partner – AccessiBe
AccessiBe is a professional consultant in accessibility compliance and partner with many clients in accessibility projects. The compliance experts ask key questions to evaluate the consultants and ensure their abilities.
- Will you audit the site’s code for ADA and WCAG compliance?
The objective of accessibility compliance is to ensure that the website offers equal access to all customers regardless of their abilities. The primary need is to audit the website and ensure ADA Title II compliance. However, this is required beyond automated testing and AI-based fixes. You need to find a partner who can do manual testing and remediation of the incompetency of the code to be compliant with the WCAG standards.
- Along with accessibility, will you take care of SEO and site speed, etc.?
An ADA-compliant website should be functioning efficiently in order to rank higher on the search engine results. So, the accessibility team should also take care of the SEO on-page elements. Accessibility and SEO are mutually satisfying as proper HTML codes, and CSS styling will help ensure accessibility and search engine performance. A good accessibility partner will help identify and clean up the underlying code on the website.
- How do you know if the website is accessible when there is an update or change?
We can say that ‘accessibility compliance is not a destination, but a journey.’ There should be a continuous process in place in order to ensure fine-tuning of the web elements to ensure compliance. Your accessibility partner should be willing and available to do the compliance check from time to time and identify vulnerabilities, if any.
- Do the testers from the disability community do any user testing?
While ensuring website usability, there is no one better than people with disabilities to know their needs. So, it is essential to run user testing to gather genuine feedback from real users. Professional accessibility service providers have human testers in their panel for user testing of the same. People who are experienced with the usage of assistive technology can also help identify any critical obstacles, which will also help automate the accessibility reviews to find bugs.
Along with these, you may also ask questions to understand their level of experience, cost, and support services to ensure that you are partnering with the right provider for long-term accessibility compliance. AccessiBe has been into accessibility consulting for a long with experienced testers and code reviewers on board.
