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Gian Wild’s blog

Practical accessibility

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Accessibility Services

Gian Wild offers the following services:

Interested in Gian Wild’s accessibility services?

Contact Gian if you are interested in any of the accessibility services discussed here. Gian is also available for one-off consulting projects on the more unusual areas of online accessibility.

Helpdesk hours

Gian Wild offers helpdesk hours for clients who have queries separate to the build or audit of a web site. Helpdesk requests are responded to within 24 hours. Helpdesk advice can take the form of example code, testing new pages or advising on writing and evaluating web site tenders. This is also useful for clients who have received an accessibility complaint or need assistance writing their accessibility compliance statement.

Accessibility consultation during the build process of a web site

In building an accessible web site accessibility needs to be considered at various stages of the Web Development Lifecycle. Gian Wild offers the following services during the build of web site:

  • Accessibility basics seminar to increase staff awareness of accessibility;
  • Functional specification review to catch any potential accessibility errors;
  • Design evaluation to test the designs against relevant W3C Web Content Accessibility checkpoints;
  • Developer training to go through the relevant W3C Web Content Accessibility checkpoints;
  • Content training to go through the relevant W3C Web Content Accessibility checkpoints;
  • Template evaluation to test the templates against relevant W3C Web Content Accessibility checkpoints;
  • Final site accessibility audit; and
  • Compliance document.

For more information see some of the accessibility build projects Gian has worked on.

Accessibility audits

Gian Wild has conducted accessibility audits against the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, Version 1.0 for ten years.  Gian Wild conducts accessibility audits against the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, Version 1.0. For more information see the blog post: Why I’m sticking with WCAG1… for now.

In auditing a site for accessibility compliance there needs to be a mix of automated and manual testing. Gian Wild uses the following automated testing tools:

  • FireFox Web Developer Toolbar
  • Cynthia Says
  • AccVerify
  • WAVE
  • W3C HTML Validator
  • W3C CSS Validator

An absolutely essential part of an auditing process is manual testing. Gian also manually tests web sites to review content, for example, to ensure it is clear and concise (Checkpoint 14.1) and that ALT attributes correctly describe the image (Checkpoint 1.1).

On completion of testing a report is developed that includes the findings of the in-depth audit. Each checkpoint within WCAG is listed including:

  • Findings – the specific finding for the site is detailed.
  • Example – an example violation is detailed.
  • Recommendations – a valid fix for the particular accessibility violation is included.

Using a combination of automated and manual testing, all violations in the site are listed within the report or in associated appendices. These violations are listed in a format that will be easy for developers to read and ascertain specific fixes.

A presentation of the results is provided to the developers and relevant staff. Developers or relevant staff are also able to query any violations or recommendations at a later date via phone or email.

For more information see some of the organisations Gian has completed accessibility audits for.

Accessibility consulting

Sometimes accessibility needs can be complicated. Gian Wild offers help desk advice for developers or managers at all stages of the Web Development LifeCycle. Gian also writes articles and books, such as the Office for Disability Factsheets and the eGovernment Accessibility Toolkit to improve the uptake of accessibility. She is also available to write web accessibility policy and procedures for organisations.

For more information see some of the accessibility consultation projects Gian has completed.

Accessibility seminars and training

Gian Wild offers two types of one hour seminars:

  • Accessibility basics
  • Preparing for WCAG2

The Accessibility Basics seminar addresses the issues of: accessibility compliance; why accessibility is important, and how to maintain and test for compliance. It also provides information on Australia’s accessibility requirements and the current status of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, Version 2.0. To facilitate understanding and increase compliance, the W3C accessibility ratings are discussed, as well as how to determine what level the site should aim (for example, depending on your audience).

The Preparing for WCAG2 seminar addresses the current and future requirements for compliance with WCAG2; differences between WCAG1 and WCAG2 and how to prepare staff for the new guidelines.

Gian Wild offers two types of accessibility training:

  • Accessibility training for developers
  • Accessibility training for content authors

These one day training sessions cover all the code (developer session) or content (content author session) requirements needed to make a web site Level AA accessible (WCAG1). The training sessions are hands on, and attendees will have the opportunity to work on their own examples.

For more information see some of the seminars and training Gian has conducted.