Digital Accessibility

The objective of the workshop is to ensure that a web site remains accessible throughout its lifecycle. The workshop deals with issues relating to the development and maintenance of the web site as well as to the on-going publication of information on the site.

Keeping the particular web site in mind, the workshop leads the participants through discussions of technology, target groups, design and information modelling, navigation and orientation on the site, policies on language and accessibility, and the definitions of accessibility requirements in the requirement specification, tender material and design manuals.

The workshop is a good foundation for everyone chartered with developing and running a web site. The workshops remain relevant irrespective of whether the web site is developed in-house or outsourced to a third party. Sensus recommends that the workshop be completed before the requirement specification is written.

Please write to sensus@sensus.dk for a fixed price quote on a workshop on accessible web design.

All Sensus web accessibility services are based on the international guidelines for accessible web design developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1).

The Accessibility Audit/Expert Evaluation is conducted by professionals specialising in accessibility and accessible web design. The web site is exposed to a methodical and comprehensive accessibility audit, identifying areas of the web site which pose potential accessibility problems. The result of the audit is a written report including recommended changes to the web site.

The accessibility audit is completed as part of the expert evaluation. The accessibility audit is designed to identify a wide range of accessibility problems for people with special needs, including people who cannot use a mouse or other pointing device and/or people who use enabling technologies. Amongst others, the accessibility audit answers the following questions:

• Does the web site comply with the international guidelines for accessible web design?
• If not, how does the web site need to be modified in order to comply?
• Is the user able to read, understand and explore the contents of the web site?
• Is the web site accessible through a variety of browsers, browser versions and hardware technologies?
• Can the web site be used without a mouse or other pointing device?
• Does the web site support multiple screen resolutions?
• Is the web site accessible through enabling technologies?
• Can the user control how information is presented?
• Does the web site offer a consistent design and navigation structure?

The Accessibility Audit/Expert Evaluation should be conducted whenever the web site is ready for testing.

The cost of an Accessibility Audit/Expert Evaluation depends on the complexity of a web site.

Please write to sensus@sensus.dk for a fixed price quote for an expert evaluation. Typically, an expert evaluation can be completed within one week.

An Accessibility Audit/Expert Evaluation based on a comprehensive accessibility test will identify most accessibility problems. However, a number a issues can only be identified by exposing the web site to a user test. Likewise, the accessibility audit may identify formal accessibility problems with limited or no impact on real-world users.

Hence, Sensus recommends that the Accessibility Audit/Expert Evaluation be supplemented by a user test. The user test is usually conducted by a group of 5 users based on the potential problems identified as part of the accessibility test. The participants in the user group use typical enabling technologies such as trackball, screen magnification, screen readers and speech synthesizers. Including the results of the user test with potential workarounds, the result of an Accessibility Audit/Expert Evaluation with user test is similar to the specification above.

The Accessibility Audit/Expert Evaluation with user test should be conducted whenever the web site is ready for testing.

The cost of an Accessibility Audit/Expert Evaluation with user test depends on the complexity of a web site.

Please write to sensus@sensus.dk for a fixed price quote on an expert evaluation with user test. Typically, an expert evaluation with user test can be completed within two weeks.