Accessibility Work

 

Web Accessibility Audits

An accessibility audit from MSF&W is the best way to begin addressing the accessibility of a website. MSF&W’s experts will review your website against Section 508, Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0, or the Illinois Information Technology Accessibility Act (IITAA) and test for functionality with leading assistive technology software. Our easy-to-understand audit report deliverable helps clients understand where there are issues, why they are issues, and how to address the issues, including screenshots, code examples, and further references where applicable.

Challenge

A large Midwestern university selected MSF&W to perform a web accessibility audit of its newly upgraded student services web portal, including a follow-up quality assurance audit after the university’s development team attempts to fix issues identified in the original audit.

Solution

MSF&W reviewed a representative set of pages from the portal and tested for compliance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 as well as for functional usability with leading assistive technology tools. The reports identified violations of the relevant standards, noted functional accessibility issues, and provided recommendations for remediation.

 

Accessibility Strategy, Audit, and Training

Organizations undertake accessibility initiatives for a variety of reasons – because it is the right thing to do, because they want to reach more customers, because of the potential for litigation, etc. Regardless of the reason, implementing accessibility into a website, information system, or even a company’s culture requires careful planning and preparation.

Challenge

A mid-sized governmental transportation agency chose MSF&W to assist in an enterprise-wide accessibility initiative. MSF&W was tasked with assessing the accessibility of the client’s website and PDF documents, training its staff on best practices and remediation techniques, consulting on policy and procedures to ensure accessibility, and monitoring accessibility into the future.

Solution

MSF&W held several strategy sessions with the client to gather requirements and fully understand the objectives and constraints of this project, as well as those of the organization overall. The project teams worked together to prioritize needs under the given budget, create a project plan with clearly defined phases, milestones, and deliverables, and implement it over several months. The final project included an audit of a representative sample of pages from the client’s website, several customized training sessions, including Introduction to Accessibility, Introduction to PDF, Creating an Accessible Document in Word, Testing Accessibility in Acrobat, and Repairing Accessibility in Acrobat, and guidance in the creation of an agency-wide plan and policy for achieving and monitoring website, information technology, and document accessibility.

 

Document Accessibility

Like web pages and information systems, electronic documents (e.g., PDF, Word, PowerPoint, etc.) should be accessible to people with disabilities. Organizations from several industries have chosen MSF&W to evaluate and repair the accessibility of their electronic documents so that they can meet relevant accessibility standards (Section 508, Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0, and Illinois Information Technology Accessibility Act (IITAA)).

Challenge

A large national healthcare association partnered with MSF&W over a three year period to ensure that all of its electronic documents complied with Section 508 and are fully accessible to people with disabilities. The documents included PowerPoint presentations delivered during in-person conferences or via webinar, as well as PDF reports posted on the organization’s web site.

Solution

MSF&W reviewed nearly 2,000 PowerPoint and PDF documents for accessibility, testing with the Acrobat Accessibility Full Check and with JAWS screen reading software. Issues found were logged, repaired, and re-checked, ensuring that each final document was functionally accessible for assistive technology users.