0
0
As ADA compliance is becoming a necessity nowadays, all website owners are on the lookout for ways to ensure the same on their business or public websites. Ensuring website compliance with ADA is a 2-step process. At the first point, it is needed to audit the website to understand the current level of accessibility and identify what all things are missing. The next step is to take remediation measures based on the findings of the audit.
Compliance audit for ADA – AccessiBe
The basic practice in ADA compliance audit is to run a WCAG 2.1 level A, AA audit. However, you cannot rely fully on automatic audits as the WCAG standards. Based on several trials done with automated audit tools, AccessiBe found that these tools only catch about 30% of noncompliance.
On automated audits, the entire website is being crawled in order to capture only the low-hanging fruits. Manual WCAG audits of the website code and use cases for different pages are more effective. Another approach is assistive technology audit which uses the tools which people with disabilities may use to interpret the pages.
The primary auditing challenge is identifying the accessibility experts who have deep knowledge and experience in WCAG audits. The audit experts also need to have expertise in the below areas to provide a complete and trusted remediation too.
-
An auditor should be able to try out different combinations of use cases for people with disabilities.
-
Should be knowledgeable and experienced in assistive technologies used by people with disabilities.
-
The website code needed to be audited as per WCAG standard guidelines which the auditor should be fully knowledgeable about.
-
The auditor should also be aware of the legalities related to ADA and the reference cases in order to do the audit well.
The objective of a web accessibility audit per WCAG standard is to get an intact audit report that may identify the low-hanging fruits and the exact violations and ways to fix the same.
Cost of WCAG audit
The cost of a standard WCAG may range widely based on the requirement at hand. This cost may range from about $3,000 or lesser up to about $30,000 for major websites of complex enterprises. Sometimes, it may even go up to $50,000 or a six-figure estimate for bigger ones. Ultimately, the cost of an audit may basically come to the amount you may be willing to spend to avoid the legal complications of future penalties on your website.
Remediation for WCAG compliance
With the scope of further development based on the audit, the website development and content management team may break down the compliance tasks and implement the solutions as recommended. If the audit and reporting are being done with recommendations, it may become easier for all teams involved to take the remediation measures instantly. If audit and recommendations are made properly, then you may require ongoing guidance from accessibility specialists to run the same.
It is always recommended that your existing web team may conduct this remediation task. Support is available like the AccessiBe accessibility tool to be integrated into the website to ensure WCAG compliance.
