A need for accessibility compliance
Arun Council have a web development partner, but needed extra assistance with understanding where the accessibility weaknesses were on their existing website. After Huxley carried out a content audit, Arun decided it was time for a re-build.
Months later, Huxley were then asked to carry out the same accessibility audit on their new website. A comprehensive report would be delivered to Arun, detailing where improvements were needed in order to comply with WCAG 2.1 accessibility standards.
A deep dive into content
A content audit focuses on technical elements of a website. It looks purely at the content and code, using a combination of page scanning tools and manual testing to locate errors.
When we’re auditing a website in this way, we’re looking for two types of error:
Global issues that are present in multiple locations and unique errors that have to be fixed separately. An example of this would be poor alt text, which would usually have to be addressed using the CMS.
A scanning tool will identify the majority of the errors. However, manual testing on key templates will identify additional errors. Examples of manual testing techniques include; keyboard navigation with a screen reader, reading web-copy to asses the tone and reading age.
Details behind our findings
We make our reports as easy to decipher as possible, providing clear explanations and examples where possible, and linking to the relevant WCAG 2.1 recommendation at every stage.
The reports detail; What the report told us, what the errors were, where the errors were, how to go about fixing the errors.
In the case of Arun Council’s new website, we found that 94% of the errors we found could be fixed in just two tasks.
Making our website accessible for as many people as possible has always been important to us and we recently finished a project to completely redesign and rewrite our main site. The team at Huxley have supported us on this journey by providing site wide audits and guidance; we were very excited to hear that the final audit showed we now have no technical or observational errors.Paul Symes
Head of Technology & Digital
A successful re-build
As part of our content accessibility audits, we provide a re-audit once the amendments have been made. In this case, the re-audit came back showing zero errors.
With all of Huxley’s work, the objective is to contribute towards a more welcoming and inclusive Internet. By making changes in order to comply with WCAG 2.1 recommendations, Arun Council have made it easier for people to use their website.
