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RE: Testing current accessibility of an entire University

for

From: Steve Vosloo
Date: Sep 26, 2002 7:27AM

I recently audited a 26 000 page site -- but only looked at 10 key
templates. We decided that it was best to pick a few templates that held
elements of the entire site, e.g. if Flash was used then one of the
templates audited would be a standard Flash page, and audit those pages
thoroughly (manual and automated testing). This then gives you an idea
of what the main issues are -- my audit report was broken down by WCAG
priority levels so it was easy for the client to make an informed
decision about which priority to adopt (given the budget and time
considerations). The task of retrofitting a large site can be divided
into template level and content level issues. Template level issues,
e.g. the ALT description of the ubiquitous Search button, are relatively
easy to fix (sometimes very easy), whereas content level issues, e.g.
ALT descriptions of academic diagrams, potentially require someone to
manually check every page ... A mammoth task.

Conducting an initial audit on a limited number of pages can also assist
you in creating a rollout plan, prioritising certain sections of the
site for retrofitting first.

Steve