WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Re: Getting Your Website Accessibility Certified

for

From: Detlev Fischer
Date: Sep 19, 2019 2:39AM

Most organisations taking the (German) BITV-Test (which is fully aligned
with WCAG
 2.1) aim at identifying weak points in the design of new web sites.
The test helps making the overall structure, the navigation, interactive
widgets like dropdowns, dialogs, disclosure widgets etc. accessible, and
these are then typically used as new content is added. So a test is a
starting point to get the system developed to a good standard.

Changes later on can and will impact the result, so it is true that a
test can always only be a snapshot.

From our experience of carrying out many BITV-Tests ourselves and
quality-assuring many others, I would not agree with the observation
that "customers that want to take the BITV-Test and get a certificate
would do anything to pass the test which does not necessarily mean it
does anything for actual accessibility." While there are many aspects
that are not covered in the test because they are not part of the
standard (often usability aspects or requirements on level AAA of WCAG)
the test ensures that a level of basic technical accessibility is
implemented.

For any test that can lead to a conformance seal (or a seal pointing to
test results) that clearly states its limitations by qualifying "pages
tested", customers do not choose pages themselves, they do not know what
will be chosen for the page sample. So the bit about "advise the
customer on how to revise the content and the customer would edit the
pages that are likely to be analyzed" is simply not true.

If complex features are part of a site they will be included in the
test. It is true that customers may cheat, but we have had in hundreds
of tests only few cases where that has happened. If it happens, there is
really not much we can do about that.

As to the impression that once the test is done no further work is
needed, again it is really outside our scope of influence as evaluators.
It is good that the requirement to regularly update a site's
accessibility statement will certainly counteract somewhat that complacency.

Detlev

Am 19.09.2019 um 08:35 schrieb Miriam Fukushima:
> Hello Sudheer,
>
>
> I'm from Germany and we have a way of certifying that a at a certain
> point in time certain analyzed pages were accessible according to our
> Version of the WCAG namely BITV 2.0.
>
> In my experience this gives a false sense of security. Because
> customers that want to take the BITV-Test and get a certificate would
> do anything to pass the test which does not necessarily mean it does
> anything for actual accessibility.
>
> It also fosters the impression that once the test is passed, there is
> no need to work on accessibility any further.
>
> For example I would adjust the site on a technical level and advise
> the customer on how to revise the content and the customer would edit
> the pages that are likely to be analyzed.
>
> But after passing the test, the content is reedited or new content
> follows none of the advice I gave.
>
>
> And I often find that complex features of a site are not considered in
> the guidelines for the test and are therefore not implemented before
> the test or turned off to assure the passing of the test instead of
> really tackling the issue of making them accessible.
>
> But later on they are implemented anyway without any regard to
> accessibility.
>
> Because of that I had also customers not wanting to consider
> accessibility at all because they thought they would not pass the test
> anyway or only with too high costs and without a certificate as sort
> of a reward, accessibility would not be worth the effort.
>
>
> Kind regards Miriam.
>
> On 18.09.2019 21:15, Sudheer Babu wrote:
>> Hey Everyone,
>>
>> Can someone please explain on how to get your web application
>> accessibility
>> certified. Are there any formal ways of getting certified and also does
>> this vary from country to country?
>>
>> Any more information on the same would be really helpful.
>>
>> Thanks in advance
>> Sudheer.
>> >> >> >> > > > > --
Detlev Fischer
Testkreis
Werderstr. 34, 20144 Hamburg

Mobil +49 (0)157 57 57 57 45

http://www.testkreis.de
Beratung, Tests und Schulungen für barrierefreie Websites