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Thread: Website Evaluation Frequency
Number of posts in this thread: 5 (In chronological order)
From: Dori Lloyd
Date: Tue, Oct 23 2018 2:59PM
Subject: Website Evaluation Frequency
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Can you share with me what the best practice is for accessibility testing
or evaluation of an institution's website in terms of frequency. I have
been in discussions with marketing around how often the website should be
evaluated for accessibility and we thought it might be best to see what
others who know more about this do. If you have a document that shows a
sample plan that you would be willing to share with me off list, I would
greatly appreciate it. I thank you in advance for your willingness to
share. Thanks!
--
*Dori Lloyd*
Director, Distance Education and Instructional Technology
Reich Bldg Rm 101A
Davidson County Community College
P.O. Box 1287 | Lexington, NC 27293-1287
336.224.4518
www.davidsonccc.edu
*Storm Toward Success*
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From: Thomas Lee McKeithan II
Date: Tue, Oct 23 2018 3:07PM
Subject: Re: Website Evaluation Frequency
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I'd love to discuss strategy with you. Can we setup a time to chat/discuss. I think that many factors go in making such decisions.
I'm happy to help.
Thomas Lee McKeithan II | Optum
Sr. Digital Accessibility Engineer
Accessibility Center of Excellence (A11Y CoE)
User Experience Design Studio (UXDS)
P +1 443-896-0432
M +1 202-276-6437
= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
Accessibility on Hub Connect
UXDS on Hub Connect
From: JP Jamous
Date: Tue, Oct 23 2018 3:12PM
Subject: Re: Website Evaluation Frequency
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Way too many factors.
Definitely, schedule something with Thomas. He will be the best person to
give you the best advice on this. *Smiles*
--------------------
JP Jamous
Senior Digital Accessibility Engineer
E-Mail Me |Join My LinkedIn Network
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From: Steve Green
Date: Tue, Oct 23 2018 3:34PM
Subject: Re: Website Evaluation Frequency
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I would say that you're asking the wrong question, and that it should really be "what is the best practice for achieving and maintaining a given level of accessibility", because that is presumably what you are actually trying to achieve.
When the question is framed that way, a good starting point is BS8878, which is a governance framework for achieving and maintaining accessibility in an organisation.
https://shop.bsigroup.com/ProductDetail/?pid=000000000030180388&rdt=wmt
https://www.bsigroup.com/LocalFiles/en-GB/consumer-guides/resources/BSI-Consumer-Brochure-Web-Accessibility-UK-EN.pdf
If a website contains more than a few hundred pages, it becomes impossible to maintain good accessibility just by doing periodic audits. It's too large to test manually, yet automated tools can only find a fraction of the issues. It's therefore important to ensure that content is accessible at the point of creation by using measures such as training, policies, CMS rules, pre-publication reviews etc. BS8878 advocates embedding accessibility in an organisation so it is "business as usual" rather than a separate activity that is bolted on to fix things after the event.
If you really are in a position where you can't do any of those things and can only test what's been published, I would probably recommend:
1. Do as large a manual test as you can afford, then fix everything and retest till there are no remaining issues.
2. Use an automated testing tool continuously or at least daily, and fix issues as they arise. At first there will probably be a lot of issues, but eventually the tool will find little or nothing from day to day.
3. Start an internal benchmarking programme by doing a large manual test perhaps every quarter.
4. Where possible, don't just fix the non-compliances, but fix their root causes too.
5. Once the manual tests are showing a level of accessibility you are happy with, reduce their frequency. Increase it if the accessibility starts to decline.
Steve Green
Managing Director
Test Partners Ltd
From: Angela French
Date: Tue, Oct 23 2018 3:37PM
Subject: Re: Website Evaluation Frequency
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When I was in charge of our public facing website - checking for accessibility was an everyday function. We use Siteimprove to do this. Any time an editor touches a page, it's an opportunity for something do be done incorrectly on the accessibility front.
Angela French
SBCTC.edu