Adopting a Hybrid Approach for Web and PDF Accessibility

Date & Time

Tuesday, March 15, 2022 - 3:20 PM PST  

Location

Platinum 7-8  

Description

Tackling web and document accessibility require continuous effort, but what's the best approach for success? In this session, we'll look at how a hybrid approach of incorporating both automation and human verification can provide a more realistic and successful path to improving the digital inclusivity of your website content.

First and foremost, organizations need to understand the importance of having an accessible website, including the website content - as well as the PDFs and documents that are uploaded online. Fostering an understanding internally within an organization is the first and most important step to ensuring a successful accessibility compliance program.

Secondly, there are many options for automation and monitoring solutions for accessibility and testing tools are important components of any successful accessibility program. But automation, toolbars and testing tools can only get you so far and manual testing needs to be part of your overall accessibility program. In this session, we will discuss how web accessibility can be enhanced by using automation, toolbars and testing tools, but also highlight how human verification is an integral part of the process to cover the areas in which web accessibility tools are not able to meet accessibility requirements. We will discuss the following areas of web accessibility:
Web accessibility testing and monitoring tools, including examples of what information these tools can provide and how they can be extremely useful in the process of ensuring your website is accessible.
Web accessibility widget, overlay and toolbar examples and how they help for disabilities such as dyslexia and low vision, as well as address their limitations
Example of manual testing needed to cover the areas that automated solutions cannot cover, and what processes you should have in place to

Thirdly, PDF and document accessibility is also a key component of overall web accessibility, and both testing tools and manual reviews are required to ensure documents are fully accessible and standards compliant. The initial step is finding and locating where PDF and documents are located on a website, and then identifying which do not live up to WCAG standards. In addition, documents have unique requirements that are different from web content and thus have additional testing requirements. We will discuss the following areas of PDF and document accessibility:
Which free testing tools are available to scan PDF documents, how to test for compliance against WCAG standards, and the limitations of free testing tools.
When to use remediation tools for testing and remediating documents for full accessibility compliance, and the benefits of more in-depth remediation. Understanding when manual checks must be done on documents to ensure 100% accessible documents, and learning how to make the determination of doing remediation in-house and/or when working with an external provider makes more sense.
Overall, the audience will learn how a hybrid approach to addressing both website and document accessibility can benefit them, as well as what considerations they need to make in combining automated testing tools and manual reviews for a successful hybrid approach to their accessibility compliance program.

This Presentation Link is provided by the Presenter(s) and not hosted by the Center on Disabilities at CSUN. The Center on Disabilities has confirmed, as of April 1, 2022, content linked is relevant to the presentation, but has not been reviewed for accessibility nor will the Center on Disabilities attempt to remediate any accessibility issues in the linked content. Please contact the Presenter(s) with any accessibility concerns.

 

Audience

• Higher Education
• K-12 Education
• Government
• Finance & Banking
• Marketing

Audience Level

Beginning  

Session Summary (Abstract)

Tackling web and document accessibility require continuous effort, but what's the best approach for success? In this session, we'll look at how a hybrid approach of incorporating both automation and human verification can provide a more realistic and successful path to improving the digital inclusivity of your website content.  

Session Type

General Track  

Topics

• Blind/Low Vision
• Digital Accessibility
• Information & Communications Technology (ICT)
• Law, Compliance, and Policy
• Web

Presenters

• David Herr
  CommonLook
• Jacob Riff
  Monsido US

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