How can you conduct an effective accessibility audit for sustainable design?

1 Define your goals

Before you start your audit, you need to have a clear idea of what you want to achieve and how you will measure your success. For example, you may want to improve the user experience, comply with accessibility standards, or increase your market reach. You also need to define your target audience, their needs, preferences, and challenges, and the context of use of your design. This will help you to set realistic and relevant criteria for your audit.

2 Choose your tools

There are many tools available to help you conduct an accessibility audit, from automated checkers to manual testing methods. Depending on your goals, budget, and resources, you may want to use a combination of tools to get a comprehensive and accurate picture of your design's accessibility. For example, the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 are the international standards for web accessibility, covering four principles: perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust. WAVE is a free online tool that analyzes your web page and identifies accessibility errors, warnings, and features. Accessibility Insights is a suite of tools that helps you to find and fix accessibility issues in your web or Windows applications. Additionally, screen readers such as JAWS, NVDA, or VoiceOver are software applications that read out loud the content and structure of your web page or application, allowing users who are blind or visually impaired to access your design.

3 Plan your audit

Once you have chosen your tools, you need to plan how you will conduct your audit, who will be involved, and how long it will take. You should consider the scope of the audit, such as which pages, features, or components you want to prioritize. Additionally, decide how you will use your tools, such as which browsers, devices, or screen resolutions you will test with. Assign roles to different people, such as testers, reviewers, or documenters. Lastly, create a timeline or checklist to keep track of your progress and deadlines. This will help ensure that the audit is conducted efficiently and effectively.

4 Conduct your audit

Now that you have prepared your audit, you can start to execute it according to your plan. You may want to run your automated tools and review the results, looking for any errors or warnings that indicate accessibility issues. Additionally, perform manual testing and review the results using screen readers, keyboard, or other assistive technologies. Compare the results and identify any gaps or discrepancies. For instance, you may find that some issues are detected by one tool but not by another, or that some issues are more noticeable or problematic for some users than others. Make note of any issues and gaps, their severity, location, impact and reasons for discrepancy.

5 Analyze your findings

Once you have completed your audit, you should analyze your findings and draw conclusions from them. Categorizing issues by type, severity, frequency, or WCAG principle can help you to identify patterns, trends, and priorities of your accessibility problems. Quantifying issues by number, percentage, or score can assist in measuring your current level of accessibility and comparing it with goals or benchmarks. Additionally, qualifying issues by impact, feedback, or recommendation can provide insight into the user perspective and potential solutions for your accessibility problems.

6 Report your results

Finally, you need to communicate your results to stakeholders, such as clients, managers, or users. Summarize your results and highlight the key findings, like strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of the design's accessibility. Visualize your results with charts, graphs, or screenshots to illustrate the data. Explain your results with context, evidence, or examples. Additionally, recommend your actions and suggest the next steps for fixes, improvements, or best practices that can enhance the design's accessibility. Following these six steps can help you conduct an effective accessibility audit for sustainable design that is inclusive and usable for all users.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?