If your question isn't answered below please get in touch via our contact page.
Aren't Accessible websites basic looking with poor design?
Some of them certainly are but there's no reason why they should be. A good designer will not make some of the classic Accessibility mistakes because they coincide with poor design. Unreadable typefaces and colour contrasts that make legibility difficult are bad design on paper or the web.
Any imagery can be used as long as you take 30 seconds to fill in the alt tag and don't hard bake text into it like a flyer. That's poor SEO as Google can't read it.
So no, Accessible websites don't have to look like your local parish council website! (to be fair though they are getting better)
An Accessible Website, isn't that expensive?
Some specialised agencies will charge a lot of money for Accessibility audits and remediation - but do you need that?
Unless the majority of your audience is in need of the highest levels of AAA Accessibility or you are a Public body that needs to be AA 2.2 you don't need the higher levels - and you don't need that expense.
Expensive is a relative term but with our new Accessible websites starting from £2999 inc training we don't consider ourselves expensive.
There is also the potential for us to upgrade your current website to be Accessible - in some case for under £1000, bringing the cost down further!
How is Website Accessibility Measured?
Accessibility is measured internationally using Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) set by the W3C at three levels:
Single A, Double AA, and Triple AAA.
Single A: The minimum baseline for website Accessibility. It is a necessary step but provides only very basic adjustments.
Double AA: The standard benchmark. It significantly improves usability for people with diverse, often non-obvious, assistive needs. We will get you to this level at least.
Triple AAA: The highest and most rigorous tier. Very few sites require Triple AAA compliance.
We use Google Lighthouse and Silktide.
Google Lighthouse is a FREE integrated tool available in your web browser that provides a traffic-light scoring system. A score of 90% or higher (green) in this audit is widely considered a passing mark. We consider 95% a minimum and we also check each page manually - as advised by all the good automated testers.
Silktide is an enterprise-tier platform often used by organisations for comprehensive accessibility measurement, automated reporting, and remediation planning. Their automated tester allows testing to AA 2.1 or AA 2.2 standards
We can use the Silktide automated tester instead of Lighthouse for an additional cost.
Is Lighthouse based on W3C standards?
Yes, Google Lighthouse is based on W3C standards, specifically for its Accessibility and best practices audits, but it is an independent automated testing tool created by Google rather than an official W3C validator.
How Lighthouse Connects to W3C Standards Accessibility (WCAG): The Accessibility category in Lighthouse tests elements against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) created by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). It automates a subset of WCAG Level A and AA criteria using the axe-core engine.
Best Practices and HTML/ARIA: It checks for proper implementation of web components, secure protocols, and ARIA attributes defined by W3C specifications. Performance and SEO: These audits rely heavily on Google’s own metrics (like Core Web Vitals) and search optimisation (SEO) guidelines.
Automated testing needs to be augmented by a human. We check all images for correct alt tag content and baked in text as well as contrasts the test may have missed.
Do you use any other testing methods?
Yes, we can also use Silktide's automated tester plus human testing up to AA2.2 if you wish. Please let us know you require that in your quote as it is more expensive.
Silktide is used by over 40 UK Councils and is a global website Accessibility authority. We have no affiliation with them but do use their Accessibility testing software.
Can we pay in stages?
Of course. We will do our best to accomodate payment stages to fit in with you where possible.
A lot of people phase in Accessibility. A reasonable strategy is to start with the navigation structure and header and footer if they need to change. Next up would probably be the high traffic pages and new pages. Finally, legacy pages can be made Accessable either when they are updated or when time and budget allows.
Your Accessibility Statement will outline your strategy to your service users.
We request a 10% deposit before commencing work - well under the UK average - but all work from then on becomes invoiceable after you've signed off on that work. That way we take the risk, but the stages rationalise that risk.
Are you going to work on our live website?
Not unless you ask us to! Tiny edits like an address change for instance then yes, it's only taking a few seconds and a 'maintenance page' can state that if you want us to do that.
With a new website we will create it on a private server for you to see and sign off when complete. Then we will back up your current site and swap the new one to that space.