Digital Accessibility

Websites

As the first point of contact for most of your prospective customers, having an accesible website ensures you’re readily available to the widest possible audience. E-Innovate specialises in WCAG-compliant web design and development (we aim to meet the WCAG 2.2 Level AA standard), and can manage every aspect of your new accessible site build, from visual design to content, right the way through to development, launch, and ongoing accessible content management.

A laptop displaying the Polar Dry Ice Cleaning homepage

Documents

Having an accesible website is only one part of the digital accessibility puzzle. It’s also essential to ensure that all documents served through that website, or sent out to prospective and current customers, are accessible. Through our partnership with GrackleDocs, E-Innovate can deliver WCAG and PDF/UA conformant digital documents that’ll be accessible to everyone, including those relying on assistive technologies.

A man using a laptop with graphical representations of document icons superimposed

Comms

Accessible communication means ensuring that your messaging, both internal and external, is as accessible as possible to everyone who might read it. In the most basic of terms, this includes writing in clear, concise plain language, using clear and consistent layouts for documents or visuals, adhering to WCAG principle for font sizes, colour contrast, and alt text, and, where necessary, offering an alternative medium for the content. If that sounds like a lot to digest, don’t worry, E-Innovate has your back!

A group of young adults around a desk at a library, one of whom is in a wheelchair

Training

While it may initially be more convenient to let the E-Innovate team handle your digital accessibility requirements, we always recommend that you and your team take the necessary steps to be able to confidently deliver accessible digital content in-house. That’s why we offer dedicated training from IAAP certifed experts on document accessibility, accessible content management, accessible social media, accessible communications, and general accessiblity.

A woman raising her hand during a presentation

  • Do I need to be accessible, and are there penalties if I am not?

    Where your business is based, and the countries you provide goods or services to, will determine your legal obligations when it comes to digital accessibility. It’s important to understand your obligations, as the penalties for non-compliance can be extremely severe.

    For example, non-compliance with the European Accessibility Act standards in Ireland can carry penalties of fines up to €60,000 and/or imprisonment of up to 18 months, while non-compliance with AODA regulations in Ontario, Canada could result in maximum fines of $100,000 per day for corporations, and $50,000 per day for individuals. If you do business in, or provide goods/services to these territories, you may be liable under their accessibility legislations.

  • Is there an accessibility standard?

    While there is no de-facto legal standard, most countries’ regulations cite the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (opens in new window) (WCAG) 2.0 Level AA as an acceptable baseline for website accessibility.

    For document accessibility, WCAG is joined by ISO 32000 (PDF/UA) (opens in new window) as the generally accepted baseline.

    Each country may also carry its own additional requirements.

  • Can I use an accessibility widget to make my website compliant?

    No, absolutely not. Accessibility widgets, referred to within the industry as “overlays”, are an accessibility disaster. While they claim to make your website accessible with “just a single line of code” or by installing a plugin, they actually make your website less accessible, and can be incredibly problematic for visitors who use assistive technologies. They can also result in lawsuits (opens in new window, despite their claims to protect you.

    It is never acceptable to use an overlay. Ever.

    You can read more about the problems with these snake-oil solutions at overlayfactsheet.com (opens in new window).

  • What if my target clients don't have disabilities?

    This is something we hear asked quite frequently, and we’ve got the perfect analogy to highlight the flaw in the question’s logic…

    Imagine you run a car dealership. Obviously, you’re not going to be selling cars to people who are legally blind. However, those people are parents, husbands, and wives. Just because they won’t be driving the car, doesn’t mean they won’t play a big part in researching vehicles, or even paying for them, for their loved ones. By not being digitally accessible, you’re taking their potential business off the table, and handing it to your accessible competitors.

    It’s also important to note that, at one point or another, we all have digital accessibility requirements – whether permanent, temporary, or situational.

  • Doesn't "accessible" just mean boring looking?

    This is an extremely common misconception. Being accessible by no means being boring, or bland, nor does it restrict creativity in any way. Rather, it simply means you need to assess each step of your process, asking “is this accessible?” and “can we do this in an accessible manner?”

    Accessibility is about ensuring that your content and key functionality is available to everyone, regardless of disabilities, and usually, it just means a little more care and consideration is required along the way!

  • If you build me an accessible website, am I future-proofed?

    No. If E-Innovate builds you an accessible website, it will be conformant with WCAG 2.2 Level AA at the point of handover. After it is delivered, any changes made to the website, or content added, will need to be conformant, too.

    This means that if you add an inaccessible PDF, for example, your site is no longer conformant.

    There are many factors included in accessible content management, and E-Innovate can provide detailed training to you and your team to ensure you remain compliant or, if you’d prefer, we can look after your content management entirely (or anything in between).

  • Is accessibility expensive?

    Accessible websites and documents are websites and documents that are, simply put, built properly to industry best standards.

    This means that simply by doing things in the correct manner, your site and documents will be inherently accessible. So the question isn’t “is accessibility expensive”, but rather “do you want to cut corners and pay less to have things built to a lower standard?”

    We’re going to guess the answer is no.