Doing Accessibility Right the First Time –

or Maybe the Second

Sarah Anderson and Donna Dralus, Grinnell College

@grinnola#UAD3

• Upgrade from Drupal 6 to Drupal 7• Complete redesign• Content strategy: flatten• Audience: target prospective students• Responsive

• Leadership changes• Department growth & turnover• No internal Drupal developers• No intranet

• Communications Staff• Information Technology Services Staff• Accessibility and Disability Services Staff• Accessibility Committee• Accessibility Task Force• Vocal Students and Parents• Vocal Alumni• Tom Harkin

Chapter 1

• Design firm and development firm separate, but provided “joint proposal”

• Accessibility was written into the contract, but not defined– “The website will also follow all latest best

practices for accessibility by people of all abilities and disabilities, while addressing the information needs of the varied audiences that use the College’s website.”

1. Design2. Develop3. Audit4. Fix5. Launch

Chapter 2: The Launch

©Warner Bros.

• Dozens of errors in template• Low contrast between key colors– All text on the site too small and too low contrast– Lack of contrast in masthead image and

navigation

• Forms were a mess• Autoplay carousels on every page• “Drawers”

• Finger pointing– Dev partner blamed design partner– Design partner blamed dev partner– Both blamed us (“You approved it…”)

• Contract wasn’t specific enough to help• Fixing it would be $$$• Campus was outraged• Final result didn’t meet needs or reflect the

brand

Chapter 3: Starting Over

• Fortunately (?!?) accessibility wasn’t the site’s biggest problem, but it was the one mandated by law.

• Expense to fix ≈ expense to start over• Coincided with rebranding effort

Chapter 4: Learning from Our MIstakes

• Admitted we needed help• New dev partner didn’t have expertise• RFP to choose accessibility partner

New Process

• Design• Audit• Build• Audit• Fix• Audit• And repeat…

Chapter 5: Another Launch

Chapter 6: Defending the Castle

• SiteImprove for weekly reports• Certification for editors prior to training• Site-specific training prior to access• Review process prior to publishing• Creating assistive technology

department

When they come with pitchforks…

• Don’t be defensive• Ask for help to fix• Tie efforts to core values• Personalize the issue– Current students– Alumni

Choose Your Sidekicks Wisely

Vet your potential partners carefully (dev, design, etc.)– Ask specific questions– Look at portfolios, do simple tests– Don’t use a print team to design a website

Contracts

• Build accessibility standards into contracts– Be specific– Align to 508, WCAG 2.0 standards (A, AA, AAA)

Choosing an Accessibility Partner

• Manual and automated testing• Universal design/UX expertise, not just

standards compliance• Good project management, good

communication• Useful Reports– Ask for samples– Design and code suggestions

• Involve parties from across campus to ask the right questions

Resources

• If you don’t have internal expertise, find it

• Automated tools aren’t everything, but they’re a place to start

• Provide heuristics/checklists for editors

Maintenance

• Automated tools• Content editor training• Content approval process

Epilogue

• Digital accessibility policy• Accessibility of assets (PDFs, documents,)• Digital accessibility beyond the website

Process

Build accessibility into every phase of the project– Wireframe– Design– Build– Audit/Maintain