Website Accessibility Remediation

A young woman wearing glasses types on a computer keyboard at a desk with two computer monitors side by side that display computer code.

Overview

We know it can be hard to hear that “something is wrong” with your website because it instantly feels out of your control and expensive. You are not alone. Thousands of websites were built in the USA before ADA digital compliance was well understood — and that is unfortunate for too many reasons to mention here — worry not! Most things are fixable with remediation!

Federal, state, and local government websites in the USA must abide by the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) according to Section 508 of The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990. Many nations have adopted the WCAG guidelines as the gold standard for government and commercial websites.

Despite there being no law (yet) in the USA, that sets standards for website accessibility for business or non-profit organizations, these entities ARE being sued under Title III of the ADA.

Two young men and one young woman sit together looking at a computer screen that is displaying computer code, while the woman points to the screen.

At Simply Accessible Websites we build accessibility into our WordPress websites, and we help existing websites conform to WCAG 2.2 (A/AA).

How does a website achieve conformance? In a nutshell:

  1. We’ll run an audit on your website using an accessibility checker, and generate punch lists of things to address.
  2. These might be critical issues (total barriers to accessibility), or high, medium, or low-level issues. We’ll help you fix the easy stuff, first.
  3. We’ll also human-test the website (as a robot checker will only catch 30-60% of issues). Any issues found can be added to your WordPress dashboard.
  4. After some strategizing, we’ll embark on fixing those more difficult issues over a period of 3-6 months depending on the size and complexity of the website.
  5. As testing continues and more issues are fixed, less alerts will appear on your WordPress website dashboard.
  6. Ideally, your dedication results in zero issues on the dashboard!
  7. You may opt to request an attestation of accessibility that you could post to your website.

The journey begins with a Discovery Audit (see Remediation phases in detail, below).

If website accessibility remediation is determined to be the best way forward, here is a bite-size version of what that entails.

Website Accessibility Remediation phases and starting costs

Timing = 12-24 weeks

Phase 1 (Mini-Audit) and Phase 2 (Complete Website Scan) cost is due on delivery.

Phase 3 onwards, invoices are sent the first day of the month and due within 14 days.

Phase 1 – Discovery Mini–Audit

$450

Phase 2 – Website Accessibility Remediation Onboarding (plus complete accessibility scan including header/footer)

$1,200 +

Phase 3 – Website Accessibility Remediation: Low-Hanging Fruit

$1,350 +

Phase 4 – Manual Audits & Fixes (repeat)

$1,850 +

Phase 5 – Transition

Move to monitoring $0

Or, handoff (off-boarding) $375 +

Add 1-on-1 Accessible Design Coaching

Add weekly 1-on-1 accessible design coaching meetings (minimum 4 at $375 per 1 hour session)

$1,500

Your designer and the accessibility design coach work together. Includes coach prep, coaching session, and post-meeting notes/direction (and homework!)

Close up of a pair of black-rimmed glasses sitting on a computer keyboard.

Remediation phases in detail

Website accessibility testing requires both a technical (robot) and human perspective to get a clear picture (aka an audit). Our human testers are disabled — some testers are blind, some have low-vision, some have mobility issues (cannot use a mouse) and use a keyboard to navigate their computer and the internet. We employ a harmonious balance of humans and robots at different stages of remediation.

Phase 1: Discovery Mini–Audit

  • Perform accessibility scan of a defined portion of pages
  • Create Recommendations Report
  • Zoom to discuss discovery mini–audit, walk through the decision chart, and agree on a plan of action which might be:
    • Further auditing
    • Website Accessibility Remediation
    • Rebuild the website, accessibility–first

With an audit in hand we can get to work fixing issues straight away (the low-hanging fruit), whether that be color contrast, text size, or alt text/image descriptions.

Mobile navigation menus, video transcripts, or code that enables a person to navigate via keyboard, are examples of issues that take longer to fix.

Phase 2: Onboarding

  • Initiate Basecamp Project (web-based project management application) with instructions for onboarding
  • Receive access to website: wp-admin, hosting, analytics
  • Set-up development area for testing, and take back-ups
  • Install (robot) Accessibility Checker on website, perform full site scan
  • Manual (human) audit of header and footer, seek out any elements needing special attention, add those issues to the accessibility checker dashboard
  • Update/create Accessibility Statement, stating the website is going through remediation

Phase 3: Low-Hanging Fruit

  • Following full site scan and initial review, Zoom call with you to cover priorities
  • The accessibility coach, or your designer and coach work together on “low-hanging fruit”
  • Weekly strategy Zoom call

Phase 4: Manual Audits & Fixes (repeat)

  • Manual audit of body content and archives
  • Website developer (dev) and content specialist work to resolve issues, dev works on any issues in the header and/or footer
  • Monthly strategy call until problems are resolved (repeat this phase twice or more) until:
    • The website conforms to WCAG 2.2 Level A/AA, or
    • You, our client, decide to stop remediation and move to Phase 5. Anything unresolved can be added to the website’s Accessibility Statement.

Phase 5: Transition

  • Move to monitoring (monthly, quarterly, or annual audits, remediation, and calls with our Accessibility Monitoring Plan).
  • Or, you might opt to go it alone from here. We’ll talk with you about the pros and cons of that decision, answer you questions, and plan a follow-up Zoom call one month later to see how you’re doing.