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Selecting a Digital Accessibility Vendor

Ramya Venkitesh — Thu, 03 Mar 2022 05:28:26 +0000

Accessibility is not an option but the right thing to do. However, the problem is that most businesses have no idea where to start. A lot of them don't even know what accessibility is! Many of them are taking the easy route and asking their web designers for accessibility advice. Unfortunately, the truth is this: web designers are not accessibility specialists. It's important to find someone who knows about both design and technology in order to get the best result for your business.

Read this Should your Development Vendor be your Accessibility Testing Vendor?

Selecting the right accessibility vendor is a critical decision for any company looking to make their digital products compliant with the emerging regulations. The right website and digital accessibility vendor can help you identify the most problematic areas of your product and provide solutions to get you up to code.

There are several accessibility vendors out there that have been around for a while and offer quality service and products. Ensuring that your digital products meet WCAG standards and Section 508 guidelines require expert vendors in this field.

The right vendor can ensure that your products are fully accessible and also help protect your company from legal risks. While it is important to do some research on your own, there are also certain questions you can ask the vendor that will give you an idea of their capabilities:

How would you describe your company’s values and philosophy?
What is your process for evaluating and proposing solutions?
What methods do you use to assess accessibility?
What is your experience in the industry?
What is your typical timeline for getting back to clients after receiving a request for proposal?
What services do you offer that are not listed on the website?

The digital accessibility vendor you select should not only provide an option for progress tracking and record keeping but also ensure that they can provide you a customized roadmap towards your accessibility needs.

Check out our blog on Top 5 resources for learning Accessibility.

At BarrierBreak, we provide accessibility testing services and digital accessibility solutions with legal expertise and consulting and help our partners meet their accessibility goals. As a website accessibility consultant, we work with our customers to ensure that their products comply to accessibility standards and guidelines and also support them to create an effective and complete VPAT of the product.

To learn more about our accessibility testing services, get in touch with our team at sales@barrierbreak.com

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Should your Development Vendor be your Accessibility Testing Vendor?

Shilpi Kapoor — Wed, 27 Jan 2021 01:21:47 +0000

No, never, not advisable!

I firmly believe that the developer and the tester need to be independent. It just is pure conflict of interest!

Accessibility testing is an Audit conducted of your website or mobile app. Which audit would you trust more:

One where the developer has audited their own work
Where an independent auditor checked the deliverable

Personally, I will trust the independent audit and I’m sure that’s due to you too.

So, if you have specified in your Statement of Work or RFP that the website or mobile app has to be accessible and meet Web Content Accessibility Guideline 2.1 Level AA, then I am sure you want to ensure it meets the standards.

Some of the benefits of performing a third party accessibility audit are:

Accountability – ensuring that the website or mobile app is delivered as per the accessibility guidelines and hold the vendor accountable to the SOW or RFP
Validation – the audit will help you test that the accessibility requirements are met as per WCAG.
Managing Risk – ensuring that your website and mobile app is inclusive and accessible. This will also ensure you comply with the relevant laws such as Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

Above all be a company that is inclusive. Ensure your products and solutions are accessible to people with disabilities. There are more than a billion people with disabilities in the world and have a disposable income of USD 3 trillion.

So choose right! Evaluate your options of vendors and don’t be limited by your “preferred vendor” list. Find the vendor partner that helps you to meet your accessibility needs.

Be Inclusive and Accessible!

Write to us at sales@barrierbreak.com to know more on how we can support you to be an inclusive organization.

The post Should your Development Vendor be your Accessibility Testing Vendor? appeared first on Leader in Offshore Accessibility Testing | Section 508 Compliance | WCAG Conformance | BarrierBreak.

Choosing a generalist software testing firm versus an accessibility testing firm

Shilpi Kapoor — Wed, 09 Sep 2020 01:47:24 +0000

Looking for an accessibility testing firm is often a hurdle that organizations encounter. There are numerous software testing firms who also offer accessibility testing or accessibility audit and then you will find that there are specialized firms that focus on accessibility testing.

How do you evaluate what is better?

Some factors to consider when evaluating an offshore accessibility testing firm are :

What is their level of knowledge on Accessibility:

What is the depth of the knowledge about accessibility in the organization? A good place to start would be to see if the vendors own website is accessible. Numerous companies offer accessibility services as one of their many service offerings but do they walk the talk.

After 20 years in accessibility, I can tell you that accessibility is something that you start to live in breathe. The guidelines are only starting point and the goal should be to go beyond compliance.

Experience in conducting accessibility testing:

Get to know more about the number of projects, the type of technologies, the different standards they have worked with, the scale of the projects and the type of customers they have serviced.

These questions will allow you to understand the level of experience in accessibility testing. Accessibility and is really not about the checklist. It is about an interpretation of the guidelines based on how something is developed.

Does the team comprise of people with disabilities?

“Nothing without us“ – Ask them about the team and how there including people with disabilities as a part of the testing process.

Even though I have been testing using assistive technology since the last 20 years, I would yet lean to the experience of my disabled colleagues. The reason is very simple, I am not a native screen reader or assistive technology user.

I would go so far as to say that accessibility is a specialization. You get better at it with experience.

At BarrierBreak, I have often been asked why we don’t do any other type of testing.

When I founded BarrierBreak, we were a technical writing and an accessibility consulting firm. I soon realized the importance of a specialization.

We are passionate about accessibility, people with disabilities matter to us, we want to make the world more accessible, we see technology as a game changer, and we believe in inclusion. 50% of the accessibility testing team being people with disabilities.

Meet Shilpi Kapoor for a 1 hour tête-à-tête focused discussion on accessibility for a personalised advice to forward your organisations accessibility journey.

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