More than a pretty page – Accessibility online

20 May, 2020

More than a pretty page – Accessibility online

According to GLAAD, the organisation behind the yearly Global Accessibility Awareness Day, approximately 98% of all webpages report a WCAG 2.0 error.

WCAG stands for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines and is based on four main principles: perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust. (https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/) And with a billion people worldwide that have disabilities, these statistics are alarming. (https://globalaccessibilityawarenessday.org/)

Our Analysis Report – WCAG 2.1 AA compliant

(While we are not perfect), we at Urkund have made sure that our analysis report fulfils high accessibility standards, and is readable and understandable for all. The parameters that need to be met for us to be WCAG 2.1 AA compliant range from using high contrast text and colour over to the fact that “Color is not used as the sole method of conveying content or distinguishing visual elements”. It includes everything from having alternative text for pictures, the prevention of using images when text is sufficient as well as appropriate spacing for text. Text can be zoomed in (and stays sharp), every part of our analysis is accessible through the use of your keyboard and there are no time limits or constraints anywhere.

Fig. 1: Our analysis report

Fig. 2: Our analysis report

Section 508

Although WCAG and Section 508 are not the same, they share some of the same principles and ultimately, goals. Namely, making websites accessible to everyone. Urkund follows Section 508 guidelines thoroughly throughout our analysis report and training material.

Being part of the change

We at Urkund always strive to be better and we have made it an active goal when developing our new interface to be WCAG 2.1 AA and Section 508 compliant. We have conducted VPATⓇ (Voluntary Product Accessibility Template) audits to test, assess and improve our WCAG 2.1 AA compliance during the development process, right up until it was ready to be released. We also continuously improve our material and training packs, we enable subtitles for our videos and much more.

Fig. 3: An insight into our VPAT Audits

At Urkund, our goal is to make education fair and efficient through our plagiarism checker. We support safeguarding an educational structure that is based on merits and your own ideas instead of someone else’s. This also means providing software that is accessible for all. So we want to use this Global Accessibility Awareness Day to remind ourselves of these things and keep pushing for an inclusive learning environment, within which we lead by example.

Join us on this day through various events which you can find here: https://globalaccessibilityawarenessday.org/events – or why not test how your website is performing through this free checker: https://wave.webaim.org/.

Together, we can support, help, inspire and push each other for a more inclusive world.