client wants automated audit scores on a government contractors site. should i push back?

Solveda11yaccessibilityopinion17 replies · 436 views · started

Accepted solution

by Vera CostaJump to the reply

overlay widgets cant fix inaccessible markup reliably. many screen reader users already have their own settings and tools, and overlays sometimes interfere with them :/ the money is usually better spent fixing the underlying HTML: headings, labels, focus order, alt text. hope that helps :)

  1. accessibility discussion time. I keep seeing strong opinions about automated audit scores, and both sides sound very suree of themselves, for a government contractor's site, we want to do the right thing, not just teh thing that looks good on a checklist, how do you decide what actually improves life for people using keyboards, screen readers, magnifiers or voice control?? practical advice welcome, especially things a small team can actually keep doing. im about to throw this thing out the window lol

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  2. Do u have anyone who uses assistive technology available to test my bank's dashboard?

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  3. no regular testers yet, but we could hire someone for a usability session on a government contractor's site. sorry for the wall of text lol

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  4. Auto-playing carousels move content before ppl can read it and are hard to control. If you must have one, don't autoplay, or provide a visible pause control, and make every slide reachable by keyboard.

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  5. ahh classic infinite scroll makes footers unreachable and loses position when navigating back. offer a load more button or pagination, and move focus sensibly when new content apperas.

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  6. ok but is audit even worth bothering with or should i just leave it

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  7. Icon-only buttons need an accessible name, via visible text, aria-label, or visually hidden text. A visible label also helps sighted users who dont know what the icon means. hope that helps :)

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  8. dumb question but how do i even check the thermal paste. make a backup befroe u touch the cache, learned that teh hard way ?

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  9. oh ive been there lol custom dropdowns are a common source of trouble. Native <select> elements come with keyboard support and screen reader semantics for free... if you need a custom one, follow the ARIA patterns closely and test with real assistive technology. worked for me anyway 🤷

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  10. hmmm automated tools catch only part of the issues. A perfect score can still mean a site that's unusable with a keyboard. Pair automated checks with manual testing: tab trhough every page, use a screen reader for key flows, zoom to 200% and 400%. fingers crossed 🤞

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  11. Accepted solution

    overlay widgets cant fix inaccessible markup reliably. many screen reader users already have their own settings and tools, and overlays sometimes interfere with them :/ the money is usually better spent fixing the underlying HTML: headings, labels, focus order, alt text. hope that helps :)

    1 9 helpful
  12. ok weird one spent all weekend on scores and im still not done. same issue here on my homelab box... glad im not the only one

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  13. idk man that sounds like bad advice tbh but hey ymmv

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  14. @vcosta omggg we're doing keyboard and screen reader testing on key flows before launch. Already found issues the automated tool missed. seriously made my day 😭🙏

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