Lesson 5 - Reporting Findings

Description

Report format

An accessibility audit report should contain any information that may be helpful to the website designers and developers in interpreting your findings.

Here are suggestions for sections to include:

  • Title page with the site URL, date, and name of auditor
  • Table of contents
  • Introduction explaining WCAG 2.0 and relevant legislation
  • Summary of your findings with general comments
  • Guideline checklist
  • Resources

An essential piece of your report is the success criterion checklist. In your document editor, create a table with the headings “Success Criterion”, “Level”, “Evaluation” and “Comments”. Create a row for each WCAG 2.0 criterion and enter its title and level. Here is an example with the first guideline entered:

Success Criterion

Level

Evaluation

Comments

1.1.1: Non-text Content

A

Pass/Fail

Reason for pass or fail: explanation of the issue, examples of failure (with screenshots if appropriate), and suggestions for how to fix it.

Screenshots

It is helpful to include screenshots of issues in the comments area. This will help to illustrate and explain accessibility issues to sighted developers.

Some helpful screenshots to include in your report might include:

  • Low contrast text and analyzer report.
  • Instances where colour is used as the only way to communicate information.
  • Examples of resizing issues when page text is enlarged to 200%.
  • Examples of images that are missing alt text.
  • The headings structure shown in Headings Map, when it does not follow guidelines.
  • A screenshot of a page with arrows depicting the tabbing order when it does not follow a sequential order.
  • Examples of text presented as images.

Evaluating criteria

Learning to properly evaluating all of the WCAG 2.0 success criteria will take a lot of practice! Fortunately, conducting audits is a great way to improve your web accessibility knowledge.

The chart below (source: WebAIM checklist http://webaim.org/standards/wcag/checklist) offers some guidance by suggesting “questions to ask” as a way of evaluating a particular criterion, where a negative answer (“no”) often signals that the success criterion has not been met.

In your report’s success criteria checklist table, enter a Pass or Fail evaluation for each success criterion based on your findings.

In some cases, a site might be very close to meeting the success criterion, or technically meet the success criterion but have related usability issues. If this is the case, considering entering a Pass*, which can indicate to the developer that while you are passing the guideline, you still have suggestions for making the experience better for users. Explain these in the comments area.

If you will be conducting many audits, it will likely be helpful to create a boilerplate guideline checklist with standard issues and comments. This way, you can speed up your auditing process by referring to your template’s comments and pasting them into your current report.

Note: only Level A and Level AA criteria are listed here. For the full list that includes Level AAA criteria, see the WCAG 2.0 website.

Principle 1: Perceivable

Success Criterion

Level

Questions to ask

1.1.1: Non-text Content

A

Goal: Ensure there are text alternatives to visuals.

Question(s):

  • Do meaningful images, icons, svgs, and background images have alternative text?
  • Do decorative images have empty alt text (alt=””)?
  • Are descriptions given for complex image maps and infographics?

1.2.1: Audio-only and Video-only (Prerecorded)

A

Goal: Ensure there are alternatives for audio tracks and videos without audio.

Question(s):

  • Is a full text transcript provided for audio content?
  • Is a full text transcript OR descriptive audio track provided for visual video content?

1.2.2: Captions (Prerecorded)

A

Goal: Ensure there are text alternatives for videos with audio.

Question(s):

  • Are captions given for video content?

1.2.3: Audio Description or Full Text Alternative

A

Goal: Ensure there are alternatives for video.

Question(s):

  • Is a full text transcript OR descriptive audio track provided for video content?

1.2.4: Captions (Live)

AA

Goal: Ensure there are text alternatives to live video.

Question(s):

  • Are captions given for live video content?

1.2.5: Audio Description

AA

Goal: Ensure there are audio alternatives to visuals in video.

Question(s):

  • Is a descriptive audio track provided for visual video content?

1.3.1: Info and Relationships

A

Goal: Ensure the use of semantic markup that thoroughly explains meaning, purpose, and behaviours for all site content.

Question(s):

  • Are heading tags used to markup page titles, and are they arranged in hierarchical order?
  • Are list tags used to markup navigation items and content lists?
  • Are definition list tags used to markup name/value pairs and glossary items?
  • Are forms marked up correctly (have labels, required fields are specified, errors are linked to the associated form fields, etc.)?
  • Is dynamic content (ex. image carousels, tabs, hide/show content toggles) marked programmatically using ARIA?
  • Is loading, disabled, or hidden content marked programmatically using ARIA?
  • Are modal dialog windows marked programmatically?
  • Are tables used only for displaying data (not used for layout)?

1.3.2: Meaningful Sequence

A

Goal: A logical and intuitive content order.

Question(s):

  • Is the content ordered in a way that makes sense when reading from top to bottom?
  • Does the order also make sense to keyboard and screen-reader users (that follow code order)?

1.3.3: Sensory Characteristics

A

Goal: Specific senses are not required to understand and interact with the website.

Question(s):

  • Are instructions provided that do not require specific senses (sight, hearing) to be successful? (Ex. “Click the square icon to…” or “The beep indicates…”).

1.4.1: Use of Colour

A

Goal: More than colour is used to distinguish content.

Question(s):

  • Is the only difference between link text and normal text colour?
  • For visualized data, is colour alone used to convey information (Ex. pie graphs)?

1.4.2: Audio Control

A

Goal: Automatically playing audio can have volume adjusted.

Question(s):

  • Is an audio control provided to stop, pause, mute, or adjust volume?

1.4.3: Contrast (Minimum)

AA

Goal: Contrast of text is sufficient.

Question(s):

  • Is the contrast of the text on its background 4.5:1 for regular sized text or 3:1 for large text (18pt+) and bold text (14pt+)?

1.4.4: Resize text

AA

Goal: Text can be doubled without loss of information.

Question(s):

  • When text is doubled in size, does any information disappear, overlap, or get cut off?.

1.4.5: Images of Text

AA

Goal: To provide actual, perceivable text rather than images of text.

Question(s):

  • Are there images of text that could be represented by actual text instead? (Logos are exempt)

Principle 2: Operable

Success Criterion

Level

Questions to ask

2.1.1: Keyboard

A

Goal: All content and functionality is available to users that use a keyboard or alternative input device.

Question(s):

  • Can all links be tabbed to?
  • For pop-up windows, does keyboard focus move to and stay contained within that window?
  • Can interactive elements such as video players or content sliders be thoroughly operated by keyboard?

2.1.2: No Keyboard Trap

A

Goal: When moving through the site with a keyboard, focus does not get stuck anywhere.

Question(s):

  • With the keyboard, is it possible to move from the top of the website through to the bottom?

2.2.1: Timing Adjustable

A

Goal: Give users enough time to read, input, and interact with content.

Question(s):

  • When logged in, are users given a warning and an option to extend the time limit before being logged out?

2.2.2: Pause, Stop, Hide

A

Goal: Provide users a way to pause, stop, or hide moving content.

Question(s):

  • For any moving content (carousels, scrolling text, video, etc.), are users able to pause, stop, or hide that content?

2.3.1: Three Flashes or Below Threshold

A

Goal: To not flash content which may cause seizures.

Question(s):

  • Content doesn’t flash?

2.4.1: Bypass Blocks

A

Goal: To provide a way for users to quickly skip over navigation, or jump to specific parts of the page.

Question(s):

  • Is there a “skip to content” link as the first link (may be visually hidden)?

2.4.2: Page Titled

A

Goal: To inform the user about a page’s content by properly titling each page.

Question(s):

  • Do all pages have informative, unique titles that represent page content?

2.4.3: Focus Order

A

Goal: To ensure the order of focusable elements (links, inputs, etc.) makes sense.

Question(s):

  • When tabbing through the website, do items receive focus in a logical and intuitive order?
  • If there are any pop-up dialog windows, is the focus moved to and contained within that window?

2.4.4: Link Purpose (In Context)

A

Goal: For link text to clearly describe the purpose and destination of the link.

Question(s):

  • Do all links have link text that accurately describes the destination (check for empty links too)?

2.4.5: Multiple Ways

AA

Goal: Provide more than one way to let users discover other pages on the website.

Question(s):

  • Are there at least two of the following methods for finding content on the site: navigation, sitemap, search, table of contents?

2.4.6: Headings and Labels

AA

Goal: Provide informative labels and headings.

Question(s):

  • Are visual labels present for all inputs, and do they clearly describe their associated inputs?
  • Are content headings present, and are they unique and informative?

2.4.7: Focus Visible

AA

Goal: To make it clear where keyboard focus is.

Question(s):

  • When tabbing through the site, is it always visually apparent where keyboard focus lies?

Principle 3: Understandable

Success Criterion

Level

Questions to ask

3.1.1: Language of Page

A

Goal: To programmatically define the language of a page.

Question(s):

  • Is a lang attribute set for the page? Ex.

3.1.2: Language of Parts

AA

Goal: To programmatically define the language of content that is not in the main language of the page.

Question(s):

  • Is a lang attribute set for sections of text that appears in a different language? Ex.

3.2.1: On Focus

A

Goal: That nothing disorienting happens when an element receives focus.

Question(s):

  • Does focusing an element not create a confusing situation? (Unrelated pop-ups, moving focus, etc.)

3.2.2: On Input

A

Goal: That nothing disorienting happens when an input is used.

Question(s):

  • Does entering input or using a control not cause something confusing to happen? (Unrelated pop-ups, moving focus, etc.).

3.2.3: Consistent Navigation

AA

Goal: To use consistent navigation across all pages.

Question(s):

  • Does the navigation stay the same throughout the website?

3.2.4: Consistent Identification

AA

Goal: To consistently identify repeating elements.

Question(s):

  • Do interactive elements (slideshows, searches, forms, buttons, etc.) look and behave the same on every page?
  • Is the same language used to describe repeating elements?

3.3.1: Error Identification

A

Goal: To clearly inform the user of any form input errors in a way that allows them to quickly and easily fix the issues.

Question(s):

  • Are form error messages informative?
  • Do they allow the user to efficiently fix the errors and resubmit the form?

3.3.2: Labels or Instructions

A

Goal: To provide labels and instructions that allows the user to understand and use a form successfully.

Question(s):

  • Are instructions present that help explain how to use a form successfully, if need be?
  • Do inputs have labels that properly describe their purpose?

3.3.3: Error Suggestion

AA

Goal: To inform the user about inputs that require a certain format.

Question(s):

  • If an input requires a specific format, are the users notified immediately if their entry has errors?
  • Do these error messages or prompts allow the user to quickly fix the problem before submitting?

3.3.4: Error Prevention (Legal, Financial, Data)

AA

Goal: To ensure users are intentionally submitting, deleting, or changing important information.

Question(s):

  • If there are forms that deal with legal, financial, or other important data do they give users a chance to reverse, verify, or confirm any changes?

Principle 4: Robust

Success Criterion

Level

Questions to ask

4.1.1: Parsing

A

Goal: To ensure markup is error-free.

Question(s):

  • Does markup pass validation by the W3C validator?

4.1.2: Name, Role, Value

A

Goal: To programmatically describe all interactive elements’ roles and behaviours.

Question(s):

  • Do all inputs have labels?
  • Are dynamic elements explained with ARIA roles and states?

Task

  1. Choose a website with moderate complexity and attempt to assign a “yes”, “no”, or “N/A” (not applicable) to each of the questions listed in the evaluation chart.
  2. Go through the sample audit and create a boilerplate document based off the comments in this report.
  3. Create a report template.
  4. Fill in a guideline checklist table for the website you chose in 1.
  5. Email the final document to your mentor.

Resources
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