Re: Accessible websites

It’s a long way from zero to hero, as it were.  Even if a 100% all day, every day, outcome is unachievable right now (and I have to believe that there will come a day when it will be achievable), bringing a project in at 95% is better than not doing anything.  Every step we take, as a collective, in making the web accessible, is a win.  I understand management that wants achievable, meaningful, measurable outcomes.  I’ve had a hard sell from the time I stepped into my position, but I’ve managed to fight for what I knew was needed for our students.  We set a rolling page goal, rather than a full site goal, for exactly the reasons that Martyna laid out.

Mary Ann Halstead


From: "Smithers, Angela" <SmithersA@si.edu>
Date: Monday, April 27, 2020 at 4:48 PM
To: "Marjanska, Martyna (SSC/SPC)" <martyna.marjanska@canada.ca>
Cc: "w3c-wai-ig@w3.org" <w3c-wai-ig@w3.org>
Subject: Re: Accessible websites
Resent-From: <w3c-wai-ig@w3.org>
Resent-Date: Monday, April 27, 2020 at 4:42 PM

Okay, thanks.

These are all good concerns.  I think these are why our web management teams within are reluctant to make it a priority if it’s not achievable or attainable.  I have been challenged multiple times to provide examples of websites (not just one) that can say they are Level A and Level AA compliant. Even just 10 in the world would be nice.

It’s quite a gut-punch when I cannot legitimately answer back with the content management system examples; they want and need to see examples.  Sadly, it makes it that much more difficult to sell. Even if it weren’t about time or money; achievable goals are the concern.

~ Angela Smithers

From: "Marjanska, Martyna (SSC/SPC)" <martyna.marjanska@canada.ca>
Date: Monday, April 27, 2020 at 4:21 PM
To: "Smithers, Angela" <SmithersA@si.edu>, "w3c-wai-ig@w3.org" <w3c-wai-ig@w3.org>
Subject: RE: Accessible websites

External Email - Exercise Caution
Hi Angela,
I have a personal comment in response to the “compliance badge”.

I was thinking in the past that there should be a compliance acknowledgement of some sort but, I don’t think that anymore. Why is that?  There are a few reasons:


  1.  I used to work close with developers and see the moments where there were no more accessibility issues (to the best of our knowledge) to be found, until there was a little update, that broke that assurance.
  2.  Accessibility, like functionality are subsets of usability. Accessible alone does not guarantee usable. In my 13 years of experience working on assessing websites and applications, I have seen applications that conformed (at best) to WCAG but were not usable.
  3.  There are so many types of users and technology and combinations of both, I came to a conclusion that giving 100%  compliance is just impossible.
  4.  It’s not only about the software, web page, application or platform. A lot depends on implementation. The software in general is about 70-80% accessible of-the-shelf, the rest is about customization. Need for specialists with solid knowledge of accessibility principals.
  5.  Another point is closed functionality. Big organizations restrict user customization.
The list probably can goes on and on, on “excuses” why it would be hard to give 100% compliance stamp. Again, this is just my opinion.

Maybe AI accessibility will be able to solve this somehow. I think some AI software are already in the testing stage.

From: Smithers, Angela <SmithersA@si.edu>
Sent: April 27, 2020 10:01 AM
To: w3c-wai-ig@w3.org
Subject: Re: Accessible websites

Hello,

I am also curious as to whether W3C has a library of websites that are 100% level A compliant and level AA compliant. I saw the criteria for a website or webpage to display the “compliance badge” from W3C. Would W3C be able to provide a list of those compliant websites by platform (i.e., Drupal, SharePoint, Wordpress, etc.)?

I would love to be to share this with the .gov Listserv as well.

I saw this archived message and figured that there would be an answer by now:
From: Kiran Gundiyal Hemnani <kiranph@gmail.com<mailto:kiranph@gmail.com?Subject=Re%3A%20Accessible%20websites&In-Reply-To=%3CCAGNehNVCasyAJ9A7GQorCnVd__NRoR%3DK2wF4Uey7SzqzhReeTA%40mail.gmail.com%3E&References=%3CCAGNehNVCasyAJ9A7GQorCnVd__NRoR%3DK2wF4Uey7SzqzhReeTA%40mail.gmail.com%3E>>
Date: Sat, 8 Apr 2017 09:08:09 -0500
Message-ID: <CAGNehNVCasyAJ9A7GQorCnVd__NRoR=K2wF4Uey7SzqzhReeTA@mail.gmail.com<mailto:CAGNehNVCasyAJ9A7GQorCnVd__NRoR=K2wF4Uey7SzqzhReeTA@mail.gmail.com>>



Thanks in advance,

Angela Y. Smithers
INET + User Experience

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