Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 are a series of guidelines published by the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) for making web content more accessible on desktops, laptops, tablets, and mobile devices.

Following these guidelines helps ensure content is more accessible to a wide range of people with disabilities, such as blindness and low vision, deafness and hearing loss, limited movement, and photosensitivity. The guidelines often improve usability for general users as well.

There are a lot of guidelines and they can be hard to understand for those of us who aren’t developers (such as myself) but here are a few of the basics –

Provide text alternatives for non-text content (photos, videos, etc.)

Ensure that there is enough difference between background and text color

Provide user controls for pausing, stopping, or hiding content

Use clear page titles, headings, and labels

Keyboard accessibility for users without a mouse


It’s important to note that there are multiple levels of conformance to the guidelines.

Level A â basic web accessibility features

Level AA â deals with the most common barriers for disabled users

Level AAA â the highest (and most complex) level of web accessibility

Of course, level AAA is ideal. However, some of the highest level guidelines can’t be applied to all websites and therefore level AA is the next best target.

Here at VIA Studio, we have a set of tools and checklists that we use for every web project to ensure that these guidelines are met and that the websites we build are as accessible as possible. It’s important to us that users with disabilities have equal access and equal opportunity while accessing the web.

To see a full list of WCAG 2.1, check out 

https://www.w3.org/WAI/standards-guidelines/wcag/

Accessibility

Quality Assurance

A Brief Overview of WCAG 2.1

Do you remember how old you were when the first personal computer came out over 35 years ago, or the first cell phone over 45 years ago? If you are younger than those numbers, maybe you remember when the internet became a big hit about 30 years ago, or when Facebook first launched just under 15 years ago.

These technologies, though relatively young in their years, have come a long way since their debut. New phones, tablets, computers, devices and social media venues are constantly developing and the days of only having a few options to choose from are far over. This means a wide variety of platforms are being used to access content around the world.

Having Google Analytics can give you a detailed peek into the usage of these platforms, providing valuable insights of your audience. As technology trends advance and generations grow, your analytics with fluctuate with it. While Internet Explorer was a popular browser many years ago, it is seldom used now that Microsoft has moved to the newer Edge browser, and has stopped supporting IE.

Breaking down the different platforms that are accessing your website will help you get to know your audience to aid in providing the best user experience possible. There is a vast amount of data available within Analytics, but as far as testing your site cross-platform, you’ll only need to look at a couple areas. You can start with an overall look or drill down to what browser is being used the most, what operating system it is on, and what screen size or device it’s being viewed from.

Note – If you have recently launched your site and added the analytics tracking, you will need to give it time to start collecting user data.

If the majority of your audience is using their mobile phone to view your website, you want to make sure everything looks good and is working properly from the mobile platform. If it is the opposite case, and everyone is viewing from a laptop or desktop computer, then it might not be as vital to put a lengthy amount of time into developing a great mobile experience… just yet.

In the analytics profile, you will find this information within the Reports menu under Audience. Starting with Technology, simply click 

. By default it will show the Browser data first, but you can flip between Operating System, Screen Resolution, Screen Colors, Flash Version, and even Java Support.

The Users data under the Acquisition columns, sorted highest to lowest, will display the number or users per data point as well as the overall percentage of the total session on the site. Typically, for Browser and Operating System at least, the top 2-4 data points will make up the majority of your user base. You could consider these as the top priorities as that is the bulk of your audience.

You can get more detailed by adding a secondary dimension, to really nail down the specifics of your audience. For example, viewing which browsers are being used on which operating systems or which version of the operating system is being used per browser.

To get a clearer look of the desktop versus device breakdown, select the Mobile option below Technology. Viewing the Overview will show you the breakdown of users between mobile, tablet and desktop, while viewing the Devices option will show which devices are being used the most.

Your website isn’t always short-term. Yes, some of your content may be more time sensitive, but your website in general is a living, breathing thing (so to speak) that will be around for awhile. Tracking the numbers, in some form or fashion that works for you, overtime could give you a historical reference point to estimate a forecast for future usage. If you notice your mobile users are steadily growing over the past few months, it’s time to review the mobile platforms in more detail.

After looking over the analytics and the details of the majority of your audience, take a moment to consider those that aren’t represented as much in the analytics. Since they could be part of a group that will gain popularity down the road, so being proactive about their experience can help in the long run.

Compare your analytics to data collected from worldwide users on Statcounter. Their stats are based on aggregate data collected on a sample exceeding 10 billion pageviews per month, from across the StatCounter network of more than 2 million websites. Check out 

 to see what usage around the world looks like, some of the number may surprise you!

User Testing

Analytics

Analytics for Testing

Quality Assurance is a critical step in creating and delivering work that works as planned and works well for your audience or users. 

At VIA, quality assurance entails the basics such as proofreading, but also highly technical cross-browser and cross-device testing and accessibility testing.

Our Quality Assurance team is deeply invested in your audience and users, getting to know their capabilities, needs, desires, usage patterns and preferred method of interface.

Quality Assurance

Quality Assurance: Blog Posts

A Brief Overview of WCAG 2.1

Analytics for Testing