Name
Breakout Session 3C: Raising Expectations - Improving Website Accessibility for People with Deafblindness
Date & Time
Tuesday, July 25, 2023, 2:30 PM - 3:15 PM
Location Name
Room 205
Country of Submission
Australia
Description

Deafblind Information Australia (DBIA) is a consortium of Able Australia, SensesWA and Deafblind Australia. The DBIA project is funded by an Information, Linkages and Capacity Building grant from the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) and provides web-based information to Australians with deafblindness, their families, support networks and service providers. Despite best intentions, websites are often inaccessible. This workshop will share what we learnt in undertaking a website accessibility audit and provide you with an opportunity to evaluate your own or other websites. An accessibility audit of the DBIA website was initiated. The intention was to have the DBIA website pass all rating levels for Success Criteria of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1, Level A and AA, plus selected AAA criteria’s pertinent to deafblindness. The audit tested a representative selection of pages on the website. Overall, the website was deemed to have well supported multimedia, straightforward organisation of content and a predictable interactive experience. However, the audit report revealed a long list of accessibility failures and some awkward user experiences for people using screen reader technologies. Following the recommendations of the accessibility auditor, DBIA project officers made simple changes to website content to raise accessibility to the desired standard. A website developer was engaged to assist with software and programing adjustments.