When to conduct accessibility audits

You might have a digital product under your management or soon to be developed and find yourself wondering when is the best time to conduct an accessibility audit? 

The shortest answer is to test early and as often as possible during the product’s lifespan. However, balancing deadlines, budgets and team priorities can make this easier said than done. The purpose of this blog is to explain the best practices for conducting accessibility audits and showcase some of the most common scenarios faced by digital product managers. By the end, you’ll know how to strategically schedule audits and create a more inclusive digital product for all users.

What does it mean to test early? What is considered early?

Testing early means integrating accessibility checks from the very beginning of your project lifecycle. This starts at the concept stage, where the accessibility principles will influence project goals and scope. It then continues through design, ensuring your layouts, colour schemes and content are inclusive. Finally, it carries through to the development stage, where accessibility success criteria such as WCAG are met. 

Early testing ensures that accessibility is included into your product from the beginning rather than added later and lowers the possibility of expensive fixes later on.

Testing often.  What it means to test often and why.

Testing often means conducting regular accessibility audits through every major change of your website. This could include: 

• Pre-launch audits to ensure compliance and usability.

• Content deployment or content authoring changes. 

or

• Post-launch monitoring to identify any issues introduced through updates or new content.

Now here are some common scenarios that many businesses encounter, where contacting experts such as Cali Digital can provide effective solutions.

Scenario 1 - You have an existing website or app which hasn’t ever had an accessibility audit and you need to uncover the issues to make improvements.

Scenario 2 - You’re about to build or are currently building a new digital product. 

Scenario 3 - You manage multiple digital products which all use the same design system and you need a maintenance plan.  Working out how to manage the accessibility of the whole digital offering is a challenge for your organisation. 

Why you need to develop a programme of accessibility for your digital products. 

A one-off audit isn’t enough to maintain long-term accessibility for a digital product. Establishing a comprehensive program of accessibility sets the right foundation for ensuring your website remains inclusive and compliant over time.

This program at Cali Digital would include:

• Accessibility Policy Creation. For Accessibility to be successful across the organisation the approach should be strategic and programmatically implemented as an integral part of ongoing activity
• Regular audits to track compliance and usability.
• Diverse user experience testing. A user testing program designed to improve website accessibility by collaborating with people with diverse abilities.
• Training for your team to build accessibility awareness and skills.
• Playbooks to design integration with your development processes, outlining a specific workflow with actions relatable to the digital asset. This supports teams who are managing accessibility. 

At Cali Digital, we specialise in inclusive design and are committed to helping you integrate accessibility seamlessly into your next project. Cali Digital can assess your digital app/website against these new accessibility criteria. Contact us to book a time to discuss your requirements.