Digital accessibility is a legal requirement in the public sector, and is already a hugely important element of SEO rankings.
Our team of specialists can assess your website or mobile app and provide a WCAG certification ranking, accompanied by a detailed report, issues log and accessibility statement.
Standards
The main standards by which sites are ranked as accessible are the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) from the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative. The standards set in these guidelines vary, but WCAG 2.2, Level AA reflects the benchmark. Our Consultants are experts in quickly assessing websites for accessibility, using a range of varied yet complementary techniques to guarantee the standards are met.
Testing
Our accessibility testing team have a structured but flexible methodology in place, so that testing is carried out consistently, accurately and all relevant elements of the standard are checked for the website or mobile app being tested. Our methodology generates a checklist based on available functionality, which our team use to ensure nothing is missed. Testing is carried out manually and using tools, to ensure that all technical problems are identified, as well as using screen readers and keyboard only techniques to identify issues tools may not pick up.
Our team of accessibility specialists leverage their experience to provide a detailed breakdown of a site's accessibility level, whether it's about to go live, or has just undergone a major overhaul. We also offer regular assessments as part of our testing process, helping us catch accessibility issues as your site grows and develops. These assessments are frequently automated to increase efficiency and reduce prices.
To carry out these hands-on tests, we also make use of the following tools. These help us to gain a real insight into the digital experience of a disabled user, allowing us to ensure that nothing is missed on the WCAG checklist:
- Wave
- JAWS
- ZoomText
- Dragon
- NaturallySpeaking
- NVDA
- VoiceOver
At its core, our testing approach is designed around the following user needs:
Visual impairment
- Accessing your website using a screen reader
- Measuring the colour contrast ratios
- Recommending adjustments in font and page sizes
Hearing impairment
- Assessing clarity of audio content
- Ensuring videos have closed captions where appropriate
Physical impairment
- Testing keyboard-only access
- Using an alternative pointing device
Our experience
Accessibility is of huge importance to public sector clients, since large amounts of disabled and / or elderly people rely on their digital offerings. We have successfully tested a number of UK Government sites for WCAG compliance, as well as many private sector sites.
More broadly, over the past twenty years Prolifics Testing has supported major public sector clients including the MOD, MOJ, Defra and Public Health England with software testing services. We appreciate that in this sector, reputations of trust and reliability are vital when it comes to websites and apps.
We are also proud to have been a G-Cloud supplier since 2014. Currently, our specialist software testing services are on the latest G-Cloud 13 Framework for Cloud Support. 
Our process
Prolifics Testing offers clients an efficient and affordable Accessibility Testing service.
There are three stages to our testing process:
- Planning
- Automated and Manual testing
- Analysis and reporting
Planning
The first stage involves establishing the limits of test scope (i.e. the number and nature of linked pages to be checked). An important part of planning is to identify the common elements of each page. Most sites are structured using a common framework and stylesheet, meaning that their common elements need only be tested once.
This accelerates the testing process by helping us to target those elements that differ from page to page. It also helps to make our reports more readable and succinct.
Here are some examples of what we look at when assessing a site:
- Page Structure (tables, headings, common elements, styles)
- Non-text Content (images, buttons, form but tons, frames, iframes)
- Time-based media (whether audio / video is present)
- Are there any time limits on page functionality (carousels, authentication time out)?
- Is some content on the pages shown on mouseover (:hover, :focus, :active pseudo-classes)?
- What level of compliance is to be audited against (WCAG 2.2 A / AA / AAA)?
Based on our findings, we then produce a list of manual checks to be carried out alongside the automated tests.
Automated and Manual testing
The second stage is to perform the actual tests. We use a range of testing tools to detect initial site problems, ensuring results are thorough and consistent. Once the automated testing has concluded, the results are checked and manually cross-referenced, before being included in the report.
The team then performs the manual tests identified earlier, using assistive technologies such as screen readers, visual impairment simulator software, or a mouse-less set-up, to replicate the actual user experience for disabled people.
The complete set of test results, together with links back to the WCAG standards, will then be provided to you. Most of our clients aim for WCAG 2.2 AA.
Analysis and reporting
The final stage involves working with you to act on any issues found. Having provided a comprehensive report of the results, we will work with your developers to fix the issues, enabling you to feel confident about your website or application.
Why Prolifics Testing?
- Implement accessibility standards and meet legal requirements.
- Improve trust, user experience and satisfaction in order that your website be usable by every user, including those with disabilities.
- Avoid issues when launching your application.
- Decrease time and cost allocated to accessibility testing thanks to our latest tools and expert team.
- Generate easy to read reports and recommendations to fix any issues.
- Increase your market share and audience reach.
- Receive documented evidence that your application is compliant with WCAG
