WCAG

Web Content Accessibility Content (WCAG):

This collection of guidelines for web accessbility are standards typically used by web developers to make websites more accessible. These guidelines are organized into four principles: perceivable, operable, understandable, robust. Each principle contains several subprinciples within it. Below you will find an example of how an online WCAG checklist tool can be used.

Example

Research Question: How accessible is the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society website?

This WCAG interactive checklist tool developed by Essential Accessibility (see image) allows you to physically check off whether the website has met each success criteria, indicate a pass or fail, record notes, and refer to the hyperlinked criteria for more information (i.e., detailed definitions, examples of occurence, populations that the principle may benefit, intent of the criterion).

The following are examples of descriptions for pass and fails:

Example of a pass: To search for NC State’s student chapter information, I noticed that there are multiple ways to search for a student chapter. Through the Connect drop-down menu at the top as well as through the search bar at the top right. This is a pass for the Multiple ways subprinciple.
Example of a fail: When using the Voice Over screen reader tool on my computer, the drop-down menus at the top of the page have no description. This means that users who are visually impaired or blind would not know that it’s a menu where you can pick an option, they would simply hear the title of the menu. For example, the word Membership would be read without descriptors that indicate that it’s a drop-down menu with more selections under Membership. This would be a fail for the Headings and Labels subprinciple.
Example of a fail: The colors that were recently updated makes it difficult to tell whether a heading for example, is a link or not. Links are a slightly lighter shade of green than some of the headings that are not links. This would violate the Consistent Identification subprinciple which states that icons and buttons should be consistent.

Things to remember:

To adequately perform an evaluation of website accessiblity using WCAG, you would need proper training to be able to understand the context of each criteria.
There are three tiers to the WCAG (i.e., A, AA, AAA) that indicate levels of conformance.

Pros:

Thorough set of guidelines for web accessibility known internationally
The WCAG checklist pictured above is a convenient tool to electronically indicate a pass or fail

Cons:

Difficult to interpret without proper training
Can be time consuming

References:

eSSENTIAL Accessibility. (2021). WCAG Compliance. https://www.essentialaccessibility.com/compliance-overview/wcag-web-content-accessibility-guidelines
Initiative, W. W. A. (2021). Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Overview. Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI). https://www.w3.org/WAI/standards-guidelines/wcag/

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