Accessibility Consulting is the process where a client hires consulting firms who can go through their system, test it for accessibility issues, and submit a report to them. In short, accessibility means making sure that the client website, web application, or mobile app is user friendly for all their users. The idea behind hiring accessibility consultants is that good accessibility increases client’s market value, minimizes their risk in marketplace, and perks up audience satisfaction.

In the IT industry, accessibility consultants:

• Optimize search engines
• Correct accessibility issues with the current website
• Provide an engaging user experience while meeting accessibility goals
• Help in the creation of accessible and Section 508 compliant websites
• Need to strictly comply with the highstandards set by W3C for CSS, HTML 5, WCAG 2.0, XHTML, and the Section 508 standards
• Provide solutions for client technical accessibility issues and answer questions during the remediation process

Challenges Before Accessibility Consulting

According to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), developed through the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C),web content should also be made accessible to people with disabilities. This means that information in a web page or web application – including natural information such as text, images, and sounds as well as code or markup that defines structure, presentation, etc. – should be available and accessible to everybody, including the differently abled.

These guidelines are for Web content, web authoring,and accessibility evaluation tool developers that are looking for standardsrelated to web and mobile accessibility.

With these guidelines in place, corporate leaders realize that inclusion of both customers and clients with disabilities is required by law. They understand that their online services, websites and apps must be free of barriers that could make it difficult for people with disabilities to use them.

Moreover, companies should address accessibility preemptively because it is costly to remediate. Once a company has been issued a statement of non-compliance or a risk of lawsuit from an advocacy group, they will be under dire pressure to address their accessibility issues almost instantaneously. Often, these remediation efforts require widespread changes on non-accessible websites and mobile products. Thus, most companies are looking toward getting accessibility consulting.

Challenges Implementing Accessibility

Before the concept of accessibility consulting existed, there were many on the World Wide Web who had trouble accessing the web. Companies simply lost out on an entire audience merely due to the lack of accessibility. After the WCAG guidelines, accessibility improved, but there are innumerable challenges to implement it, including web developers’ little or no experience in accessibility and the lack of accurate information about the top ways to swiftly and effortlesslyrecognize accessibility glitches using different Accessibility Evaluation Methods (AEMs).

Another challenge that needs to be addressed collaboratively is that as core web technologies emerge, converge and evolve, companies need to equip themselves with accessibility features from the very inception so that a solid foundation for accessibility is created early on. There is also a need to address, with the purview of accessibility, points such as:

• Quickly developing areas such as mobile accessibility and touch interfaces
• The need to improve accessibility for users with cognitive & learning disabilities
• Overlapping user needs of older people as well as mobile web users

Services that Intelleq Offers

As part of our accessibility consultancy expertise, we provide solutions that include:

• Automated testing
• Preparing the site to be used by screen readers and other accessibility tools
• Providing an accessibility patch for each error that is not automatically corrected
• Help client’s site display the universal accessibility icon indicating the site is accessible
• Reporting and remediation and pointingthe accessibility violations dynamically in the browser context
• Complete audit reports for each error referenced to the specific WCAG or any other rule that is flouted
• Make available a set of accessibility tools, such as color inversion for people with low vision or accessibility for color blindness

We help you construct a website that would be compatible with assistive technology tools, that help interpret web and mobile products

Benefits of Accessibility Consulting

Tackling accessibility has innumerable and immediate benefits such as extending products and services to new markets and customer segments. In addition, it builds an ethos of inclusion within a company.

The continuing benefits of accessibility are inestimable as well as significant. Accessibility not only servesthe differently abled, but also provides access to people of different ages, cultures, and languages without borders or boundaries. Accessibility consulting helps any company offering goods or services, especially digital services. Organizations that hold customer data such as banks, retailers, universities, government institutions, and so on, have anobligation to ensure all their customers can access their own data.

Our accessibility consulting experts help organizations:

• That do not have experiences with disabilities to ensure that their websites work more efficiently and they are able to understand the use of assistive technologies.
• Check every part of their website thoroughly to make sure it is barrier-free at every step.
• Evaluate their website to ensure that alternative text has been properly used so that Alt-text are not merely decorative but also convey information.
• Helping companies keep up to date with the recent developments in the industry. Keep companies informed and aware about the most current technical requirements for digital accessibility as well as new releases in assistive technology devices and software.

Accessibility consulting is a sign that the digital world is indeed becoming a global village, where boundaries and barriers are fading into oblivion. In such scenario, companies must engage accessibility consulting to reach a wider audience and make their services accessible for one and for all.

Contact our accessibility consultants for more information.