Outline: Implementation Plan for Web Accessibility

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summary — comment {name}

Introduction

Who is this for?

Content notes

Audience is project managers, project team leaders, accessibility consultants, small business owners
Comment on who this is not for and directing them elsewhere - most notable are those seeking technical details

EOWG Comments:

heading tweak — "Who this is for" I think better than question "Who is this for?" {Shawn, 26-June-2014}

What will this tell you?

Content notes

Questions to consider as part of the planning process
For larger organisations, how to go about developing a broad accessibility approach as well as what to consider for a specific project
For smaller organisations, what to consider when commissioning a new site

EOWG Comments:

heading tweak — "What this will tell you" I think better than question "What will this tell you?" -- although I think we want a little more formal for this page. {Shawn, 26-June-2014}
scope — Many people still consider a website to be static/informational and not to include the interactive service delivery aspects. Suggest we spell that out here and through the page - refer to website plus web application or service delivery components as appropriate. {Andrew, 06-July-2014}

The need for accessibility

Content notes

Reader may have little awareness of accessibility, only a desire (or directive) that it be done
Guide through introductory resources on accessibility

Implementing improvements

Content notes

If only interested in improvements, can direct them there
Opportunity to highlight important aspects from this document as well

Exploring your organizational awareness

Content notes

More applicable to larger organizations
For smaller organizations it may still be worth commenting that developing an internal inclusive culture.
Two contexts
- Organizational awareness related to the specific project to hand
- Broader business transformation to develop an organization that embraces accessibility

Organizational appreciation

Content notes

Is there an awareness of the needs for accessibility within the organization?
- If so, how high up the organization is it?
- Is the awareness driven by an internal desire to create better, more inclusive websites or is it as a results of external pressure
- Is it seen as a check box exercise or a broader appreciation of the importance of accessibility?
If there is nothing available then need to discuss resources concerned with improving business awareness e.g. business case

Influencing change and budget

Content notes

Does the reader have sufficient influence and budgetary control to be able to manifest the required change?
- If not, time needed early within the project to make a business case for accessibility to those that do have the influence and control.
Need to consider who is able to effect the changes required in order to make accessibility more integrated into the project processes

Identifying important roles and teams

Content notes

What teams and individual roles are important to the accessibility of a site deliverable
Includes content writers, marketing, procurement, developers, user experience and support
These teams will likely be known as the resources will have to be considered as part of the whole project plan anyway
Worth highlighting how these roles impact on accessibility

Measuring awareness

Content notes

Important to understand what each of these teams understand accessibility to be
- Who they think it benefits and possibly how
- How they think their role is important in delivering an accessible site
- How confident they feel that they know what to do
This can be achieved via survey. Would need an example
Allows for the identification of where and what training is required and whether there is a need for external support to provide this

Develop organizational policy

Content notes

Need to ensure that this does not overlap with the Organizational Policies document
This section should discuss the environment in which the policy exists rather then how the policy is developed
Provide a clear indication that the Organizational Policies document discusses the how-to of policy development

Identify existing policy

Content notes

For large organizations, is there a company wide policy? Is there a departmental policy?
Are there any departments that concern themselves with this. Could be corporate social responsibility, user experience, online development teams. Communicating with them may provide some indication of existing policies
If there are existing policies:
- How are they implemented?
- What works and doesn't work?
- Are they in need of updating?

Small business policy

Content notes

Need not be an involved activity or document
Aim to capture intent

Communicating your policy

Content notes

Tend to be involved documents with technical elements
May not be suitable for core site audiences
Consider creating a version which is more suited for broader audiences
Provide an opportunity for readers to feedback or contact with compliments or concerns

Determine scope

Content notes

Need to outline how best to capture scope
May be a question of whether scope is for a single project or a wider transformation goal
Key at this point to be clear about what is to be achieved. Be realistic

Understanding your audience

Content notes

Ensure accessible for all
May be the case that there is a known audience group that would benefit from particular features e.g. increased use of images for a learning difficulties support site
Audience may be an internal one, in which case much more can be known

Sites and key journeys

Content notes

Identify and document the scope of the project
Identify key journeys and ensure that those are prioritized if resources become difficult

Supported technologies

Content notes

Similar to identifying browsers and versions to be supported
Based on audience are there any known technology dependancies
What assistive technologies and versions should be used as a testing baseline

External requirements

Content notes

Legal requirements
Contractual obligations

Review available resources

Personnel

Content notes

Slight overlap with Identifying important roles and teams
Important personnel to consider for the purposes of creating a site: designers, developers, content creators
Are their gaps that need to be addressed with external resources
Securing time and budget for training once the scope of the requirement is identified
Testing should ideally be performed by someone external to the team
Are there any employees with disabilities that would be able to assist as reviewers

Design and interaction guidelines

Content notes

Are there any design, brand or interaction guidelines?
If so, have they been reviewed in line with any existing accessibility policy
Good to try to incorporate accessibility into the guidelines that everyone has to use
For example, checking the colour palate to ensure good contrast

Code libraries

Content notes

Are there any standard code libraries in use for the creation of websites?
If so, how accessible are the components that they create? This can be checked
Incorporating good practice into code libraries ensures that this is propagated throughout all projects

Authoring tools

Content notes

Explain what we mean by this
Explain the impact that they can have
Include most of the content from the Improving Existing Sites Authoring Tools section

Development processes

Content notes

What processes existing within the organization that detail how web products should be developed
How well are these processes adhered to? Do they work?
Consider the whole process and review how accessibility might be incorporated
For example, incorporating accessibility testing and/or audit as part of Quality Assurance stage

Procurement and commissioning

Procurement process

Content notes

Incorporate policy within procurement process
Ensure that third parties provide evidence of ability to deliver accessible solutions
Consider accessibility audit/testing as part of acceptance criteria for delivery
Consider contractual structures that would require third parties to address identified accessibility barriers
If there is a preferred supplier list, ensure that the ability to provide accessible solutions is part of the criteria to be placed on the list

Commissioning a website

Content notes

Ensure that accessibility is a key part of the requirements of the site
As part of accepted delivery undertake some simple checks to review the site
For medium sized organizations, consider an audit as part of the delivery acceptance
Need to provide resources for smaller companies so they know what to ask a supplier for and are able to understand what they received

Building an accessibility team

Content notes

Two possible aspects to this depending on the aims.
- If the aim is to build an accessible website, then the focus is on the delivery team and their skills
- If the aim is more about business transformation as well as delivering an accessible website, then there is an additional need to consider how accessibility is to be supported for future projects

Accessibility champions

Content notes

Important to have one person responsible for accessibility
Avoids the problem of everyone thinking that someone else is dealing with it
If it is a core part of someone's role, more chance that it will not be deprioritized
Depending on size of organization there may be multiple champions spread across key deparments or regions
Role is one of advocacy as well as implementation

Project life cycle

Content notes

The Start with Accessibility document covers much of the information that would be valuable here
Outline of activities that would be useful, when, and roughly how long they might take
Consider what changes can be made depending on development approach; waterfall, agile, test driven, incremental?

Communicating and sharing

Communicating success

Content notes

Share project experiences
Stories of how people might have benefited from changes
Larger organizations may need briefed on key measures of success
Press releases may be a valuable exercise as part of corporate social responsibility activities

Communicating with users and customers

Content notes

Need to ensure that users are aware of the ongoing efforts
What barriers might exist at the moment, when will they be addressed, what can users do until a fix is in place
Ensure there is a channel for users to feedback any issues

Ongoing communication

Content notes

Tracking of ongoing issues
Repository of accessibility knowledge
Maintaining policies and procedures inline with accessibility policy

Maintenance and monitoring

Content notes

Covers both maintenance and monitoring of the built website and general organizational accessibility
Slight overlap with the Communicating and sharing section

Supporting your website

Content notes

Needs to be provision for feedback from website and internally
Process in place to ensure that feedback is acted on and responded to
Identified issues need to be tracked and flagged to identified team or individual responsible for accessibility
Schedule a regular audit process for website accessibility. This may be required if using any accessibility logos or quality assurance marques
Ensure that when there are maintenance builds scheduled that any accessibility issues are reviewed and addressed

Content updates

Content notes

Content continually evolves
Standard training for content managers should include accessibility training
For high volume sites may be worth having regular spot checks on content
If there is a quality assurance phase as part of the publishing process, include accessibility checking as part of that

Maintaining policies and processes

Content notes

Reviewing policy regularly, e.g. annually, ensures that it is still in line with regulatory requirements and has the correct scope
As part of procurement, if there is a preferred supplier list, ensure that they are reviewed to ensure that they continually supply accessible deliverables