Saw a new Google ad on Web Axe this past Friday, April 1, that I couldn’t help but click. After viewing the ad’s website briefly, I had slim hopes that this was yet another techie April Fool’s joke. Unfortunately, it was not. The website for AccessbileTech has many accessibility and usability issues when claiming to be accessibility experts/consultants. Let’s examine:
- Skip nav link is visually unreadable (due to lack of contrast from background image).
- Text links unclear; too many link styles; blue bullets appear to be links but not.
- Headings not marked up as headings, such as Products & Services.
- Mismatch in alternative text in News & Events heading image; alt says “events”.
- The ordered list on the home page and on the Accessibility Goal page are not marked up as an ordered list; uses spans and break tags, yuck!
- Hover states on links don’t have focus states.
- Home tab is highlighted on all pages. Confusing, especially for those with cognitive disabilities.
- Table layout, 5 levels of nesting. Nuff said.
- No language declared (in HTML element).
- CSS used for emphasis rather than markup (Company page) “.style1 {font-weight: bold}”
- Small decorative image (203 by 141 pixels) on About Us page is almost 40K in file size! Needs web optimization to make smaller.
- On home page News & Events section, audio and arrow icons are confusing, they appear to have functionality, but there’s no behavior attached to them.
- Simple layout is fixed width; making flexible width would accommodate different screen resolutions.
Not funny. Agree?
Update
The owner of this website has contacted me. Most of the issues listed have been corrected.
5 replies on “AccessibleTech Website Analysis; No Joke”
From their accessibility policy page: (http://www.accessibletech.com/dw/accessibilitypolicy.html)
Accessibility Policy
We are committed to ensuring that this website is compliant with accessibility requirements. We work to keep our pages compliant with commonly accepted standards. All individuals with disabilities have access to and use of information and data from this website. We have made a significant effort to make this site readable for all users, and will continue to do so.
If you cannot fully access the information on this site, please let us know the accessibility issue you are having and we will make the necessary improvements to make the information accessible.
Please email us at: info@accessibletech.com
/nuff said.
In case my comment wasn’t clear, I agree with you Dennis. Claiming what they claim in their accessibility policy and delivering what they delivered with their website is what kills accessibility for the rest of us. It’s companies like those that hurts the credibility of the practice.
I always get annoyed at these Companies who say they have gone out of their way to make their site accessible then want screen reader users like me or other people with disabilities to give them free advice while they pay someone else to fix it.
cheers
Geof Collis
Another clue that always makes me suspicious – there is no identification of who is behind this site. There is a number, but you need to use google to be certain of the country of origin. Still, you cannot learn anything about the people behind this company. Are they in my neighborhood perhaps, or can they do whatever is necessary regardless of where they are in the world? Let me decide.
Hacks.