If you’re in the healthcare industry, having a website or application that is accessibility compliant with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 AA standards is necessary. A lot of times, companies will turn to AI widgets that claim they will make your website compliant, but they do not remediate for every success criteria situation. So, while these widgets are cost-effective and convenient, they are not a substitute for full remediation services. Before you subscribe to any of them, make sure to educate yourself on what they can and cannot do.
Accessibility widgets are developed by companies to provide users with options to adjust the content on your website for their local browsing experience. They offer convenience to the user if they need the font size increased or require high contrast viewing of a web page to read the information. However, they do not actually change code or rewrite content; all adjustments are for each individual user only.
Generally, there is a subscription model plan you need to pay for before you can install the widget on your website. Then a script will need to be installed on the website. From there, a button will appear, usually in the bottom corner, on your website, overlaying the content. When someone clicks on this button—or widget as it’s commonly referred to—they’ll be presented with a menu of options.
No matter the vendor, web accessibility widgets mostly include the same functions. They provide the user ways of changing the look of a web page to make information easier to understand for those who may have certain disabilities. Here are common functions these widgets include:
These widgets are a powerful tool for users to change a website’s appearance for their browsing experience. But they are limited to what can be changed on the website. Widgets are good at addressing some of the fundamental aspects of accessibility compliance, but they don’t do everything.
Widgets are great for adding a layer of accessibility compliance to your website, but they do not, by themselves, make a website fully compliant with (WCAG) 2.1 or later standards. You’ll still need remediation services to make the necessary changes to satisfy all the success criteria requirements.
For example, these widgets will not correct erroneous code on the website. They can correct styles and present information in a different way, but they don’t cover all the possible HTML or structural requirements that also make up the WCAG 2.1 AA success criteria. Here are some examples that a widget may struggle with making compliant:
There are other potential issues these widgets do not cover. It’s important to know that compliancy is not achieved simply through a widget.
Depending on the goal of your website or application, if you’re looking to push compliance to AAA level, most widgets don’t go that far. The same goes for any new standards that are developed after WCAG 2.1. Right now, WCAG 2.2 is being developed and will become a part of the overall standard of compliance, but widgets will take time to catch up to that.
Running one test is great to measure your level of compliance, but what about testing every time there’s a major update? Even if a widget corrects old accessibility issues, it may not cover any newly introduced issues. There is no substitute for routine monitoring and remediation, which widgets do not provide.
If you need accessibility remediation for your website, you’ll need to do more work than just installing a widget and hoping for the best. You need to hire professionals to give you an audit of your website and walk through the level of effort necessary to remediate all the issues.
DiscoverTec can help address all your website accessibility questions and concerns. We’re equipped to run a full audit of your website for WCAG 2.1 standards and up to AAA compliance. And if you need a team to update your website based on any accessibility issues, we can do that, too. Put your mind at ease and start with a free consultation on how we can best help you and your business.
Published on: July 25, 2024 by Ryan Brooks