How to check the accessibility of a website with ReachDeck
ReachDeck supports WCAG compliance by helping you to improve the accessibility and readability of your online content. Its features allow you to check website accessibility quickly and at scale. And empower you to prioritise action with handy downloadable reports.
But first, why is it important to check website accessibility?
As you may know, the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, or WCAG, helps organisations to achieve website accessibility. They set the international standard for accessibility. And many legislation acts require organisations to meet WCAG compliance.
But, when it comes to WCAG compliance, it’s been reported that 97.8% of websites have Level AA failures. That means many organisation's are at risk of non-compliance with existing legislation. And that can be costly. Not only to brand reputation. But it’s estimated to cost a minimum of $350,000.
So, how can you check if your website is accessible?
With ReachDeck, you can check website accessibility across your URLs at scale. And gain insight into compliance errors at WCAG Level A, AA and AAA. Not only that, ReachDeck also provides you with an overview of your content readability. And identifies broken links. Helping you to identify the many elements that affect a website's accessibility, usability and inclusivity.
WCAG compliance checker
The ReachDeck Auditor allows you to scan your URLs at scale, on demand. So you can check your website's accessibility anytime you make an update. Or choose to make a WCAG compliance check part of your team's regular routine.
ReachDeck’s WCAG compliance checker identifies compliance issues at WCAG Level A, AA and AAA. And helps you to prioritise action with a handy downloadable report. Helping you to meet WCAG compliance. And go beyond the minimum requirement of Level AA. So you can raise the bar with accessibility.
Broken links checker
As well as providing you with a WCAG compliance checker, The ReachDeck Auditor also checks for broken links. And identifies broken links across all of your websites.
It gives you an overall total number of broken links by URL. And allows you to click on the URL to discover the errors for yourself. You’re also given a handy downloadable report so you can prioritise action. And ensure a good user experience for your online visitors.
Readability checker
Content that someone can access is not necessarily accessible. To check website accessibility, it’s also important to consider whether your content can be understood by all. And that means checking the readability of your content. Factors that affect readability include the type of language used. As well as the use of long sentences and jargon words.
The ReachDeck Auditor provides a readability checker. It provides you with a readability overview of content across your URLs. It gives you a readability score and showcases the average reading age. Helping you to identify whether your content is in line with best practice advice. It highlights the total number of long sentences used. Helping you to identify sentences that many may struggle to read. And it identifies jargon words. Giving you insight into words that aren’t easy to understand by all.
"With ReachDeck, I like the compliance tool the most. I have relied on it heavily while updating my website. It flagged up code that was obsolete so I could fix it. It also flagged that a search bar on our website didn’t have a ‘submit’ button. This was a great find and allowed us to fix it too."
Did you know?
It can take at least 30 minutes to manually test a web page for accessibility. That’s 500 hours for a 1,000 page site! And even at that, to train someone to expert-level accessibility testing, it can take around 480 hours. ReachDeck saves you time from manual testing. So you can focus on taking action. And continue to create a website that’s inclusive for all.
With ReachDeck, you get the Auditor feature and so much more!
So far we’ve given you an overview of how to check the accessibility of a website using ReachDeck’s Auditor feature. We haven’t even told you about the ReachDeck Editor yet, which helps everyone in your organisation to create accessible content. Or the ReachDeck Toolbar, which helps you to maximise engagement with your online audience. So why not explore more about ReachDeck today.
Breaks down communication barriers. Improve the accessibility, readability and reach of your online content.