Fika uses a Website Accessibility Audit to achieve mandatory compliance

two colleagues developing mobile application on a desktop computer

Client:
Fika is a trusted mental fitness learning and skills development partner for over 60 corporations, companies, leading business schools and educational institutions. Fika is proven to prevent business risks associated with mental health decline by increasing personal and team performance.

Industry:
Health & Fitness

Technologies:
iOS and Android native application

Ten10 Capabilities:
Digital Testing Solutions: Accessibility Audit Gold Package

Fika was implementing an evidence-based mobile application which aimed to improve the mental fitness and performance of their users. As Fika had no in-house specialist testing capability, they engaged Ten10 to conduct an initial Accessibility Audit to ensure all their users could access and use their bespoke application.

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The Project

Fika were looking to improve their current mental fitness mobile application to ensure it was accessible to all users. Ten10 provided an Accessibility audit against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 to an AA compliance level and delivered a full set of actionable insights and recommendations on how to remove barriers that would otherwise prevent people with a range of abilities from accessing it.

Our Combined Test Approach

Ten10 recommended the fixed price gold accessibility audit package for Fika which used a combined approach to accessibility testing, using a range of best-in-class tools and technologies to automate and rapidly perform accessibility testing, which was coupled with an experienced test consultant who was able to identify additional issues that automation tools may not pick up.

What we did

Define and Demonstrate; an initial discussion was held with Fika to understand the scope of the audit and which of our packages were the most suitable. This allowed us to define the appropriate test approach, confirming the number of templates to be tested across the Practical Stress Management Module, the level of Accessibility compliance required, the number of device combinations, and Fika’s reporting requirements.

Ten10 recommended the gold Accessibility package which utilises a predefined Accessibility checklist based on the WCAG standards and provides a list of repeatable/reusable tests to be used during test execution. In addition to adhering to the AA WCAG 2.1 compliance, the checklists also provided compliance with the Equality Act 2010, and covered validation against the main accessibility access categories:

  • Visual: Blindness, low vision, colour-blind
  • Hearing: Deafness
  • Motor: Inability to use a mouse, slow response times, limited motor control
  • Cognitive: Learning disabilities, distractibility

As part of the test approach, Ten10 recommended mobile device combinations that the application should be tested against based upon UK market usage of Android and Apple to identify the most popular devices and current operating systems.

Delivering the Testing; across the 10-day audit a total of 75 defects were identified, 55 were identified as A and 20 were AA compliance, testing against 4 mobile devices.

Ten10’s pragmatic approach to testing utilised the WCAG 2.1 checklists as a basis for testing, using multiple tools to aid testing such as; VoiceOver (iOS), TalkBack (Android), colour contrast checking tools, and screen readers such as NVDA.

The main areas of non-compliance identified were:

  • Non text Content
    This covered a wide range of icons, buttons and images that needed further detail/alt text to effectively communicate their purpose to the user and assistive technology (e.g screen readers)
  • Name, Role, Value
    The status of most user interface controls were not sufficiently described to the user via the screen reader (e.g the user is not made aware if a multiple choice answer has already been selected)
  • Contrast issues
    there were several instances in which selection of foreground and background colour combinations would render the test difficult to read for visually impaired users

The WCAG 2.1 standards table were as follows at the end of the audit

StatusWCAG A StandardsWCAG AA Standards
Passing115
Failing139
N/A66
Total3020

Throughout the audit Ten10 shared the defects that had been identified along with the priority and impact to the users, and any recommended actions to resolve the issues. This was emailed at the end of each day to Fika so that they could review the findings and efficiently resolve them with their development team.

A comprehensive independent audit report was completed at the end of testing which included scope, test results, areas of non-compliance by WCAG compliance level and a recommended action plan. The report was sent to Fika alongside all relevant evidence to provide actionable insights and recommendations.

Further Retesting; the bespoke gold package provided by Ten10 allowed Fika to resolve the areas of non-compliance and then schedule in the retesting to ensure their app was compliant to WCAG 2.1.

The retesting was completed with 8 outstanding defects still to be resolved and a further 2 defects being identified around the following areas:

  • Captions not being fully displayed on an Android device
  • Link purpose – iOS devices did not recognise links that were embedded within large blocks of text
  • Error identification – iOS devices did not automatically read out error messages in form fields

An updated accessibility audit report was reissued to Fika for review and walk-through of the recommended actions for the remaining areas of non-compliance.

Challenges

Whilst testing the Fika fitness app, the main area that we identified non compliance were from using assistive technologies across the site. Defects such as icons and buttons not being labelled with informative information for the screen reader tools to replay to the impaired user. Ten10 utilised multiple screen readers to ensure the app was compliant with as many tools as possible. These areas were fully documented for Fika to review the findings and resolved.

Benefits

Ten10 delivered several benefits as part of this engagement:

Utilised Accessibility Expertise – Ten10 were able to utilise their Accessibility expertise from multiple industries to ensure the application was sufficiently tested to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA compliance and provide evidence to support the importance of building in accessibility at start of the development process, allowing a more efficient, cost-effective testing process.

User-friendly reporting was produced with some clear actionable insights and recommendations for Fika to implement quickly and efficiently.

Independent validation. Ten10’s independent viewpoint provided Fika with the advice and guidance needed to ensure their application was compliant and gave Fika confidence that their application could be accessed by anyone.

Removed requirement for device costs – Ten10’s extensive repository of devices meant that Fika did not have to purchase devices themselves, which can be costly and time-consuming.

How you can achieve the same results

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