ÃÛÌÇÖ±²¥

Welcome to our MarchÌýissue of the Accessibility Minute Newsletter! This newsletter is produced by the ÃÛÌÇÖ±²¥ Boulder Digital Accessibility Office (DAO) and covers one accessibility skill or topic per month. Please visit the DAO website to access past newsletters. As always, thank you for taking a minute (or two) to read.

2024 Accessibility and Usability Testing Summary

°Õ³ó±ðÌýAccessibility and Usability (AU) Assessment team at the Digital Accessibility Office performs manual digital accessibility and usability testing on a variety of digital products throughout the year. At the conclusion of each calendar year, we compile and review all conducted testing to identify the accessibility issues that occurred most frequently. In this month’s newsletter, we will share the results from 2024!

Most Common Accessibility Issues

Below is a list of the most common issues we encountered while testing numerous platforms, software, and other digital products. We've also included information and resources to help you, as content creators, mitigate or reduce these issues.

• Tool or activity is inaccessible: The process or action needed for an activityÌýwithin a software could not be completed due to various accessibility issues. This may not be something that you can individually change, but you can .
• Navigation is impeded: There are multiple ways where navigation can become difficult or impossible. One example is when an element cannot be accessed with the keyboard. When the element is not actionable, end users who rely on the keyboard for navigation will be unable to use Tab navigation to move to the element, and they will be forced to use a mouse. Another example is a keyboard trap, where the assistive technology gets stuck and is unable to easily navigate out of the trap (for example, infinite scrolls). Ensure that there are no traps on the page or sections of actionable elements that users can't tab to. These are created during the development stage, meaning you should discuss them with the vendor to help resolve these issues.
• Inaccessible documents:ÌýThe document on the site or in the platform is inaccessible to users who utilize assistive technology. If you are creating documents for a website or platform, look into different accessibility trainings and follow so you can upload an accessible file for users.
• Headings are not used to provide structure: Headings were either not nested appropriately, meaning they were not in chronological order, or they were used for styling reasons rather than to provide structure to the page.ÌýFollow ourÌý resource guide to help you structure your content effectively.
• Element label is not unique or confusing:ÌýButtons and links had the same, undescriptive label or a label that did not describe what would happen when the user activated the element. Follow ourÌýlink text resource guide for more information.
• Insufficient color contrast: The color contrast is less than the 4.5:1 ratio for standard text (18-point font or below) or the 3:1 ratio for large text (18-point font or greater).
• Alternative text is not sufficient: The alternative text does not sufficiently describe the image. This can become a severe issue if it is an image with information that users need to know but cannot access.
• Lists are not programmatic / are in improper format:ÌýLists should be in a programmatic formatÌý(e.g., the Bullets or Numbering option in Word) so assistive technology users can hear how many items are in each list and navigate them easily.
• Additional information is needed: More instructions are needed so that all users understand the steps needed to complete a task.
• Typos: A typo is present on the page that all users encounter.
• Page error or empty content: Loading a webpage results in a page error or a section that has empty content.

While this list is not all-encompassing and our testing varies across types of products, it can be helpful to know what issues appear most frequently and how you can mitigate these digital accessibility barriers for all users.

March Challenge

1. Review your organizations' common websites, apps, and documents for these common issues and share findings with those who own/control those platforms.
2. Share the linked resources throughout this newsletter with your content creators, development teams, and other relevant stakeholders.