SelfHelpWorks has long used tools and functionalities in our system to assist peoples with disabilities in the access and consumption of our content. In the last year or so, we’ve been engaged in an ongoing effort in pursuit of WCAG 2.0 AA conformance.
The requirements for WCAG 2.0 AA conformance go beyond the Section 508 requirements (which are directed toward technology created, used, and/or maintained by the US government). Satisfaction of WCAG 2.0 AA requirements means that users with disabilities—i.e. color blindness, impaired vision and/or hearing—are able to access all content and documents via modern assistive technologies, functionalities, and various other means of support (options for how to consume content, for instance).
Achieving formal WCAG conformance is notoriously complex and time-consuming and, consequently, few online companies with solutions like ours commit the resources and energy necessary. It is with pleasure that we announce that we have now received our official WCAG 2.0 AA conformance report.
SelfHelpWorks has undergone rigorous testing and evaluation conducted by an outside agency. Ongoing through 2019, this agency studied user experience and interaction within our solution and issued iterative feedback reports documenting the areas in which we could improve. As previously stated, we’ve had longstanding accessibility elements in place (e.g., closed caption options for video, transcripts with audio), and this effort involved an array of updates and tweaks. While many updates were seemingly minor and isolated, they have collectively produced a more comfortable, intuitive, and effective SelfHelpWorks experience for users with disabilities.
Throughout this process the designing and engineering practices at SelfHelpWorks have evolved to naturally accommodate WCAG 2.0 requirements for accessibility as we continue to improve and expand our solution; this ensures that in the future our current achievement will be maintained as the constant standard.