Building and maintaining an accessible website is an incredibly important thing. Not only is it essential to ensure that all users can fully access your content, but as we've seen lately, adherence to accessibility standards is critical in higher education. Join experts from Siteimprove, Palantir, and Acquia as we use a real case study from North Dakota Sate University, a 15,000-student public-research university, to illustrate the transformative power of accessibility to optimize your site for all users. By attending this webinar, you'll learn: - How to optimize your site for different groups from some of the web’s leading experts - Real examples of accessibility best practices - How implementing best practices will affect the typical user, the disabled user, and even your SEO.

1. Through The Eyes of All Users
How To Achieve Website
Accessibility for Everyone

2. Strategic Alliance Manager,
Siteimprove
Kevin Roddy
Sales Manager,
Palantir.net
Nelson Harris
Sr. Product Marketing Director,
Acquia
David Aponovich
Associate VP of University
Relations, NDSU
Laura McDaniel

3. ©2018 Acquia Inc. — Confidential and Proprietary
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Who we are
3

4. 4
● Founded in 2003
● 7000+ customers
worldwide
● Siteimprove
Intelligence Platform:
Content &
Accessibility,
Analytics, SEO, GDPR
● 1000+ sites on Drupal
Siteimprove offers the world's most
comprehensive Digital Presence Optimization
(DPO) software. Create higher quality content,
drive better traffic, measure digital
performance, and work towards regulatory
compliance. - all from one place.

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● Founded in 1996
● Drupal since 2006
● 34 employees
● Strategy, UX, design,
development and
support
Palantir has a proven track record of helping
organizations transform their websites into
modern platforms that deliver results.
Palantir’s mission is to strengthen humanity by
helping others discover, create, and share
knowledge.

6. ©2016 Acquia Inc. — Confidential and Proprietary
● Public research university
● Fargo, North Dakota
● 15,000 students
The Story: NDSU

7. ©2016 Acquia Inc. — Confidential and Proprietary
● Redesign was underway
● Palantir helped with audit
and build
● Used Siteimprove’s tools

8. ©2016 Acquia Inc. — Confidential and Proprietary
You wouldn't build a new building
without a wheelchair accessible ramp or
elevator...so why would you build your
website any differently?

9. The concept of accessible web design
and development ensures easy
access online—be it unassisted or
through assistive technologies—for
people of all abilities.
What is Web Accessibility?

10. Web Content Accessibility Guidelines

11. The Importance of Web Accessibility
● Approximately 1 in 4 people live with a disability in the United
States, according to the CDC
● Accessible design is making something that everyone can
use. We should all build websites with everyone in mind
● It’s not just the right thing to do, it’s beneficial for your
business and creates a better user experience for your visitors

12. ©2016 Acquia Inc. — Confidential and Proprietary
Content
● Clear & Concise language
● Image alt text & titles
● Meta tags & Link naming
The Work

13. ©2016 Acquia Inc. — Confidential and Proprietary
Design
● Color & contrast
● Consistent navigation &
effects
● Responsive design for all
devices
● Clear layout and
organization of content
The Work

14. ©2016 Acquia Inc. — Confidential and Proprietary
Development
● Review WCAG 2.1 Level
AA checklist
● URL structure
● Semantic markup
● Alt text required by
default
● Review editorial
workflows
The Work

15. ©2016 Acquia Inc. — Confidential and Proprietary
● Continual scans of the website, reporting
on real-time issues and errors
● Customized reporting and dashboards
● Prioritizes issues based on:
○ # of errors
○ Page level
○ Page views
○ Clicks on broken links
● Keeps a history of items completed,
ignored, or found
How Siteimprove Helped

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Performing the Audit
Meeting WCAG 2.0
guidelines, prioritizing
and balancing.

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Color Contrast
● Old site: white text with
yellow button
● Broke accessibility
depending on background
image

18. ©2016 Acquia Inc. — Confidential and Proprietary

19. ©2016 Acquia Inc. — Confidential and Proprietary
Color Contrast
● Skip to main content was too
light
● This link is most important for
visually impaired users

20. ©2016 Acquia Inc. — Confidential and Proprietary
Tabbing
● Ordering was fine, there was
hierarchy
● Not showing subnavs
● Missing appropriate
highlighting

21. ©2016 Acquia Inc. — Confidential and Proprietary

22. ©2016 Acquia Inc. — Confidential and Proprietary
WYSIWYG

23. ©2016 Acquia Inc. — Confidential and Proprietary
WYSIWYG
● Heading CTAs were done in
custom markup
● Creates more work, allows for
more mistakes and makes it
harder to be compliant

24. ©2016 Acquia Inc. — Confidential and Proprietary

25. ©2016 Acquia Inc. — Confidential and Proprietary
Maintaining an Accessible Site
● We build for accessibility, but maintaining accessible
content is an ongoing practice
● We recommend clients create editorial style guides
● We recommend clients use Siteimprove and add it
to their workflow to validate on an ongoing basis

26. ©2016 Acquia Inc. — Confidential and Proprietary
Laura McDaniel
● Start with clear goals
● The first draft is just the beginning

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7
Working with a Partner
+

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8
Key Takeaways
● Accessibility is a balance
● Designing for Accessibility is good for everyone
● Accessibility is a journey, not a destination

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Thank you! Questions?
Kevin Roddy, - kro@siteimprove.com
Nelson Harris - harris@palantir.net
David Aponovich - david.aponovich@acquia.com