Buying accessible software: 9 questions to ask

Every vendor says their product is accessible. These questions tell you whether it is, in the order that gets you there quickest.

The nine questions

• 1. Which WCAG version and level, and is the claim full or partial conformance? (Anybody claiming full conformance for a large product is either mistaken or has not looked.)
• 2. Can I see the conformance statement, and does it list known issues with dates?
• 3. Do automated accessibility checks fail your build, or are they a report somebody reads?
• 4. At what viewport widths do those checks run? (If the answer does not include a phone width, the mobile experience has never been checked.)
• 5. Which manual testing do you do, with which screen readers, and how often?
• 6. Is there any drag-and-drop, and if so what is the keyboard path?
• 7. What happens at 400 per cent zoom?
• 8. How do you handle reduced-motion preferences?
• 9. Who can I email about an accessibility problem, and what is the response commitment?

Our answers

WCAG 2.2 level AA, partial conformance with the exceptions listed. Automated checks fail the build, in the component library and the browser suite, at 360 pixels among other widths. Manual keyboard and screen-reader passes before a release. No drag-and-drop without a keyboard and a touch path — the admissions board uses a select and arrow buttons for that reason. Reduced motion is a designed rendering, not a stripped one.