Is Your Website Accessible?
With all the legal uncertainties currently facing credit unions regarding accessibility, it’s important that the vendor you choose knows what they’re doing.
Accessibility does not just pertain to users with visual impairments; it's about the user experience for everyone that visits your website, regardless of any physical or cognitive limitations. Thus, compliance cannot be ensured by simply having someone review the site using a screen reader or automated tool.
Credit unions should be wary of any vendor that guarantees that a website is fully accessible simply because they've had someone review it using a screen reader. That is simply not the case - visual impairments are only a fraction of the disabilities you need to account for.
Additionally, many companies have jumped on the accessibility audit bandwagon, despite having no actual accessibility training or experience. They conduct their audits using automated scanning tools, which can only reveal about 30% of actual issues and usually result in a large number of false positives. The credit union is handed a report and is then on their own to weed out the false positives and interpret what actually needs to be fixed. Many of the WCAG guidelines are not black and white - human interpretation is necessary. And you need accessibility experts to do that.