ian-noaa
commented
1 month ago Some notes.
Section 508/accessibility is more commonly known as a11y in the web world.
Accessibility Tooling
pa11yis used by DESI: https://github.com/pa11y/pa11y- The WAVE browser plugin was recommended by IDSS Engine: https://wave.webaim.org/extension/
axe-corehas frequently come up: https://github.com/dequelabs/axe-core
Even the best automated tooling only catches ~40% of accessibility issues. Using multiple tools and doing hand audits are recommended.
Resources
- UK guide on accessibility testing: https://accessibility-manual.dwp.gov.uk/best-practice/how-to-do-accessibility-testing
- USWDS tips: https://designsystem.digital.gov/design-principles/#embrace-accessibility
- https://digital.gov/guides/accessibility-for-teams/front-end-development/#content-start
- ITS is planning on sending out a checklist and setting up a monitoring website. We will probably need to meet some NOAA requirements as well. (Disclaimers that this is research data, etc...)
This issue could dovetail with #629 if we need to modify the site's CSS extensively. However, if we can achieve our accessibility goals without modifying the site's CSS, then treating those two issues separately would be ideal. There is also the question of whether Bootstrap or USWDS is the best design system for us to use.
I thought we already had an issue for this, but apparently not! We need to update MATS for accessibility requirements / section 508.