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Using checklists in an accessibility strategy

The purpose of an accessibility checklist is to help identify accessibility issues in your product, website, or document. However, incorporating checklists into an accessibility strategy can often be tricky. One of the most common pitfalls when using or thinking about checklists is making sure you don't get stuck in a limited compliance mindset. There is no single checklist that covers all possible accessibility issues and as Intopia warned, a checklist mentality can actually be harmful for inclusion. That said, if approached as part of a broader strategy, they can be very helpful when used thoughtfully. Access Armada has some interesting suggestions on more strategic approaches to checklists.

What makes a good accessibility checklist Anchor link

  • The checklist should build on automated testing approaches.
  • Provide role-based checklists so that different people in the organization are focused on different aspects of accessibility.
  • Checklists should be short, concise and easily understood by the majority of the team.
  • Allow for iteration of the checklists is needed - they may need to change depending on the element or learnings after going through the process a few times.

Example checklists Anchor link

Sometimes, you don't need to reinvent the wheel. If there's already an existing checklist available, you can customize it to fit the needs of your team and product. Below are a few examples of existing accessibility checklists:

  • W3C's Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)
    • Basic checklist, not designed to be fully robust but rather to give you a starting point
  • 18F - USA Government
    • Checklist geared toward US federal websites
  • A11yProject
    • Robust checklist using WCAG criteria and broken update into element categories (e.g. Content, Images, etc.) with understandable action items
  • Heydon Works
    • Checklist that includes not just items regarding accessibility but other inclusive design checks as well - device support, language, etc.
  • VoxMedia
    • Checklist broken down into categories for various practices area/role
  • Intopia's Accessibility Not-Checklist
    • This checklist can be customized directly on the site by specific WCAG standards and it can be filtered to display items by either topic or role

Create your own checklist Anchor link

While there are many checklists already out there and that can be customized to fit your needs, you don't necessarily need to use something preexisting. Using an existing automated scanning tool, you could create your own simple checklist process.

For example, using a tool like WebAim's WAVE, organizations could create a checklist to:

  1. Scan the page with the WAVE scanning tool. View the details tab of the results console:
    1. Review each error - designated by a red box with an X
    2. Review each alert - designated by an orange triangle with an exclamation point
  2. Do manual testing of the page
  3. Evaluate the page for plain language using free tools like the HemingwayApp.

Next steps Anchor link

When you are ready to learn more, here are some further guides and resources that may help: