7. Communicate with your users
Suggested approach
The most important step towards accessibility is communicating with your users.
If you know of disabled users who may be trying to use your site, reach out to them
You can learn more about how your site works for users by asking and compensating them for their help. Better still, this allows you to share your efforts to improve accessibility and talk about the issues you’re facing in doing so.
These users may even volunteer to help you test future site updates for accessibility, offering new insights and suggestions on how your site can better serve everyone.
Three key next steps
You can’t reach out to every customer for a conversation, but there are three things you can do to right now that will set you up for more informed discussions:
You can’t reach out to every customer for a conversation, but there are three things you can do to right now that will set you up for more informed discussions:
- Update the Accessibility Statement for your site.
On this page, detail your efforts to make your site more accessible. If it’s just content updates, that’s fine.
Note what you have tested, what works and doesn’t, and your plan to fix things that do not.
For example, you can indicate if your site is structured using Landmark Roles or when this may be implemented.
It’s a good practice to share more information about future site updates that are in progress if they are to resolve known accessibility issues.
W3C’s guide to developing an Accessibility Statement
Accessibility statement example
GOV.UK’s accessibility statement covers key aspects of an accessibility statement, including:
- What’s possible
- Contact information
- Compliance (or conformance) status
- Testing
- and more
2. Find out who in your organization is available to help users with access to information and other accessibility support requests.
You can include this contact information on your Accessibility Statement, so users have an alternative way of finding the information they need if they’re unable to do so using your existing website.
You can also talk to this person about some of the requests they’ve been receiving and see how you may be able to improve the site content to resolve those issues.
3. Consult with legal
With local legislation like AODA in Canada and ADA in the United States that typically centre around WCAG conformance, aspects of the accessibility statement (and ongoing accessibility requirements) may have a legal impact.
Understanding these requirements will help with ongoing customer conversations and prioritizing ongoing efforts.