Introduction:
For any website or application, accessibility is an important factor, and overlooking it not only leads to lowering the benchmark but also results in a legal obligation. When the web product is not accessible; people with disabilities will face the challenge to access it. For that reason, it is important for every industry; especially for the health industry. Recently, Accessible Minds has helped a healthcare startup to make its website accessible.
About the Client:
Our client is a US-based healthcare startup that came up with an excellent platform where anyone can access, and get assistance and information regarding local healthcare facilities. From the list of available doctors to the ambulance booking facilities; the platform has every feature to help in an emergency. It also helps people to figure out the health issues based on the symptoms and find the right care to treat the condition.
What do they want?
As the platform is for healthcare; there are a number of users who face difficulty while accessing information from it because the primary user base includes senior citizens and people with disabilities. Our esteemed client took the proactive approach to test the website for accessibility and looking for a partner who can help in remediation as well. Eventually, they contacted Accessible Minds for accessibility testing services and remediation.
Challenges:
The healthcare platform is primarily designed for people who are in a medical emergency. The fast and hassle-free accessibility of all the features is the main goal that we need to meet. The website deals with different types of data and a large number of users have disability issues. So, to access those useful data and information and use the functionality; the website should be inclusive.
What do we do?
Our team of engineers thoroughly analyzed the website. The first priority was to check whether the website was meeting the WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines). We have made some quick but efficient changes to the buttons and added an alt test to the images and videos.
In our advanced testing phase; we took all the possible approaches to make the website accessible to the masses. Our client’s accessibility approach has transformed since joining forces with Accessible Minds. The team now prioritizes people with disabilities, be they UX researchers, designers, or engineers. They leveraged us to directly engage with assistive technology users and strategically enhance its accessibility features. We have made some quick but efficient changes to the element like defining proper label and role. Added alt text to all the informative images and standard color combinations were used to match the standard color contrast ratio for the text and elements.
Result:
The ongoing experience enabled team members to continually encounter a diverse range of assistive technology users. Our product development approach is not a one-size-fits-all solution, which encompasses catering to the requirements of individuals with disabilities who use different types of assistive technologies. Along with front-line team members, the management of our client has also noticed the positive changes on the website.