Project workflow

Are you embedding accessibility into your workflow rather than retrofitting at the end?

Why it’s important:

When accessibility is included from the beginning of a project, the benefit to both your organisation and users is increased.
All our users need to access our products. Inclusive of people with a disability, older people and people who can't use or struggle with digital services.

Next steps

As part of the design and delivery process an agile approach is often used, helping teams to build better products for all users. You can extend on this by incorporating accessibility into the workflow.

Discovery

During the discovery phase consider the following to gain a good understanding of how users may access your services:

In the early phase of discussing ideas and concepts, consider referencing W3C for Standards and Guidance.
If you need to buy a new product, make sure you build accessibility requirements into your procurement.
Encourage people within the team to take responsibility for accessibility.
Add accessibility as an acceptance standard for each new feature.

Alpha

Throughout the course of the Alpha phase, consider the following:

Add accessibility testing into each development sprint or quality assurance check.
Do your prototypes accommodate all users from different backgrounds and users with a disability?
Are you running research sessions with disabled users and people from different backgrounds to improve your design?
Begin to organise your accessibility audit as this can take time to arrange and receive with the Accessibility Team.
Identify any accessibility issues and barriers that might need addressing in the Beta stage.

Beta

For the Beta phase address the following to meet accessibility requirements and all user needs:

Continue to test for accessibility and confirm an accessibility audit has been organised. Regularly testing new features during development can avoid potential issues at a later stage.
Iterations in your product design that meet accessibility requirements and improve usability.
User testing sessions with people with a disability to confirm what you’re building is accessible.
Are identified issues critical, less critical or minor? Prioritise these issues against other development concerns. Critical issues will cause serious problems for most users of assistive technology. Less critical issues may cause increased frustration for certain users. Minor issues will cause frustration for a small number of users.

Live

As your service goes live you will need to:

Continue testing for accessibility and researching your service once it has launched.
Confirm that all new features meet WCAG accessibility requirements.
Undertake another accessibility audit if upgrades of significance occur. This is essential to make sure all products and services meet accessibility standards.
Have evidence of usability testing, including users with low level digital skills, people with disability, and people from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds.