My final project for UX 835 Accessibility and Design was an accessibility audit of the Girls on the Run of Greater Detroit website. This audit was conducted on a macOS Monterey platform using the Chrome browser.
For the website evaluation, I used a combination of tools and methods. My automated testing was primarily done with the axe DevTools browser extension and WAVE. For manual testing, I used my Mac’s built-in screen reader, VoiceOver, and relied on standard keyboard navigation and browser magnification at 200%.
The final presentation was created using Google Slides, which was a great choice because its built-in accessibility features helped me ensure the slides themselves were accessible. I recorded the narrated video using Zoom, which also simplified the process by providing automatic closed captions. The biggest challenge I faced was with the automated tools. While they are great for catching obvious errors, they often flagged potential issues that required manual verification, which took extra time. For example, a missing alt tag is easy to catch, but determining if the alt text is actually meaningful required manual screen reader testing.
Overall, my findings indicate that the website has a good foundation but needs improvement to fully meet WCAG 2.1 AA standards. My presentation details critical issues such as missing descriptive alt text for key images and logos, inconsistent link descriptions for screen reader users, and insufficient contrast for the keyboard focus indicator. On a positive note, the site performed exceptionally well during magnification testing, maintaining its layout and functionality even at 200% zoom.