Project Summary
Tyler Idaho was asked to help review and analyze any potential accessibility or usability issues on the new voteidaho.gov website before it launched in February 2024. We completed the assessment on the development site utilizing tools such as the WAVE web accessibility evaluation tool, Site Improve, and BrowserStack screen reader tools.
508 Compliance/Accessibility Audit
There were many areas of the new website and improved design that were fully accessible and met the 508 standards and WCAG 2.2 content accessibility guidelines. We helped provide the Secretary of State with an indepth analysis of the website based on our many years of exeperience working with Government websites and the accessibility standards they must follow to be accessible for all. Accessibility is important because it helps people participate in everyday activities or having access to all of the information by removing barriers and providing equal opportunities for everyone.
Below are a few examples of the types of information we reported in the audit as well as the solutions or fixes we suggested.
Contrast/color issues
The light blue link color, white text on the red button, and tan side menu text didn't meet the contrast ratio standard of 4.5:1or 3:1 for larger text.
- To correct this, the blue will need to darker, potentially hex code #23809d. The Chrome developer tools give you a nice preview to know when a color meets the contrast ratio by showing the green check mark or red x if it fails.
- The red on the buttons should be made a little darker, potentially hex code #de3435.
- The tan side menu color will need to be adjusted to a darker shade or color as well.
Missing alternative (alt) text on images
What is alt text and why is it important? Alternative (alt) text is meant to convey the “why” of the image as it relates to the content of a document or webpage. It is read aloud to users by screen reader software, and it is indexed by search engines. It also displays on the page if the image fails to load, as in this example of a missing image. If an image contains text in it, that same text needs to be in the alt text description.
We identified images across the website that were mising alt text or had repetivie alt text such as the screenshot example shown here.
Accordions on the Idaho Elected Officials page
One usability issue we identified was on the Idaho Elected officials page where the accordions and the titles within the accordions were different links. We suggested that this may cause some confusion and the Secretary of State may want to consider including the elected official’s website link within the accordion rather than on the name because the user may click the name, be directed to their website and not realize that the gray box was an accordion they could open.
As it previously was, the accordions that only have the Representative’s name linked to their website do not allow the accordion to open when utilizing a screen reader. That user could only navigate to the Representative’s website.
As a solution, the Secretary of State modified how this page functioned so it would be accessible for all.
To receive more information about our website audit process or further examples, please contact us.