1. ARIA Support on Mobile Browsers
Presented by:
Jonathan Avila
March 5, 2015

2. Exclusions and Inclusions Test Results
Agenda
Overview
Methodology
Exclusions and Inclusions
Test Results
Landmarks
Roles
States/Properties
Resources

3. Overall support is good with exceptions iOS 8
Overview
Tested 30 different ARIA roles (landmarks and widgets) with key aria properties (e.g. aria-expanded, aria-checked, etc.)
Tested with:
VoiceOver on iOS and
Talkback on Android 5.0.2
Firefox 36.0
Chrome
Windows Phone 8.1
Overall support is good with exceptions
iOS 8
Talkback w/ Chrome and Windows Phone 8.1 had the least support
Windows Phone 8.1 has more support than I assumed

4. Android & Talkback w/ FF Android & Talkback w/ Chrome
Overview
Result Tally
Android & Talkback w/ FF
iOS & VO w/ Safari
WP 8.1 & Narrator
w/ IE
Android & Talkback w/ Chrome
Yes 20 15 12 7
Partial 8 13 No 3 11 10

5. Methdology
Wanted to provide specific details on combinations of roles and properties
Tested in different modes such as swipe, rotor, item chooser, etc.
Tested using three different ARIA test suites to ensure valid implementations
Share results with community and send bug reports to platform vendors
Use of standard terms in results
E.g. accessible name used here to indicate use of aria-label or aria-labelledby
E.g. role is the ARIA role of the control
E.g. state is an ARIA state such as checked, selected, expanded

6. Testing Criteria
Focused testing of aria-label, aria-labelled, and aria-describedby on non-generic elements
focus on widgets and landmarks with default implied or explicit roles
Use valid ARIA markup
E.g. aria-selected is only valid on certain roles such as option, menu, gridcell, tab, etc.

7. Notes on Mobile Testing
Testing embedded content
AMP Mobile Accessibility Checker will pull DOM from app in Xcode or Eclipse and send to AMP for testing
Limitations of browser choice in embedded content
Limited to Chrome on Android and Safari on iOS
Obtaining mobile content DOM
Responsive sites may not expose mobile DOM on desktop
Pull mobile DOM from mobile browser
Adobe Edge Inspect (iOS and Android)
Safari Developer Tools on Mac (iOS)

8. Landmarks allow users to: Understand the structure of content
Roles
Landmarks allow users to:
Understand the structure of content
Quickly jump to regions of the page
Examples
application
banner
navigation
main
contentinfo
search
complementary
form

9. Landmarks
Results
iOS
VoiceOver
Talkback
Firefox
Talkback Chrome
Windows Phone 8.1
Yes No
iOS: All except role application and form and application are announced in swipe and neither are in rotor
Type of landmark, aria-label/aria-labelledby, and then text is announced
Boundary of landmark is indicated while swiping forward only
Talkback FF: All except role application and form are announced in swipe and neither are in rotor
Text, then aria-label/aria-labelledby, and then type of landmark is announced
Boundary of landmark is indicated while swiping forward and reverse
Talkback Chrome: No landmark roles, names, or boundaries are announced.
Windows Phone 8.1 No landmark roles, names, or boundaries are announced.

10. Talkback with Chrome and Firefox
Roles
Checkbox
iOS
VoiceOver
Talkback
Firefox
Talkback Chrome
Windows Phone 8.1
Yes
Talkback with Chrome and Firefox
State change is not automatically announced on toggle
iOS:
Name, role, and state are announced.
Changes in state are announced.
Checkbox support is provided in the VO rotor Form Fields with the same support as above.
Talkback FF: .
When navigating to the checkbox The Name State and Role is announced.
When activating the Checkbox the new state is not automatically announced
Talkback FF:
Checkboxes are in form fields rotor.
Talkback Chrome:
When navigating to the checkbox the name state and role is announced.
When activating the checkbox the new state is not announced
Windows Phone 8.1
When navigating to the checkbox the name, state and role is announced.
When activating the checkbox the new state is announced

11. Position in set is not announced iOS
Roles
Radio Button
iOS
VoiceOver
Talkback
Firefox
Talkback Chrome
Windows Phone 8.1
Yes
All
Position in set is not announced
iOS
Radio buttons in general are not included in the VO rotor Form Fields
Talkback Chrome & Firefox and Windows Phone 8.1
Changes in state are not announced automatically or announced incorrectly
Radio Buttons
Name, role, and state are announced.
Changes in state are announced.
Position in set is not announced.
Radio buttons in general are not included in the VO rotor Form Fields.
Talkback FF:
Changes in state are announced incorrectly as deleted.
Radio buttons are in the rotor
Talkback Chrome:
Changes in state are announced incorrectly announced
Windows Phone 8.1
Changes in state are not announced automatically

12. Talkback Chrome and Windows Phone 8.1 Aria-label supported
Roles
Links
iOS
VoiceOver
Talkback
Firefox
Talkback Chrome
Windows Phone 8.1
Yes
Partial
Talkback Chrome and Windows Phone 8.1
Aria-label supported
aria-labelledby and aria-describedby not supported
Links
iOS
Role, Aria-label, aria-labelledby, and aria-describedby* are supported on swipe and in link option in rotor and indicated in the item chooser.
* Note aria-describedby is not indicated for links in item chooser.
* aria-describedby is announced after pause
Talkback FF:
Role, Aria-label, aria-labelledby, and aria-describedby are supported on swipe and in link option in rotor
Talkback Chrome:
Role or earcon are announced.
Aria-label is not indicated.
Aria-labelledby is not indicated.
Aria-describedby is not announced
Windows Phone 8.1
Role, Aria-label supported. aria-labelledby and aria-describedby not supported

13. Role is not indicated but accessible name is Talkback Chrome
Roles
Radiogroup, Region, and Group
iOS
VoiceOver
Talkback
Firefox
Talkback Chrome
Windows Phone 8.1 No
Yes
Partial
iOS and Windows Phone 8.1
No support
Talkback FF
Role is not indicated but accessible name is
Talkback Chrome
On radiogroup name is supported on nested controls
Radiogroup, group, and region
iOS
Name and role not indicated.
Similar lack of support for HTML fieldset and legend elements.
Boundaries of group are not indicated when swiping.
Talkback FF:
radiogroup, region's and group's accessible name are announced when entering region forward or reverse. Role is not announced.
Talkback Chrome:
Radiogroup: Name is announced but role or boundaries are not announced.
Region and group: Name, role or boundaries are not announced.
Windows Phone 8.1
Role region, group, and radiogroup and accessible name are not announced.

14. Text is announced, role is not
Roles
Alert
iOS
VoiceOver
Talkback
Firefox
Talkback Chrome
Windows Phone 8.1
Yes No
iOS
Text is announced, role is not
iOS
Alert text is announced.
Talkback FF:
alert text is not announced.
Talkback Chrome:
Windows Phone 8.1

15. Role of heading is announced but no level information
Heading and Level
iOS
VoiceOver
Talkback
Firefox
Talkback Chrome
Windows Phone 8.1
Yes
Partial No
Talkback Chrome
Role of heading is announced but no level information
Role Heading and aria-level
iOS
Role heading and level of heading is announced
Talkback FF:
Talkback Chrome:
Role of heading is announced but no level information.
Windows Phone 8.1
Role heading and level of heading are not announced

16. Role
Button with aria-pressed
iOS
VoiceOver
Talkback
Firefox
Talkback Chrome
Windows Phone 8.1 No
Yes
Partial
iOS
Indicated as checkbox state is not announced when swiping to or toggling control
Talkback FF
Change of state is not announced when toggled
Talkback Chrome
Indicated as switch control, state is always indicated as "not checked". Toggled state is not automatically announced
Windows Phone Only aria-label supported, state correct
Button with aria-pressed
iOS
Aria-label, aria-labelledby, and aria-describedby supported on swipe.
VO announces with role of checkbox.
Pressed state is not announced when swiping to or toggling control.
Talkback: FF:
Indicated as toggle button.
Pressed state is indicated. Change of state is not automatically announced when toggled.
Talkback: Chrome:
Aria-label and aria-labelledby are announced only when no text content is present. Aria-describedby is not supported.
Indicated as switch control.
State is always indicated as "not checked". Toggled state is not automatically announced.
Windows Phone 8.1
Aria-label supported. aria-labelledby and aria-describedby not supported
Pressed state is indicated (on). Change of state is automatically announced when toggled.

17. iOS, Talkback FF, and Windows Phone 8.1
Roles
Combobox
iOS
VoiceOver
Talkback
Firefox
Talkback Chrome
Windows Phone 8.1 No
Partial
iOS, Talkback FF, and Windows Phone 8.1
Name, role, and state are indicated
Options cannot be selected
Talkback Chrome
Role is indicated as edit box
Name, and state are not indicated
Role combobox
Name, role, and state are announced. State is backwards in iOS due to the bug with aria-expanded.
Not usable unless combobox is editable directly. Choices are not reachable. Depending on the implementation of the pop-up button user may or may not be able to get popup list open. However, once the pop up list is open the user swipes to items in list and pop-up list automatically closes because focus leaves the combo box roles.
May be possible to develop an accessible one but current implements out there appear to be inaccessible with VoiceOver on iOS.
Position in set could not be tested.
Talkback FF:
Name, role, and state are indicated. However, user can never access values in dropdown.
Talkback Chrome:
Role is indicated as edit box
Name, and state are not indicated
Options are announced when arrow keys are pressed and current value is indicated.
Windows Phone 8.1

18. Position in set is not announced
Role
Listbox
iOS
VoiceOver
Talkback
Firefox
Talkback Chrome
Windows Phone 8.1
Partial
Yes
All
Position in set is not announced
Selection state not automatically announced after selection
iOS
Role is not announced
Talkback Chrome
Role, name, and selected are not announced
Role listbox
iOS
Name and selected state are announced
Position in set in not announced
Role is not announced
iOS doesn't have an equivalent structure as listboxes are always indicated as pickers
Talkback FF:
Indicates name*, role, and state for listbox and options. Doesn't automatically announced selected after selecting an option but indicated on manual inspection. Name is announced after current selection and is announced again after role
Position in set is not announced
Talkback Chrome:
Role, name, and selected are not announced
Current focused item is announced on swipe/tab and can be selected with arrow keys or swipe.
Windows Phone 8.1
Role, name, and selected item are announced
Current focused item is announced on swipe/tab and can be selected with swipe and double tap.

19. Only text is announced on appear and on swipe
Role
Alertdialog
iOS
VoiceOver
Talkback
Firefox
Talkback Chrome
Windows Phone 8.1
Yes
Partial No
iOS
VO announces aria-label/aria-labelledby/aria-describedby when it appears like an alert
When swiping to dialog content boundaries are not announced and aria-label/aria-labelled/aria-describedby are not indicated
Talkback Chrome
Only text is announced on appear and on swipe
Role alertdialog
iOS
VO announces aria-label/aria-labelledby/aria-describedby when it appears like an alert
When swiping to dialog content boundaries are not announced and aria-label/aria-labelled/aria-describedby are not indicated.
Talkback FF:
focus change overrides automatic announcement of dialog. Name, description, and role are announced when entering dialog from forward or reverse swipe order.
Talkback Chrome:
Dialog text is announced when it appears, aria-labelledby, describedby, and boundaries are not announced.
Windows Phone 8.1
Alert dialog text is not announced.

20. focus change overrides automatic announcement of dialog
Role
Dialog
iOS
VoiceOver
Talkback
Firefox
Talkback Chrome
Windows Phone 8.1 No
Partial
Talkback FF
focus change overrides automatic announcement of dialog
Name, description, and role are announced when entering dialog from forward or reverse swipe order
Others
Nothing announced on open, text in swipe in order
Role Dialog
iOS
When dialog is opened the role and aria-labelledby/aria-describedby text is not announced.
When swiping to dialog content boundaries are not announced and aria-label/aria-labelled/aria-describedby are not indicated (on-screen text is announced).
Talkback FF:
focus change overrides automatic announcement of dialog. Name, description, and role are announced when entering dialog from forward or reverse swipe order.
Talkback Chrome:
When dialog is opened the role and aria-labelledby/aria-describedby or dialog text is not announced.
When swiping to dialog boundaries are not announced and aria-label/aria-labelled/aria-describedby are not indicated (on-screen text is announced).
Windows Phone 8.1
Nothing is announced when dialog opens.
When swiping to dialog role is announced and content of dialog is announced. Aira properties do not appear to be announced.

21. iOS and Talkback Chrome
Role
Grid
iOS
VoiceOver
Talkback
Firefox
Talkback Chrome
Windows Phone 8.1
Partial
Yes
iOS and Talkback Chrome
Headers are not announced as the user swipes through data table cells
Grid
iOS
Header announcements for all tables was broken in iOS 8 as you swipe through the table cells.
Presence of grid is indicated
Talkback FF:
Grid header announced after cell text while navigating through data cells in the table. When entering table number of rows and columns are indicated.
Talkback Chrome:
Headers are not announced as the user swipes through data table cells
Windows Phone 8.1
Grid header announced after cell text while navigating through data cells in the table.

22. Only way to access menu items is to use lines option in rotor
Roles
Menu
iOS
VoiceOver
Talkback
Firefox
Talkback Chrome
Windows Phone 8.1
Partial
Yes
iOS
Only way to access menu items is to use lines option in rotor
iOS, Talkback Firefox, and Chrome
Menu role and haspopup is not announced
Menu
iOS
Name and role of menu item are announced
Menu role is not announced
Property of haspopup is not announced
Only way to access menu items is to use lines option in rotor
Talkback FF:
Role of menubar and menu is announced when first entering menubar forward or reverse
Role of menu is not announced on individual menu items
State of haspopup is not announced
Ability to access menu items while swiping as 1 out of 4 example implementations.
Checked state of menu items announced
Talkback Chrome:
Name and role of menu is not announced
Text of menu items are announced
Menu items can be selected/focused with arrow keys and enter selects.
Windows Phone 8.1
Menu and menu item roles are announced along with menu text (some extra text is announced for hidden menu items)
Menu items are in the swipe order.

23. Roles
Presentation
iOS
VoiceOver
Talkback
Firefox
Talkback Chrome
Windows Phone 8.1
Yes
All
Correctly ignores role for lists (probably because lists aren't supported) but not for tables and images
Aria-hidden
iOS
Correct. The item is not indicated by screen reader.
Talkback FF
Correct. The item is not indicated by screen reader
Talkback Chrome:
Windows Phone 8.1

24. Name, role, and value are announced
Roles
Sliders
iOS
VoiceOver
Talkback
Firefox
Talkback Chrome
Windows Phone 8.1
Partial
All
Name, role, and value are announced
Value cannot be changed by double tapping gesture
Slider
iOS
Name, role (adjustable), and value are announced
Adjustable gestures swipe up/down do not work
Talkback FF:
Name, role, and value are announced
Adjustable gesture double tap do not work
Talkback Chrome:
Name, role (seek control), and value are announced.
Value cannot be changed by double tapping gesture
Windows Phone 8.1
Name, role, and value are announced.

25. Name, role, and value are announced
Roles
Progressbar
iOS
VoiceOver
Talkback
Firefox
Talkback Chrome
Windows Phone 8.1
Partial No
iOS, Talkback FF, and WP 8.1
Name, role, and value are announced
When value change nothing is announced
Aria-live region could be used to control what is spoken
Progressbar
iOS
Name and value of progressbar is announced
Role is not announced
When value change announcement is unpredictable, could be a ding or could speak a number such as 1, 1, 1,
Aria-live region could be used to control what is spoken
Talkback FF:
Name, role, and value are announced
When value change nothing is announced.
Talkback Chrome:
Name is announced
Role, value, or changes in value are not announced.
Windows Phone 8.1

26. Spin buttons not available but edit box is accessible
Roles
Spinbutton
iOS
VoiceOver
Talkback
Firefox
Talkback Chrome
Windows Phone 8.1 No
Partial
iOS & Talkback Chrome
Control is completely skipped over when swiping or with explore by touch
Talkback FF
Unable to change values or enter value as keyboard go away in editable spinner control
WP 8.1
Spin buttons not available but edit box is accessible
Spinner (spinbutton)
iOS
Control is completely skipped over when swiping or with explore by touch.
Talkback FF:
Name, role, and value are announced.
Unable to change values or enter value as keyboard go away in editable spinner control
Talkback Chrome:
Windows Phone 8.1
Name, role, and value are announced. Value is incorrect
Unable to change values with buttons, was able to enter directly into edit field

27. Change of selection is not automatically announced
Roles
Page Tabs
iOS
VoiceOver
Talkback
Firefox
Talkback Chrome
Windows Phone 8.1
Yes No
Windows Phone 8.1
Change of selection is not automatically announced
Position of tabs is not announced
iOS
Role and name of tab indicated
Position in set announced such as 2 of 4.
Select tab announced as "selected"
Presence of tab panels is not indicated
Talkback FF:
Select/expanded tab announced as "selected"
Talkback Chrome:
Role, accessible name, and selection are not indicated.
Text of tab is announced.
Windows Phone 8.1
Role, page tab text, and selection state is indicated
Text of tab is also in swipe order
Change of selection is not automatically announced.

28. Name, role, boundaries of toolbar are not indicated Talkback Chrome
Roles
Toolbar
iOS
VoiceOver
Talkback
Firefox
Talkback Chrome
Windows Phone 8.1
Partial
Yes
iOS and WP 8.1
Name, role, boundaries of toolbar are not indicated
Talkback Chrome
Accessible name is announced
Role and ending boundary are not indicated
Toolbar
Name, role, boundaries of toolbar are not indicated
Items in toolbar such as buttons are indicated as such
Talkback FF
Works as expected, When navigating to the toolbar, it is announced along with the buttons.
Talkback Chrome:
Accessible name is announced.
Role is not indicated.
Ending boundary is not indicated.
Windows Phone 8.1

29. Tree role isn't announced but leaf node roles are
iOS
VoiceOver
Talkback
Firefox
Talkback Chrome
Windows Phone 8.1 No
Yes
WP 8.1
Tree role isn't announced but leaf node roles are
Toolbar
Name, role, boundaries of toolbar are not indicated
Items in toolbar such as buttons are indicated as such
Talkback FF
Works as expected, When navigating to the toolbar, it is announced along with the buttons.
Talkback Chrome:
Accessible name is announced.
Role is not indicated.
Ending boundary is not indicated.
Windows Phone 8.1

30. Text is announced when swiped to or referenced by aria-describedby
Roles
Tooltip
iOS
VoiceOver
Talkback
Firefox
Talkback Chrome
Windows Phone 8.1
Yes
All
Text is announced when swiped to or referenced by aria-describedby
Windows Phone 8.1
Bonus: Role of tooltip is announced
iOS
Role is not indicated
Text is announced when swiped to or referenced by aria-describedby.
Talkback FF:
Talkback Chrome:
Windows Phone 8.1
Text is not announced when swiped to or referenced by aria-describedby.
Toolbar role and text is announced when swiped to

31. Talkback Chrome and Windows Phone 8.1 Aria-describedby not supported
States and Properties
Input with aria-label, aria-labelledby, and aria-describedby
iOS
VoiceOver
Talkback
Firefox
Talkback Chrome
Windows Phone 8.1
Yes
Partial
Talkback Chrome and Windows Phone 8.1
Aria-describedby not supported
Input fields aria-labelledby, aria-describedby
Aria-label, aria-labelledby, and aria-describedby* are supported on swipe and in link option in rotor and indicated in the item chooser.
* Note aria-describedby is not indicated for links in item chooser.
* aria-describedby is announced after pause
Talkback FF:
aria-label, aria-labelledby, and aria-describedby is announced
Talkback Chrome:
Aria-labelledby is announced for input fields
Aria-label is announced for input fields
aria-describedby is not announced.
Windows Phone 8.1
aria-label and aria-labelledby are announced

32. State and Properties aria-live iOS VoiceOver Talkback Firefox
Talkback Chrome
Windows Phone 8.1
Yes No
aria-live
iOS
Aria-live text is announced.
Talkback FF:
aria-live text is announced
Talkback Chrome:
Windows Phone 8.1
aria-live text is not announced

33. VO identifies the buttons with aria-expanded as popup buttons.
States and Properties
aria-expanded
iOS
VoiceOver
Talkback
Firefox
Talkback Chrome
Windows Phone 8.1
Partial No
Yes
iOS 8
State is switched, expanded is announced as collapsed and collapsed as expanded
VO identifies the buttons with aria-expanded as popup buttons.
Talkback FF
State is not automatically announced on toggle
aria-expanded
iOS 8
State is switched, expanded is announced as collapsed and collapsed as expanded.
VO identifies the buttons with aria-expanded as popup buttons.
Talkback FF:
Expanded and collapsed state is announced. State is not automatically announced on toggle.
Talkback Chrome:
Expanded or collapsed state not announced. State is not automatically announced on toggle.
Windows Phone 8.1
Expanded and collapsed state is announced. State change announced as enabled.

34. No drag or drop state information is provided
States and Properties
Drag and Drop aria-dropeffect)
iOS
VoiceOver
Talkback
Firefox
Talkback Chrome
Windows Phone 8.1 No
All
No drag or drop state information is provided

35. States and Properties iOS Button only supported Talkback FF
aria-haspopup
iOS
VoiceOver
Talkback
Firefox
Talkback Chrome
Windows Phone 8.1
Partial
Yes No
iOS
Button only supported
Talkback FF
Not announced on menus
Talkback Chrome
Button, ARIA button, or input type button with haspopup indicated as dropdown list
Aria-haspopup
Only appears to indicate state of has popup on button elements, not on links, form fields, or menus
Talkback FF:
State of haspopup announced for links, buttons, input and perhaps other controls except menus
Talkback Chrome:
Not announced on input, links, span or radio buttons
Button, ARIA button, or input type button with haspopup indicated as dropdown list
Windows Phone 8.1
Not announced on any controlsf

36. aria-invalid not announced
States and Properties
aria-required and aria-invalid
iOS
VoiceOver
Talkback
Firefox
Talkback Chrome
Windows Phone 8.1
Yes
Partial No
Talkback FF and Chrome
aria-invalid not announced
Aria-required/Aria-invalid (form fields)
iOS
Indicated state of required or invalid when swiping to element.
Not indicated in item chooser
Indicated when moving by rotor setting for form field
Talkback FF:
aria-required announced
aria-invalid not announced
Talkback Chrome:
aria-required is not announced for controls such as input, select, or button
Windows Phone 8.1
aria-invalid and aria-required are not announced.

37. Language varies from dimmed, disabled, to unavailable
States and Properties
aria-disabled
iOS
VoiceOver
Talkback
Firefox
Talkback Chrome
Windows Phone 8.1
Yes
All
Language varies from dimmed, disabled, to unavailable
Aria-disabled
iOS
Indicated as dimmed when used on form controls (e.g. buttons)
Talkback FF:
Unavailable announced for controls such as buttons and edit boxes
Talkback Chrome:
Windows Pone 8.1
Disabled announced for controls such as buttons and edit boxes

38. Correct. The item is not indicated by screen reader
States and Properties
aria-hidden
iOS
VoiceOver
Talkback
Firefox
Talkback Chrome
Windows Phone 8.1
Yes
All
Correct. The item is not indicated by screen reader
Aria-hidden
iOS
Correct. The item is not indicated by screen reader.
Talkback FF
Correct. The item is not indicated by screen reader
Talkback Chrome:
Windows Phone 8.1

39. Accessibility Management Platform (AMP): https://amp.ssbbartgroup.com
Resources
Accessibility Management Platform (AMP):
ARIA Specification
SSB Labs ARIA Test Suite
Adobe Edge Inspect
ARIA Techniques for WCAG 2.0

41. Contact Us Follow Us Thank You! Slide Deck Download Jonathan Avila
Slide Deck Download
info.ssbbartgroup.com/CSUN2015
Follow Us
@SSBBARTGroup
linkedin.com/company/ SSB-BART-Group
facebook.com/ SSBBARTGroup
SSBBARTGroup.com/blog

42. About SSB BART Group Unmatched Experience Focus on Accessibility
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Real-World Strategy
Organizational Strength and Continuity
Dynamic, Forward-Thinking Intelligence
Fourteen hundred organizations (1445)
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One hundred fifty million accessibility violations (152,351,725)
Three hundred sixty-six thousand human validated accessibility violations (366,096)
Unmatched Experience
Founded in 1997 by engineers with disabilities, SSB BART Group has been in the accessibility business since before Section 508 and the WCAG existed and longer than any of our competitors. SSB has completed accessibility projects for hundreds of enterprise-class firms, has over 10,000 active AMP users and maintains a database of over 1,000 accessibility best practices across 13 core development platforms. SSB actively works with all major industry development platform vendors, assistive technology vendors, regulatory agencies and public sector organizations to constantly refine and update our understanding of the proper level of accessibility for your firm.
For clients who must comply with the Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, many clients find it helpful to know that over half of SSB’s client services staff have worked directly as staff and contractors for the Section 508 compliance teams in U.S. Federal Government agencies. This means that we have experience in both working with vendors selling to the Federal Government and as part of the workforce validating the compliance of vendor solutions provided to the Government.
Accessibility Focus
SSB BART Group only does accessibility. Other firms we commonly are compared to provide products and services that run a wide gamut, including general usability, privacy, security, brand compliance and SEO. These solutions tend to be effective as jack-of-all-trade solutions but, in practice, leave most customers working with organizations that provide a variety of services poorly. SSB’s sole focus is on providing IT accessibility compliance solutions and our team’s depth in accessibility is unmatched. Given the complexity of IT accessibility and the difficulty of implementing solutions, such a focus tends to be the only match for customers serious about rapidly and cost effectively implementing accessibility.
About half of SSB’s client services staff have disabilities, and this number is often far higher than total employees at competing companies. This means that we recommend what we know works for users with disabilities in the real world. Furthermore, this ensures that your organization can achieve compliance both with the technical and functional requirements of leading accessibility standards.
Implementation Oriented Solutions
Our organizational focus is implementing accessibility in the real world. Many accessibility companies focus on providing diagnostic information to clients often of the form "this doesn’t work in JAWS." While helpful in identifying an issue, this feedback provides no guidance on how to address the issue. In contrast, for all issues we identify, SSB provides specific, actionable guidance that can readily be implemented of the form "change this piece of code on this line." This includes providing code-level implementation and unit test guidance for all best practices in AMP and all content delivered in audits.
Our implementation focus grows out of our team’s background—a group of people that have development experience in the context of enterprise-class IT systems. Competing companies tend to specialize in web accessibility testing but with little-to-no experience in the development of enterprise-class websites, web-based applications and software. While it is important for accessibility firms to understand the inner-workings of JAWS, the world’s leading screen reader, far more benefit is provided to the customer if they understand how to modify an AJAX application so that it works properly in JAWS. This is our focus as an organization: how to make systems compliant in the real world.
In evaluating different accessibility consultants many of our clients have found that some firms live in a black-and-white world where nothing but fully compliant information technology is acceptable or tolerated. In the real world, trade-offs are required and dollars go to projects that provide the best ROI for an organization. As part of making systems compliant in the real world these constraints must be considered. As an organization, our goal is to ensure that we use your accessibility budget in an optimal fashion — ensuring that every dollar you spend on accessibility has the most impact.
Solutions That Reduce Legal Risk
SSB provides solutions that address the actual requirements of the law—rather than those that are just simple to test. Automated testing tools can only validate a sub-set of accessibility requirements and any validation process that solely uses automated testing cannot make an accurate claim of compliance. SSB utilizes automatic testing to address the set of requirements that can readily be validated using such testing and utilizes the cheapest first testing for the remaining requirements.
SSB’s approach was born out of being the first company to release a commercial accessibility validation tool, InFocus, 12 years ago. As part of that, SSB became well acquainted with the capabilities and general limitations of accessibility testing software. To address that, SSB has spent the last ten years investing in and developing the Accessibility Management Platform. AMP is focused at solving the broader problem that customers actually face, which is how to manage all the aspects of accessibility—Auditing, Training and Standards Management—over the course of many years and development cycles.
Organizational Stability and Continuity
SSB BART Group has the largest staff of W2 employees of any company of our kind. The vast majority of firms in accessibility use 1099 contractors that are hired on demand on a per-project basis. This has a significant, negative impact on the quality of work delivered, the consistency and repeatability of testing results and the accuracy of contractor work. With SSB, the people you talk to today will be available to help address your problems tomorrow. This ensures a consistent set of recommendations and allows us to develop organizational knowledge on how our accessibility solutions should be adopted to your business environment.
SSB’s size also ensures that we can staff and handle the volume of business from large customers. Smaller companies or sole consultants cannot handle the volume of work of enterprise-class customers, whether private IT manufacturers, financial institutions or large government organizations.
Knowledge That Is Up-to-Date, All the Time
SSB uses AMP to deliver all our accessibility services, meaning that AMP is a system in constant use by the largest accessibility consulting firm in the world. This gives SSB the ability to include improvements to AMP that are born through a continuous feedback loop that includes our own staff using the product for client services work on a daily basis. As new standards are deployed, new requirements identified, new implementation techniques developed and issues resolved in real world developments, these experiences and lessons are immediately provided in AMP. This ensures that customers have instant, ongoing updates to all best practices, rule sets, tests and training content in AMP. This is in sharp contrast to competing firms, where compliance data is hard-coded and updates infrequently at best.
Published and Peer Review Auditing Methodology
All SSB testing engagements conform to SSB’s Unified Audit Methodology, a mature methodology meant to ensure the relevance, accuracy and repeatability of results in a manner which ensures thorough coverage. This auditing process includes a mix of automated, manual and assistive technology validation, as well as the use of individuals with disabilities performing actual system tasks. Audits are performed against a unified set of conformance criteria based on industry best practices, public compliance requirements and internal standards relevant to the client’s compliance needs. All audits published under the methodology are immediately available in AMP and include a description of accessibility issues, media types, non-compliant code examples, compliant source code examples, recommended approaches and options for addressing issues, unit tests allowing for validation of the issues and source public standards associated with each rule.
Unmatched Support Capabilities
SSB BART Group’s support policy defines our same-day response policy on all high-priority support requests. All licensed users of AMP are covered under our support policy, which includes full support for the product and all information within it. In addition, SSB provides the following support capabilities to all customers as part of our standard engagement:
Upon sign-up, all licensed users of AMP are entitled to a free training session to understand how to use the product to the best of its abilities;
When new versions of AMP are released on a quarterly basis, free training is provided to all customers on the new version and its use;
AMP Support Hours covers standard working hours across all regional U.S. zones and can provide full 24x7 support as needed;
SSB BART Group has no less than three staff members available to support the product at any given time during the support hours;
SSB BART Group accepts support requests via telephone, or online form.
All support is provided as part of SSB’s standard AMP license—no additional support or training contracts are required.
Advocacy Group Relationships
SSB has partnered with numerous industry and advocacy groups focused on promoting accessibility to IT systems. Partner organizations focused principally on web accessibility include G3ict, W3C WCAG, and the U.S. Access Board. SSB has also partnered with the following organizations, institutions and research firms focused on general accessibility, including IT access: U.S. Business Leadership Network (USBLN), NDI, National Organization on Disability (NOD), BBI, Syracuse University, Cornell University, Buffalo University, VCU RRTC. In addition, we also have relationships with NISH, Ability One, NFB and UCP.
SSB has worked with the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) since 2001 to support advocacy activities in the blindness community. SSB launched the NFB’s Non-Visual Access (NVA) certification program in conjunction with the Federation in 2003 and provided the certification services for the first three program clients—Hewlett-Packard, Wells Fargo and the U.S. Social Security Administration—all of which remain active SSB clients. The American Action Fund for Blind Adults and Children—a proxy NFB investment vehicle—has an investment in SSB as part of SSB’s Series B stock. Finally, Ray Kurzweil, an SSB angel investor, sits on the NFB board and owns an NFB co-developed company for the Kurzweil reader. 42