At Public-i, we’re committed to ensuring that our client websites are accessible. We regularly review our sites to ensure that they comply with public sector accessibility regulations and the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 AA standard.
Every two years, our websites are also tested by a third-party organisation called Shaw Trust. They use a combination of automated evaluation tools and manual testing with assistive technologies to conduct a comprehensive accessibility audit.
Accessibility and other webcasting solutions
Accessibility is a legal requirement for public sector organisations. Public-i’s webcasting solutions include a wide range of accessibility features such as:
- Subtitles and transcripts
- An accessibility statement page and feedback form
- An accessibility settings page in Connect admin
- A Style Manager page in Connect admin that checks colour contrast
- Detailed accessibility documentation in KnowledgeBase
Many of these features are not present in other webcasting services such as YouTube. When they are present, they are usually more basic, less accurate, and not as regularly tested and updated as Public-i’s solution. In addition, complex websites like YouTube are more difficult for screen readers and assistive technologies to navigate, and not as easy to customise for public sector use.
Public-i microsites offer transcript, subtitles, agenda points, speakers profile, documents attachment, presentation, Twitter, feedback form,…
Following the last Shaw Trust audit in November 2022, we’ve now released a number of accessibility improvements.
Alt text for webcast thumbnails
Describing the content of images is very important for users with visual impairment. You can now add alt text to your webcast thumbnails which will be used by screen reading software to describe the image. You can add alt text to the default thumbnail image or customise it for individual webcasts.
Customise alt text for image thumbnails on General settings
Customise alt text for image thumbnails on individual webcast settings
Link styling
The Shaw Trust audit highlighted the importance of ensuring that all links were visually evident and clearly distinguishable from any surrounding text. To address this, we’ve added two new features to the Style Manager admin page. You can now underline your text links and check that your link colours have the correct contrast ratio to the page background and body text.
AA colour contrast checker and link underline option on the site’s Style Manager
View of homepage with text links underlined and AA colour contrast
Technical improvements
In addition to these changes, we’ve also implemented a range of technical code improvements to provide more accurate information to screen readers and make our page content and feedback forms easier to navigate for assistive technologies.
Accreditation
Shaw Trust is currently reviewing our improvements and we expect our accessibility accreditation to be updated in the next few weeks. Our acceditation certificate is available here: https://www.accessibility-services.co.uk/certificates/public-i/
Future updates
Accessibility is an ever-moving target, and we expect to release more improvements in the next 12 months. As ever, we’ll keep you up-to-date with any new developments. Please don’t hesitate to contact your Account Manager if you have any accessibility questions or concerns. For example we can show you how turn on subtitles for your meetings.
