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Website Accessibility Updated From WCAG 2.0 to 2.1 (are you ready?)

Websites & Accessibility

Website Accessibility Updated From WCAG 2.0 to 2.1 (are you ready?)

Eric Cook by Eric Cook

Chief Digital Strategist

Contact author Full biography

Full biography

Eric considers himself a “recovering banker” of 15 years, who for the past eleven years has focused his efforts as a digital strategist, helping his clients (mostly community banks) better understand and leverage the power of the Internet as a strategic business tool. An award-winning web designer with WSI, the world’s largest digital agency network, Eric is a two-time contributing author to the best-selling book Digital Minds – 12 Things Every Business Needs to Know About Digital Marketing. Consistently rated in the top five digital marketing books on Amazon, the book is in its second edition and available in three languages.

A sought-after, nationally-recognized speaker in the financial services industry, Eric is a member of the National Speakers Association and loves sharing his knowledge to help educate and inspire others. He is the co-creator of a weekly webinar show called Free Webinar Wednesdays, founder of the Banker Education Series webinar series, and serves as a faculty member at several banking schools around the country where he teaches bankers about digital strategy, online marketing and social media. He is a WSI Certified LinkedIn Professional and holds undergraduate degrees in business administration and psychology. While working full-time as a community banker, Eric earned his MBA and completed the three-year Graduate School of Banking program in Madison, WI in 2003.

Professionally, Eric helps his clients in all areas of digital marketing, which includes mobile-responsive web development, search engine marketing and optimization, social media strategies, e-mail communication, and “big-picture” digital strategic planning. He’s the co-founder of DigitalRCP.com, a service created to help businesses understand their risk when it comes to operating in today’s digital world. When he’s not helping his clients succeed online, he can typically be found on one of his many bicycles training for his next mountain bike/triathlon race or spending time with his wife and two (very spoiled) golden retrievers.

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Summary:

As you may know, web accessibility continues to be a “hot topic” these days (especially for banks).

As you may know, web accessibility continues to be a “hot topic” these days (especially for banks). There are a number of ways to address the issue to ensure an accessible experience for your site visitors, and many of our clients have opted to engage AudioEye to help ensure website accessibility. In case you missed the announcement, W3C’s WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) recently updated from version 2.0 to 2.1. Given that version 2.0 was established in 2008, the updates are not much of a surprise since the Internet has changed just a bit over the past 10 years.

For those clients who are using AudioEye, WCAG 2.1 AA tests are being added to their Ally Managed Service as part of the ongoing accessibility compliance process. As we strive to maintain substantial conformance with the latest standards and guidelines, AudioEye will, over the coming weeks and months, be conducting 2.1 testing. As updates and fixes may be required, remediations will be applied dynamically through the AudioEye overlay solution. For any outstanding conformance requirement not remediated dynamically, AudioEye will notify WSI of the suggested updates and how they further improve accessibility and usability for your users. 

If you’d like to see what’s new in WCAG 2.1 directly from the W3C, you can read the W3C’s what’s new information as well. For a complete list of all the current WCAG requirements (and what AudioEye is evaluating for you as part of their ongoing service), you’ll want to visit this page for the complete listing.

If you’re an AudioEye user, congrats. Given these recent changes, your decision is certainly validated as one of the best ways to ensure your website meets current (and new) accessibility requirements. If you’re not using AudioEye and need some help developing a plan, let us know. We’ve created an ADA resource section for your convenience with some helpful information that can get you started. Or, if you know of other website owners that may need help with their accessibility challenges, be sure to pass this along and have them get in touch!

"Accessibly” Yours…
Eric

P.S. Wonder what IF you were not using AudioEye for your website accessibility? Well, you’d have to pay someone to re-test your entire site under the new 2.1 standards and generate a list of new violations. This list would then need to be reviewed, cost and time to update approved, scheduled, implemented, and then validated once done. Whew! Or… AudioEye just takes care of it all for you. :-)

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