Executive Summary

This report details the findings from an internal audit conducted to assess the compliance of the ecoPortal Web Application (application) with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 AA Standard. Recognising the importance of digital accessibility, this audit aimed to ensure that the application is accessible to users with disabilities, thereby adhering to the principles of inclusivity and universal design. The audit was guided by the four foundational principles of WCAG: Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, and Robust (POUR).

Audit Scope and Methodology

The scope of this audit encompassed a comprehensive review of the application's web content, design, and interactive features limiting it to the core feature of ecoPortal Pages. The methodology involved both automated tools and manual testing strategies to evaluate the application's compliance. Key areas of focus included text alternatives for non-text content, keyboard accessibility, readability, navigation consistency, and compatibility with assistive technologies. The predominant tool used for measuring self compliance is ARC Toolkit.

Findings

1. Perceivable: The application provides text alternatives for non-text content via alternative attributes and supports content presentation in different formats. ecoPortal as a data controller instead of owner does not hold responsibility over captioning additional media content, this is the responsibility of the data owner.

2. Operable: The application is navigable via keyboard and provides sufficient time for users to interact with content. No keyboard issues related to this audit’s scope were discovered during inspection.

3. Understandable: The application's text content is readable and understandable. The logical structure of information and operability of user interface components are consistent. Issues related to the predictability of web page navigation were not identified during this audit.

4. Robust: The applications ability to function on a wide range of assistive devices was not considered as apart of this report’s scope.

Compliance Status

Based on the internal audit findings, the application reports self-compliance with WCAG 2.1 AA standards. It is important to note that this self-reported status is not verified by external certification as of the date of this report.

Evidence

Results from internal testing are broken into three categories:

Errors are results where accessibility issues are found, translated as Minor and Major Non-Conformities (NC's).

Alerts are manually verified Room for Improvements (RFI's) that do not suffice as non-conformities to the standard.

Best Practices are results that are not part of the guidelines but may impact assistive technology users and the usability of the site.

The tests are run against a defined best practice ecoPortal page and the results are attached in Appendix A as Test run against an ecoPortal page. ecoPortal has no observed Minor or Major NC's within pages and is therefore self-reporting as compliant with WCAG 2.1 AA.

Recommendations

1. Robust: Establish an ongoing review process to ensure compatibility with new assistive technologies and user agents as they become available.

Conclusion

ecoPortal’s commitment to digital accessibility is evident through its adherence to the WCAG 2.1 AA standard across the pages feature.

Appendix A