The Swiss Accessibility Checklist and its explanations show the necessary technical, design, and editorial measures for creating accessible websites.

People with disabilities use the Internet more frequently than the average because accessible websites and apps allow autonomy in everyday life. Older people also use the Internet. Websites and apps should therefore be designed to be as accessible as possible. Digital offerings are more user-friendly and device-independent thanks to accessibility. The updated Accessibility Checklist helps you to check your website for accessibility by yourself.

• A pre-release version is available at a11y.digitaldialog.swiss (only German).
• Important note about the pre-release: All contents of the success criteria and checkpoints are already final. The navigation options, the links between success criteria and checkpoints, and similar features are still being revised.
• Once completed, the Accessibility Checklist will be available at https://accessibility.swiss.

Functions of the Accessibility Checklist 2.1

The Accessibility Checklist is a practical and web-based tool that helps you assess the current state of your website in terms of accessibility. The functions of the checklist can be summarised as follows:

• a simple and user-friendly tool for analysing the current state of your website;
• an accessibility assessment tool where checkpoints are rated as “yes, fulfilled”, “no, not fulfilled”, or “not applicable”;
• a basis for a requirements specification;
• a briefing and consultation tool for project managers;
• a “translation” of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 into a more understandable language

Target group

The target audience of the Accessibility Checklist is anyone who is or must be concerned with digital accessibility. Design, development, and content teams will benefit, as will quality assurance managers, project leaders, and other interested parties.

Content

The Accessibility Checklist is based on WCAG 2.1. These guidelines are standard for making the digital world accessible. They are consistent with other technical Internet standards. The WCAG is developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), a web technology standardisation organisation that brings together a diverse range of members, from individuals to companies, research institutions, and government institutions.

Structure

WCAG 2.1 is divided into success criteria. This structure together with the original numbering can also be found in the Accessibility Checklist. Since in practice the success criteria of levels A and AA are required for good accessibility, these are present in the checklist. Level AAA is omitted for the time being for reasons of practical relevance. In addition, the WCAG success criteria have been translated into practical recommendations for action or checkpoints. Each success criterion of levels A and AA contains:

• The original text from WCAG as well as the direct link to further explanations in WCAG.
• Explanatory texts: Detailed information on each success criterion, each in short and in detailed form. These texts improve understanding and effective handling of the guidelines in practice.
• Checkpoints: The requirements that result from the success criterion.
• Compliance assessment: For each of these checkpoints, you yourself assess whether it is fullfilled, not fulfilled, or not applicable. They are labeled “Yes”, “No” and “N/A”.
• Filters: You can filter the checkpoints according to whether they fall into design, development, content, and/or quality assurance.
• In the checklist, you can filter the checkpoints that also apply to PDF documents. WCAG generally applies to all web content. At the same time, they are written in such a way that they mainly refer to web pages (HTML) with regard to text content. This is also the case in this accessibility checklist and in the corresponding checkpoints. So, although PDF files are often not specifically mentioned, the same WCAG requirements apply to them as to HTML (where applicable).
• Implementation examples: Code examples, examples in text form.
• Testing tools: Notes on how you can test the checkpoints.

Scope

The Accessibility Checklist includes 111 questions or findings that can be evaluated as “Yes,” “No,” and “Not Applicable.”

Rights of use

The use of this “Accessibility Checklist 2.1” with explanations and glossary is explicitly authorised. It is required that the “Swiss Accessibility Checklist 2.1” is named and the reference address (URL) is given and that it is distributed under the same conditions.