Accessibility
Accessibility plays a crucial role in the design of Graphnet solutions along with maintaining the key principles of clinical safety, information governance and information security. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are an internationally recognised set of recommendations for improving web accessibility. They are overseen by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) who run a Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI).
Graphnet aims to conform to the WCAG 2.1 guidelines to an AA level wherever possible in the areas of Perceivability, Operation, Navigation, Understanding & Robustness. The guidelines outline how to make digital services, websites and apps accessible to everyone, including users with impairments to:
- Vision – for example severely sight impaired (blind), sight impaired (partially sighted) or those who are colour-blind
- Hearing - people who are either deaf or hard of hearing
- Mobility – for those who find it difficult to use a mouse or keyboard
- Thinking and understanding – i.e. people with dyslexia, autism or learning difficulties
Where web standards are not appropriate, for example in relation to our native mobile applications, we follow guidance from W3C on mobile accessibility mapping. This describes how the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines and its principles, guidelines, and success criteria can be applied native apps. It provides informative guidance but does not set requirements.
What we are doing to improve accessibility
We take the following measures to improve accessibility of our products:
- regularly audit our applications and publish a Roadmap for changes that will improve functionality
- treat accessibility as part of our Product lifecycle from Design to implementation and support
- integrate accessibility testing into our Quality Assurance processes
- have appointed a senior manager as a responsible person for accessibility
- ensure accessibility training is available for all our staff upon request
- include people with disabilities in our design personas
- always looking for innovative ways that use the latest technology to improve user experience.
