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• How (and Why) to Run a Web Accessibility Audit in 2024

  7 mai 2024, par Erin

  When most businesses design their websites, they primarily think about aesthetics, not accessibility. However, not everyone who visits your website has the same abilities or access needs. Eight percent of the US population has visual impairments.

  The last thing you want is to alienate website visitors with a bad experience because your site isn’t up to accessibility standards. (And with growing international regulation, risk fines or lawsuits as a result.)

  A web accessibility audit can help you identify and fix any issues for users with impaired vision, hearing or other physical disabilities. In this article, we’ll cover how to conduct such an audit efficiently for your website in 2024.

  What is a web accessibility audit ?

  A web accessibility audit is a way to evaluate the usability of your website for users with visual, auditory or physical impairments, as well as cognitive disabilities or neurological issues. The goal is to figure out how accessible your website is to each of these affected groups and solve any issues that come up.

  To complete an audit, you use digital tools and various manual accessibility testing processes to ensure your site meets modern web accessibility standards.

  Why is a web accessibility audit a must in 2024 ?

  For far too long, many businesses have not considered the experiences of those with disabilities. The growing frustrations of affected internet users have led to a new focus on web accessibility laws and enforcement.

  Lawsuits related to the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) reached all-time highs in 2023 — over 4,500 digital-related lawsuits were filed. The EU has also drawn up the European Accessibility Act (EAC), which goes into effect in June 2025.

  But at the end of the day, it’s not about accessibility legislation. It’s about doing right by people.

  

  This video by voice actor, YouTuber, and surfer Pete Gustin demonstrates why accessibility measures are so important. If buttons, navigation and content sections aren’t properly labelled, sight-impaired people who rely on speech-to-text to browse the web can’t comfortably interact with your site.

  And you’re worse off for it. You can lose some of your best customers and advocates this way. 

  With stronger enforcement of accessibility regulations in the US and new regulations coming into effect in the EU in 2025, the time to act is now. It’s not enough to “keep accessibility in mind” — you must take concrete steps to improve it.

  Who should lead a web accessibility audit ?

  Ideally, you want to hire a third-party web accessibility expert to lead the audit. They can guide you through multiple stages of manual accessibility testing to ensure your site meets regulations and user needs. 

  Experienced accessibility auditors are familiar with common pitfalls and can help you avoid them. They ensure you meet the legal requirements with proper solutions, not quick fixes.

  If this isn’t an option, find someone with relevant experience within your company. And involve someone with “skin in the game” in the process. Hire someone with visual impairments to usability test your site. Don’t just do automated tests or “put yourself in their shoes.” Make sure the affected users can use your site without issues.

  Automated vs. manual audits and the danger of shortcuts

  While there are automated audits, they only check for the bare minimum :

  • Do your images have alt tags ? (They don’t check if the alt tag is descriptive or just SEO junk text.)
  • Are clickable buttons identified with text for visually impaired users ?
  • Is your text size adjustable ?
  • Are your background and foreground colours accessible for colour-blind users ? Is there a sufficient contrast ratio ?

  

  They don’t dive into the user journey (and typically can’t access login-locked parts of your site). They can be a good starting point, but it’s a bad idea to rely completely on automated audits.

  They’ll miss more complex issues like :

  • Dynamic content and animated elements or videos that could put people with epilepsy at risk of seizures
  • A navigational flow that is unnecessarily challenging for users with impairments
  • Video elements without proper captions

  So, don’t rely too much on automated tests and audits. Many lawsuits for ADA infractions are against companies that think they’ve already solved the problem. For example, 30% of 2023 lawsuits were against sites that used accessibility overlays.

  Key elements of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)

  The international standard for web accessibility is the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). In the most recent version, WCAG 2.2, there are new requirements for visual elements and focus and other updates.

  Here’s a quick overview of the key priorities of WCAG :

  

  Perceivable : Any user can read or listen to your site’s content

  The first priority is for any user to be able to perceive the actual content on your site. To be compliant, you need to make these adjustments and more :

  • Use text that scales with browser settings.
  • Avoid relying on colour contrasts to communicate something.
  • Ensure visual elements are explained in text.
  • Offer audio alternatives for things like CAPTCHA.
  • Form fields and interactive elements are properly named.

  Operable : Any user can navigate the site and complete tasks without issue

  The second priority is for users to navigate your website and complete tasks. Here are some of the main considerations for this section :

  • Navigation is possible through keyboard and text-to-speech interfaces.
  • You offer navigation tools to bypass repeated blocks of content.
  • Buttons are properly titled and named.
  • You give impaired users enough time to finish processes without timing out.
  • You allow users to turn off unnecessary animations (and ensure none include three flashes or more within one second).
  • Links have a clear purpose from their alt text (and context).

  Understandable : Any user can read and understand the content

  The third priority is making the content understandable. You need to communicate as simply and as clearly as possible. Here are a few key points :

  • Software can determine the default language of each page.
  • You use a consistent method to explain jargon or difficult terms.
  • You introduce the meaning of unfamiliar abbreviations and acronyms.
  • You offer tools to help users double-check and correct input.
  • The reading grade is not higher than grade 9. If it is, you must offer an alternative text with a lower grade.
  • Use consistent and predictable formatting and navigation.

  This intro to accessibility guidelines should help you see the wide range of potential accessibility issues. Accessibility is not just about screen readers — it’s about ensuring a good user experience for users with a wide range of disabilities.

  Note : If you’re not hiring a third-party expert for the manual accessibility audit, this introduction isn’t enough. You need to familiarise yourself with all 50 success criteria in WCAG 2.2.

  How to do your first web accessibility audit

  Ready to find and fix the accessibility issues across your website ? Follow the steps outlined below to do a successful accessibility audit.

  Start with an automated accessibility test

  To point you in the right direction, start with a digital accessibility checker. There are many free alternatives, including :

  • Accessibility Checker
  • Silktide accessibility checker
  • AAArdvark

  When choosing a tool, check it’s up-to-date with the newest accessibility guidelines. Many accessibility evaluation tools are still based on the WCAG 2.1 version rather than WCAG 2.2.

  The tool will give you a basic evaluation of the accessibility level of your site. A free report can quickly identify common issues with navigation, labelling, colour choices and more. 

  But this is only good as a starting point. Remember that even paid versions of these testing tools are limited and cannot replace a manual audit.

  Look for common issues

  The next step is to manually look for common issues that impact your site’s level of accessibility :

  • Undescriptive alt text
  • Colour combinations (and lack of ability to change background and foreground colours)
  • Unscalable text
  • Different site content sections that are not properly labelled

  The software you use to create your site can lead to many of these issues. Is your content management system (CMS) compliant with ADA or WCAG ? If not, you may want to move to a CMS before continuing the audit.

  Pinpoint customer journeys and test them for accessibility 

  After you’ve fixed common issues, it’s essential to put the actual customer journey to the test. Explore your most important journeys with behavioural analytics tools like session recordings and funnel analysis.

  Analysing funnel reports lets you quickly identify each page that usually contributes to a sale. You will also have an overview of the most popular funnels to evaluate for accessibility.

  If your current web analytics platform doesn’t offer behavioural reports like these, Matomo can help. Our privacy-friendly web analytics solution includes funnel reports, session recordings, A/B testing, form analytics, heatmaps and more.

  Try Matomo for Free

  Get the web insights you need, without compromising data accuracy.

  Start for free

  No credit card required

  If you don’t have the budget to test every page individually, this is the perfect place to start. You want to ensure that users with disabilities have no issues completing the main tasks on your site. 

  Don’t focus solely on your web pages 

  Accessibility barriers can also exist outside of your standard web pages. So ensure that other file formats like PDFs and videos are also accessible. 

  Remember that downloadable materials are also part of your digital experience. Always consider the needs of individuals with disabilities when accessing things like case studies or video tutorials. 

  Highlight high-priority issues in a detailed report

  To complete the audit, you need to summarise and highlight high-priority issues. In a larger company, this will be in the form of a report. W3’s Web Accessibility Initiative offers a free accessibility report template and an online tool to generate a report.

  For smaller teams, it may make sense to input issues directly into the product backlog or a task list. Then, you can tackle the issues, starting with high-priority pages identified earlier in this process.

  Avoid quick fixes and focus on sustainable improvement

  As mentioned, AI-powered overlay solutions aren’t compliant and put you at risk for lawsuits. It’s not enough to install a quick accessibility tool and pat yourself on the back.

  And it’s not just about accessibility compliance. These solutions provide a disjointed experience that alienates potential users. 

  The point of a digital accessibility audit is to identify issues and provide a better experience to all your users. So don’t try to cut corners. Do the work required to implement solutions that work seamlessly for everyone. Invest in a long-term accessibility remediation process.

  Deliver a frictionless experience while gaining insight into your users

  An accessibility audit is crucial to ensure an inclusive experience — that a wide variety of users can read and interact with your site.

  But what about the basic usability of your website ? Are you sure the experience is without friction ? Matomo’s behavioural analytics tools can show how users interact with your website.

  For example, heatmaps can show you where users are clicking — which can help you identify a pattern, like many users mistaking a visual element for a button.

  Plus, our privacy-friendly web analytics are compliant with GDPR, CCPA and other data privacy regulations. That helps protect you against privacy-related lawsuits, just as an accessibility audit protects you against ADA lawsuits.

  And it never hurts that your users know you respect their privacy. Try Matomo free for 21-days. No credit card required.

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• Custom Segmentation Guide : How it Works & Segments to Test

  13 novembre 2023, par Erin — Analytics Tips, Uncategorized

  Struggling to get the insights you’re looking for with premade reports and audience segments in your analytics ?

  Custom segmentation can help you better understand your customers, app users or website visitors, but only if you know what you’re doing.

  You can derive false insights with the wrong segments, leading your marketing campaigns or product development in the wrong direction.

  In this article, we’ll break down what custom segmentation is, useful custom segments to consider, how new privacy laws affect segmentation options and how to create these segments in an analytics platform.

  What is custom segmentation ?

  Custom segmentation is when you divide your audience (customers, users, website visitors) into bespoke segments of your own design, not premade segments designed by the analytics or marketing platform provider.

  To do this, you single out “custom segment input” — data points you will use to pinpoint certain users. For example, it could be everyone who has visited a certain page on your site.

  

  Segmentation isn’t just useful for targeting marketing campaigns and also for analysing your customer data. Creating segments is a great way to dive deeper into your data beyond surface-level insights.

  You can explore how various factors impact engagement, conversion rates, and customer lifetime value. These insights can help guide your higher-level strategy, not just campaigns.

  How custom segments can help your business

  As the global business world clamours to become more “data-driven,” even smaller companies collect all sorts of data on visitors, users, and customers.

  However, inexperienced organisations often become “data hoarders” without meaningful insights. They have in-house servers full of data or gigabytes stored by Google Analytics and other third-party providers.

  

  One way to leverage this data is with standard customer segmentation models. This can help you get insights into your most valuable customer groups and other standard segments.

  Custom segments, in turn, can help you dive deeper. They help you unlock insights into the “why” of certain behaviours. They can help you segment customers and your audience to figure out :

  • Why and how someone became a loyal customer
  • How high-order-value customers interact with your site before purchases
  • Which behaviours indicate audience members are likely to convert
  • Which traffic sources drive the most valuable customers

  This specific insight’s power led Gartner to predict that 70% of companies will shift focus from “big data” to “small and wide” by 2025. The lateral detail is what helps inform your marketing strategy. 

  You don’t need the same volume of data if you’re analysing and segmenting it effectively.

  Custom segment inputs : 6 data points you can use to create valuable custom segments 

  To help you get started, here are six useful data points you can use as a basis to create segments — AKA customer segment inputs :

  

  Visits to certain pages

  A basic data point that’s great for custom segments is visits to certain pages. Create segments for popular middle-of-funnel pages and compare their engagement and conversion rates. 

  For example, if a user visits a case study page, you can compare their likelihood to convert vs. other visitors.

  This is a type of behavioural segmentation, but it is the easiest custom segment to set up in terms of analysis and marketing efforts.

  Visitors who perform certain actions

  The other important type of behavioural segment is visitors or users who take certain actions. Think of things like downloading a file, clicking a link, playing a video or scrolling a certain amount.

  For instance, you can create a segment of all visitors who have downloaded a white paper. This can help you explore, for example, what drives someone to download a white paper. You can look at the typical user journey and make it easier for them to access the white paper — especially if your sales reps indicate many inbound leads mention it as a key driver of their interest.

  User devices

  Device-based segmentation lets you compare engagement and conversion rates on mobile, desktop and tablets. You can also get insights into their usage patterns and potential issues with certain mobile elements.

  

  This is one aspect of technographic segmentation, where you segment based on users’ hardware or software. You can also create segments based on browser software or even specific versions.

  Loyal or high-value customers

  The best way to get more loyal or high-value customers is to explore their journey in more detail. These types of segments can help you better understand your ideal customers and how they act on your site.

  You can then use this insight to alter your campaigns or how you communicate with your target audience.

  For example, you might notice that high-value customers tend to come from a certain source. You can then focus your marketing efforts on this source to reach more of your ideal customers.

  Visitor or customer source

  You need to track the results if you’re investing in marketing (like an influencer campaign or a sponsored post) outside platforms with their own analytics.

  

  Before you can create a reliable segment, you need to make sure that you use campaign tracking parameters to reliably track the source. You can use our free campaign tracking URL builder for that.

  Demographic segments — location (country, state) and more

  Web analytics tools, such as Matomo, use visitors’ IP addresses to pinpoint their location more accurately by cross-referencing with a database of known and estimated IP locations. In addition, these tools can detect a visitor’s location through the language settings in their browser. 

  This can help create segments based on location or language. By exploring these trends, you can identify patterns in behaviour, tailor your content to specific audiences, and adapt your overall strategy to better meet the preferences and needs of your diverse visitor base.

  How new privacy laws affect segmentation options

  Over the past few years, new legislation regarding privacy and customer data has been passed globally. The most notable privacy laws are the GDPR in the EU, the CCPA in California and the VCDPA in Virginia.

  

  For most companies, it can save a lot of work and future headaches to choose a GDPR-compliant web analytics solution not only streamlines operations, saving considerable effort and preventing future headaches, but also ensures peace of mind by guaranteeing the collection of compliant and accurate data. This approach allows companies to maintain compliance with privacy regulations while remaining firmly committed to a data-driven strategy.

  Create your very own custom segments in Matomo (while ensuring compliance and data accuracy)

  Crafting precise marketing messages and optimising ROI is crucial, but it becomes challenging without the right tools, especially when it comes to maintaining accurate data.

  That’s where Matomo comes in. Our privacy-friendly web analytics platform is GDPR-compliant and ensures accurate data, empowering you to effortlessly create and analyse precise custom segments.

  If you want to improve your marketing campaigns while remaining GDPR-compliant, start your 21-day free trial of Matomo. No credit card required.