Accessibility Toolkit - Accessibility Maturity Audits

Inclusive design requires more than compliance with technical guidelines such as WCAG 2.2, which we address in our accessibility audits. To achieve accessible digital services in the long run, organisations must create and maintain internal awareness of accessibility and establish policies and procedures that ensure responsibility for accessibility is understood and enacted at various levels of the organisation.

Having a solid accessibility management process will ensure that consistent inclusive design is applied to all your products and services, even as you revise products and welcome new staff and suppliers.

Objectively evaluating how well your own organisation manages accessibility across the board can be challenging. This is why our independent, comprehensive accessibility maturity audits are invaluable for organisations seeking to improve their accessibility.

Why audit your accessibility maturity

When digital accessibility and inclusive design thinking are embedded, an organisation can reap the benefits of integrating accessibility as part of its routine operations.

User Vision provides a comprehensive audit of how well your organisation currently governs digital accessibility. We highlight areas of strength and, more importantly, identify opportunities to improve your organisation's accessibility maturity.

Our audit is based on internationally established best practices for accessibility management. These frameworks outline the core policies and processes that organisations should have in place to support long-term accessibility.

How we conduct our Accessibility Maturity Audits

Senior User Vision consultants conduct a thorough evaluation to determine your organisation’s digital accessibility maturity aligned with ISO standard 30071-1: Code of practice for creating accessible ICT products and services. We also consider the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) draft Accessibility Maturity Model. Drawing on these insights, we assess your accessibility maturity across four key pillars:

• Strategy & Culture: How well is accessibility and inclusive design aligned to your growth strategy?
• Tools & Technology: What tools and technology does the organisation use to ensure inclusive design and accessibility is considered?
• People & Skills: How effectively does the organisation invest in and develop a multidisciplinary team with the necessary skills to drive and sustain accessibility initiatives?
• Process & Methodology: What approaches and processes are in place to deliver accessibility improvements?

The maturity levels represent where your organisation is at the point of audit, ranging from starting out to having inclusive digital design embedded into everything you do. These scores are based on the compiled survey scores and interview insights to give clarity and a benchmark to measure improvements against.

In our reporting, we also establish the areas that your organisation should focus on to improve digital inclusivity practices and procedures over the coming 12 months, providing clear targets to measure success and improvements going forwards.

The benefits of understanding your accessibility maturity

Overall, our audit provides you with:

• Insight on where the gaps are in your accessibility strategy & culture, the tools and technology you use, the processes that support these and the people and skillsets that can bring about positive change.
• Your current maturity level and maturity score.
• Advice on how to improve your score across the areas of focus.
• Clarity on how best to create positive change in achieving long-term accessibility goals.

We also provide a clear roadmap for improvements and integrating accessibility considerations into your 'business as usual' processes, including both client-facing initiatives and internal practices for employees.

With an enhanced understanding of the status, strengths, and weaknesses of your current processes, you can take practical steps for improvement. Over time you will embed accessibility into routine operations and improve accessibility for both clients and employees.

Ready to get started?

Gain a deep understanding of how well your accessibility governance compares with best practice through our comprehensive accessibility maturity audits. Contact us to learn more about how this process can benefit your organisation.