Stemettes
This project focuses on evaluating the accessibility of the STEMettes website, a social enterprise dedicated to supporting women and non-binary people in STEM careers.
My role involved conducting an in-depth accessibility audit to identify barriers faced by users with disabilities and impairments when accessing information on the site. The evaluation process included manual reviews, automated tools, and accessibility testing with assistive technologies, ensuring compliance with WCAG 2.1 guidelines. The goal was to uncover usability issues and propose solutions that create equal opportunities for all users, enabling STEMettes to reach and support a wider audience.
Human-Computer Information Architecture Project
Project Timeline
Context
📋 Overview
This project focuses on conducting an accessibility evaluation of the STEMettes website, a social enterprise committed to supporting women and non-binary individuals in STEM fields. The goal was to identify accessibility barriers faced by users with disabilities and impairments and recommend solutions to enhance usability. The evaluation utilized manual reviews, automated testing tools, and assistive technologies, comparing findings against WCAG 2.1 guidelines. The report highlights key accessibility issues, such as navigation challenges and content access, and proposes improvements to ensure that the STEMettes platform is inclusive and user-friendly for all audiences.
👩💻 Stakeholders
Throughout this project, I collaborated closely with key stakeholders to ensure the accessibility evaluation was thorough and impactful.
I regularly gathered input from the STEMettes team to align the audit with their organizational goals and ensure that the recommended changes would support their mission. Feedback from peers and accessibility consultants was crucial in refining the evaluation process and identifying key usability issues.
Additionally, I worked with developers to address technical challenges, focusing on implementing accessibility improvements and ensuring the site met WCAG 2.1 standards for seamless, inclusive user experiences.
Problem
⚡️ The Challenge: How did users with disabilities or impairments navigate the website, and what challenges did they encounter when accessing content or key information?
⚡️ The Challenge: What accessibility barriers were present in the interface elements, and how did they impact users’ ability to interact with the site?
⚡️ The Challenge: Were there any repeated usability issues across different pages that caused frustration or prolonged the user journey for individuals with impairments?
Testing Process
📚 Research
The evaluation focused on specific pages of the website, including the
Homepage, Meet the Team, Events Page, and Newsletter sign-up.
The findings were reviewed and assessed against WCAG 2.1 success criteria, with a focus on achieving level AA conformance. To identify accessibility issues, the evaluation employed a combination of manual reviews, automated checks using the WAVE tool, testing with assistive technologies (AT), and guideline references.
Methods
T E S T I N G
The manual testing was directed on a laptop via Windows 11, on Chrome version 108.0.5359.98. The procedure follows the W3C ‘Easy Checks’ review, addressing a step-by-step check starting from top to bottom of the page while interacting with each UI element and information found.
The automatic testing via WAVE, an evaluating tool that identifies accessibility errors, with suggested solutions. This tool was applied to each page, and the indicated accessibility problems found were manually reviewed.
accessibility tools built into the device/browser: the narrator version of Windows 11, keyboard, and zoom tool on Google Chrome with levels 100%, 150%, and 200%.
T E S T I N G
Personas
The personas used in this evaluation were sourced from the Gov.UK website, each selected to represent different disabilities and impairments:
Ashleigh: A partially sighted screen reader user, representing visual impairment.
Pawel: An individual with Asperger’s, representing cognitive disability.
Christopher: A user with rheumatoid arthritis, representing motor disability.
Saleem: A profoundly deaf user, representing hearing impairment.
An additional persona, Emily, was included to reflect the STEMettes mission of empowering young women and non-binary individuals. Emily, who has cerebral palsy and lives independently, was sourced from the Rosenfeld website and represents motor disability.
T E S T I N G
Severity Levels
The accessibility issues found from the different tests were compared with each other to locate repetition errors of the same UI element/compartment or information. Allowing the understanding of the severity of the same issue in different ways.
Each concern was given a severity rate along with an appointed persona and matched with the WCAG 2.1.
Severity Scale Table
Findings
Outcomes
😊 Improved Accessibility Awareness:
The evaluation highlighted critical accessibility issues, enabling the STEMettes team to understand the specific barriers users with disabilities face when accessing content, such as visual impairments and motor disabilities.
👁️ Actionable Recommendations
The assessment provided clear, actionable solutions to address high-priority issues, such as enhancing navigation and improving compatibility with assistive technologies, ensuring better inclusion for all users.
Takeaways
🔑 Accessibility Must Be Prioritized Early
Ensuring that accessibility is a core consideration from the beginning of website development can prevent critical issues from arising later, making the site more inclusive from the outset.
🔑 Regular Audits Improve User Experience
Conducting regular accessibility evaluations helps to identify and resolve issues over time, ensuring that all users, regardless of ability, can navigate and interact with the site effectively.
Download here the report