How we test www.cranfield.ac.uk

A selection of sample pages of www.cranfield.ac.uk was audited. The pages selected cover all of our various page templates/structures.

The website is built using a content management system and each page uses content components and HTML markup which is repeated across the site. Any non-compliance found on one page would be repeated on other pages using these components and templates. This method ensured that we cover not only the most used pages but also can easily identify and globally fix issues across the website.

Sample page templates included in the manual and automated review supported by evaluation tools were as follows:

  • Academic profile
  • Bursary
  • Capability
  • Case study
  • Centre
  • Course
  • Event
  • Facility
  • Landing
  • Research project
  • Short course
  • Studentship
  • Testimonial
  • Theme

Audit process

The internal audit on sample pages have been subjected to the following process:

  • Automated review support by a selection of tools.
  • A manual review based WCAG Checklist and supported by auditing tools.

Why we test like this

The audit process was conducted by our internal web team, as we do not have a dedicated accessibility resource. This approach was decided upon based on the size of the website, time, resources and funding the organization had available at the time.

How we monitor accessibility

A fully automated website audit is also done remotely on weekly basis. The test is carried out by Site Improve https://siteimprove.com/en-gb/accessibility/. This approach produces allow us to monitor overall accessibility of the website and target pages with issues to be addressed.

We also use other tools such as axe DevTools to check each page variant or new components that have been created.