DH Open Office Hours: Digital Accessibility
On April 29, 2025, the Digital Scholarship Group hosted a DH Open Office Hours event on digital accessibility in the presentation space within the Centers for Digital Scholarship. Digital accessibility is an important aspect of digital projects that helps keep research equitable and available to everyone. Chloe Lee, the DSG Accessibility Co-Op, provided an introduction to digital accessibility and reflected on her experience working for the DSG. Chloe is a Computer Science and Cognitive Psychology major in the class of 2026. She has completed full, thorough accessibility audit reports on the Massachusetts Historical Society PSC Lab Space website and the Burnham-Nobles Digital Archive/Civil Rights & Restorative Justice Archive website.
She began by providing a definition of digital accessibility, being the ability of websites, apps, and other digital products to be easily navigated and understood by a wide range of users, including those with disabilities. She highlighted section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which mandates federal agencies to provide individuals with disabilities access to information and data that is comparable to those without disabilities when it comes to electronic and information technology. This amendment that requires federal agencies to make their electronic and information technology accessible was added in 1998.
The international standards for digital accessibility are defined in the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). There are three levels of WCAG conformance: Level A is the minimum level, Level AA includes all Level A and AA requirements, and Level AAA includes all Level A, AA, and AAA requirements. Chloe reveals that not every site can be AAA compliant. According to the WCAG, many organizations strive to meet AA.
Chloe highlighted that digital accessibility is a consistent issue in digital spaces. She revealed that a staggering 94.8% of homepages in 2025 have a WCAG2 failure. She provided some additional statistics to demonstrate the state of digital accessibility in the present. Of these failed homepages, 23.4% have less than or equal to 5 errors, and another 33.6% had less than or equal to 10 errors. Of these errors, 96% of the errors fall into six categories. These categories are: low contrast text, missing alternative text, missing form input labels, empty links, empty buttons, and missing document language. There has only been a 3.1% decrease in web pages with errors over the past 6 years, emphasizing how important it is to be working to improve the accessibility of digital spaces.
Chloe then turned to discuss more explicitly the work she did as the DSG Co-op: completing full, thorough accessibility audits for two of the DSG’s projects: the MHS Primary Source Cooperative Lab Space website and the Burnham-Nobles Digital Archive. In order to conduct these audits, she began with using WAVE WebAIM, a suite of evaluation tools to aid in making content more accessible. She emphasized the importance of acknowledging that these tools cannot confirm on its own, and require a human to audit it. She explained that she used WAVE WebAIM as her first step in these accessibility audits. This suite of tools identifies page content that may be inaccessible, and then a human user is required to determine if what is flagged is an accessibility, and if so the solution to fix it.
She then detailed the different areas of manual testing that are required for a thorough accessibility audit, which included content review, keyboard testing, screen reader review, and visual checks. Content must be reviewed manually to ensure it is clear and accessible; this review includes zooming in to 200% and checking to make sure all content is still present and makes sense. Keyboard testing determines whether a digital product can be navigated entirely with a keyboard. Screen reader review entails using a screen reader to identify any potential issues with reading order or interactive elements. Visual checks focus on the visual elements, such as confirming that all links have clear styling that indicates that they are hyperlinks.
She concluded by reflecting on her experience working with the DSG on these accessibility audits. Chloe was able to implement the necessary changes she identified in her audit for the Massachusetts Historical Society PSC Lab Space website, and was able to provide a clear roadmap for the Burnham-Nobles Digital Archive to implement necessary changes. She emphasized that creating accessible spaces in the digital world is an ongoing perpetual task; no site or product is ever truly done with achieving accessibility. Reviewing sites, apps, and other digital projects must be done regularly as accessibility guidelines are constantly being updated.