A Proactive Path to ADA Compliance

Highly customized websites, like California Credit Union’s (CCU), often face accessibility challenges simply due to the nature of tailored content and complex configurations. Recognizing this, CCU took steps to improve accessibility across their site, ensuring it could better serve the needs of all users.

In partnership with Vaulted Oak and accessibility experts at Allyant, CCU committed to a comprehensive, long-term strategy to bring their site into alignment with ADA standards.

From Audit to Action

Allyant’s process begins with a thorough, manual audit. Their team includes auditors who use assistive technologies daily who can provide real-world insight into accessibility gaps. The audit focuses on key and custom pages and identifies any barriers users may face. For areas involving third-party integrations, Allyant works with development teams to distinguish which elements are beyond internal control. Upon completion of the audit, issues are separated into three categories: P1 as “critical”; P2 as “serious”; and P3 as “warning”. This prioritization guides the remediation process, ensuring the most urgent issues of P1 and P2 are prioritized.

Vaulted Oak and CCU took the report and developed a plan while maintaining communication with Allyant on the timeline of completion. The initial set of fixes was broken into six sprints, with P1 and P2 items prioritized which are required to be resolved in order to pass the next “Walkthrough Audit.” Auditors verify completed fixes and flag any additional gaps in this follow-up audit. In CCU’s case, the Walkthrough Audit surfaced new tickets which were then completed in two additional sprints with another Walkthrough Audit.

Implementing Technical and Visual Adjustments: The Hero Carousel

During the first audit, Allyant highlighted a key P2 item on CCU’s home page: the auto-rotation hero carousel. While visually engaging, there were necessary actions to help accommodate screen readers in particular. Because carousels, especially auto-rotating ones, dynamically change the structure and design of the page, screen readers can struggle to interpret the content without proper measures in place.

Three key tasks were highlighted to ensure accessibility compliance: 1) Technical restructuring of the code; 2) Addition of a play/pause mechanic; and 3) Proper color contrast between text and background elements.

Allyant referenced their articles to guide the restructuring of the carousel's code. For example, providing text, only interpreted by screen readers, that give instructions on how to navigate the carousel.

Next, while Allyant called for an addition of a play/pause button and to ensure it is the first focusable element on the carousel in the code structure. This control allows users the ability to pause the auto-rotation and reduce any disorientation or confusion that may come along with dynamic changes.

Lastly, to give flexibility to CCU in managing their hero content while maintaining ADA compliancy, Vaulted Oak added controls in the backend content management system to support both light and dark media. This included adding white or black color options for the buttons and an overlay scale feature to adjust darkness over an image. These controls ensured capability to implement sufficient color contrast for text readability, regardless of the background media of the carousel slide.

Letter of Conformance and Ongoing Maintenance

After a final review to confirm that all P1 and P2 items had been addressed, Allyant issued a Letter of Conformance, a formal statement confirming the site’s ADA compliance. This letter also documented any remaining third-party limitations outside CCU’s control.

While a Letter of Conformance doesn’t technically expire, accessibility is never truly "done," especially on a site that evolves over time. For organizations like CCU, where the site is actively maintained and updated, a regular cycle of audits is recommended. This cadence ensures compliance keeps pace with growth and change, and positions accessibility as an ongoing practice, not a one-time fix.