We launched the Culture Counts Evaluation Platform’s new look in April. The refreshed design offers a better experience for survey respondents and improved accessibility features.
This update is the result of a year-long project that sought to ensure surveys created with the Culture Counts platform met accessibility expectations. Working with the Centre for Accessibility Australia, we are excited to announce that Culture Counts surveys meet the WCAG 2.1 Success Criteria for functionality and usability!
A new look and feel
The Culture Counts survey experience has been refreshed. The new look offers improved visibility and design hierarchy to survey questions. This design prioritises important elements on the page and ensures intuitive and enjoyable survey experiences for respondents.
Improved survey interaction
We’ve updated the interactive elements in the survey, such as buttons and menus, to improve support for accessibility technologies. Respondents interact with surveys in different ways, so supporting a variety of input and engagement methods ensures a seamless survey experience for respondents when providing feedback.
One example of supporting assistive technology is keyboard compatibility. Respondents can now easily use keyboard controls when using interactive elements to answer each survey question.
Screen readers are a widely-used accessibility tool and are dependent on consistent page design in providing a user-friendly survey experience. As each question type may have a different element in which the answer can be provided, such as using a text input box to provide a comment, we’ve applied consistent naming conventions, making it easier for everyone to understand the purpose of each interactive element.
We’ve also made adjustments to improve the overall survey flow, making it easier for respondents to gain context on the progress of the survey and to complement screenreader technologies. Each page follows a consistent structure based on Landmark Design principles, enabling respondents to clearly understand the purpose of each page, what actions are required and how to progress through the survey.
A consistent survey experience
We’ve taken an “accessibility-by-design” approach with this refresh, taking great care to ensure the Culture Counts survey platform is equipped to collect feedback from a variety of respondents, including people living with disability.
Unlike many other applications that adopt survey accessibility and an “opt-in” feature, we’ve sought to make Culture Counts surveys accessible by default, so that users can be confident they are consistently providing the same survey experience to their respondents, regardless of ability.
We’ve used the ARIA Authoring Practices Guide (APG) to fine-tune the accessibility of the platform, with each interactive component meeting the WCAG 2.1. Success Criteria in terms of functionality and usability.
Accessibility conformance
All elements of the tested content at marketing.culturecounts.cc/s/2rgjJ within the control of Culture Counts is certified by Centre For Accessibility Australia to conform with the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA standard as of 01/02/2023 based on the agreed sample selection. The audit process was based on the Website Accessibility Conformance Evaluation Methodology (WCAG-EM) 1.0 process provided by W3C. If you like more accessibility information, please visit Understanding Accessibility on the Centre for Accessibility Australia website.
Find out more
If you have any questions or would like a demo of the Culture Counts Evaluation Platform, please don’t hesitate to contact us here.
