Phenom People: Almost 90% of Fortune 100 sites fail digital accessibility requirements

Phenom People, the Talent Experience Management (TXM), announced the findings of its study analyzing Fortune 100 career sites based on six common Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). According to the study, 89 companies failed at least one of the six examined WCAG standards.
 
Companies are excluding over one billion people with disabilities due to inaccessible website practices. People with visual, auditory, speech, mobility, cognitive and neurological impairments are only enabled when websites take digital accessibility into account. Common accessibility issues affecting navigation, site structure, text, images, hyperlinks, multimedia, and forms on company career sites impede candidates’ ability to successfully search and apply for jobs. Phenom People reviewed the Fortune 100 career sites based on criteria established by the World Wide Web Consortium, which outlines how websites and content should be created for people with disabilities.

Accessibility study of the Fortune 100

The Phenom People study examined six common WCAG accessibility standards, revealing:

• 89 companies failed at least one standard
• 46 companies failed three or more standards
• 11 companies met all six standards

Companies often prioritize aesthetics and branding initiatives at the expense of accessibility in their web designs. Among the Fortune 100, the most commonly repeated infractions of WCAG standards are color contrasting, table structure and alternative text on images. Failing to meet these standards means the website potentially restricts the support of assistive technologies such as screen readers, magnification and alternative input devices. 

Examining each WCAG criteria, the Phenom People study discovered:

• 65 companies did not meet color contrast standards (WCAG 1.4.3)
• 55 companies did not meet table standards (WCAG 1.3.1)
• 39 companies did not meet alternative text standards (WCAG 1.1.1)
• 33 companies did not meet resize text standards (WCAG 1.4.4)
• 27 companies did not meet focus indicator standards (WCAG 2.4.7)
• 4 companies did not meet keyboard navigation standards (WCAG 2.1.1)

Increased accessibility lawsuits for career sites and websites

Companies that don’t proactively implement WCAG standards create barriers that impact the livelihood of people with impairments. According to Seyfarth Shaw, website accessibility lawsuits under the Americans with Disability Act (ADA) increased by 177% from 2017 to 2018, with the number of legal proceedings jumping from 815 to 2,258.

Introducing Phenom Access for Out-of-the-Box WCAG 2.0 AA Compliance

Phenom Access is a set of features to help HR, HRIS, and compliance teams more easily support assistive technologies and WCAG 2.0 standards on their corporate career sites.

Phenom Access includes:

• WCAG 2.0 compliant canvases
• WCAG 2.0 compliant widgets
• CMS warnings of non-compliant site changes (coming soon)

Phenom Access enables corporate career sites to be WCAG 2.0 AA compliant out-of-the-box with pre-approved canvases and widgets. Any changes made within the Phenom CMS are automatically reviewed in real-time prior to publication, and flagged for compliance issues. Users are then notified with steps on how to meet the standards. This ensures assistive technology can better aid candidates in their job search. 

“Accessibility isn’t about disabilities—it’s about people, just like HR. We have to think about how we can be more human in a technological world,” said Mahe Bayireddi, CEO and Co-founder at Phenom People. “From the beginning, our mission has been to help a billion people find the right job. To reach people you’ve never been able to reach, the user doesn’t have to change—your product does.”

SOURCE Phenom People

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