Site Evaluation Results

The site evaluation found on this page is based on the criteria at Site Check. Only a few random pages for each site were checked since it is Accessibility News's experience that accessibility errors are consistent throughout a website and that some pages are much worse than others, especially when you take into account Flash, other Multimedia and forms.

"Accessible" means usable to a wide range of people with disabilities, including blindness and low vision, deafness and hearing loss, learning difficulties, cognitive limitations, limited movement, speech difficulties, photosensitivity and combinations of these. Following these guidelines will also make your Web content more accessible to the vast majority of users, including older users. It will also enable people to access Web content using many different devices - including a wide variety of assistive technologies.

Note: Accessibility News does not believe in just passing the Minimum standards (Priority 1), or even Priority 1 and 2 as it will still be an accessibility barrier to some groups and we don't believe that any one group is more deserving than another. Fully Accessible should be the benchmark that all web developers should strive for.

It should also be noted that Accessibility News does not rely solely on automated online checking tools, our extensive knowledge of W3C Guidelines and todays Best Practices are also taken into account for each Site Check.

Town of Amherstburg, 2009

Site checked on:Tuesday, January 13

Accessibility Rating

Not Accessible

This site does not meet the minimum requirements (Priority 1) for web accessibility and will pose a significant barrier to a large number of Persons With Disabilities (PWD's).

Accessibility News Comments:

Mr Carpenter states the following in this article at http://www.accessibilitynews.ca/acnews/press/all_articles.php?all=267:

Carpenter noted that the site is at a minimum of Level 2 but he said much of it is at the higher Level 3 and "we're really excited about that."

Sorry to disappoint you Mr Carpenter, as someone who does Accessibility Audits on a weekly/daily basis, your claim is just not true.

In fact Accessibility News did an Audit on your site back on June 29 th (http://www.accessibilitynews.ca/acnews/sites/results.php?failspriority1=13) and there's not much difference. It failed minimum standards then and fails now. Just nesting a few headings properly and adding alt text to images does not an accessible site make.

Actually the alt text in some of your images are meaningless and others not appropriate. The site is choppy for my screen reader, pops up new windows without warning and there are many more violations and I'm not talking about the new standard, Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0(WCAG) but the old ones that are no longer the benchmark for accessibility. The new guidelines are the ones that the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) will be using for their new standard coming out soon and it will fail them as well.

sorry but this site just isn't very good, sure if might look good with all of the fancy images but that's where it ends.

As a tourist with a disability and money to spend, Amherstburg's website does not inspire me to visit your Town any time soon.

For a more detailed report do the following:

• Copy the Url above, or any address from the site.
• Go to any of the following:
  • TAW Web Accessibility Testhttp://www.tawdis.net/taw3/cms/en
  • Cynthia Sayshttp://www.cynthiasays.com/
• Paste the address into the box provided and hit enter.
• The next window will show your detailed report.

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