In accordance with Section 12 of Chapter 11 of the Massachusetts General Laws, the Office of the State Auditor has conducted a performance audit of the Appeals Court for the period July 1, 2023 through June 30, 2024.
The purpose of our audit was to determine whether the Appeals Court’s website adhered to the World Wide Web Consortium’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 for user accessibility, keyboard accessibility, navigation accessibility, language accessibility, error identification, and color accessibility.
Below is a summary of our finding, the effect of that finding, and our recommendations, with links to each page listed.
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Finding 1
| The Appeals Court’s website was not fully accessible to all website users. |
| Effect | Possible effects of noncompliance with WCAG 2.1 in the areas discussed above include the following: - Regarding keyboard accessibility, if functional elements on a webpage cannot be navigated using only keyboard commands, then users with limited motor abilities may be unable to navigate to needed information.
- Regarding navigation accessibility, broken or faulty hyperlinks negatively impact the user experience and make it difficult to locate specific, sought-after information. They can also limit equitable access to critical information and key online services for some users. Plus, broken or faulty hyperlinks also increase the likelihood that users may access outdated or incorrect information or may be directed to webpages that no longer exist.
- Regarding language accessibility, inaccurate language attributes can pose a number of challenges. For example, this issue could cause translation software or screen readers to lose the ability to interact with or correctly translate critical content on a website, thus negatively affecting people who use these tools.
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Recommendations
| - The Appeals Court should work to resolve accessibility barriers that prevent certain features from being used with only keyboard commands.
- The Appeals Court should review its webpages to ensure that all hyperlinks lead to intended information and that they provide equitable access to critical information and services that the Appeals Court offers online.
- The Appeals Court should address inaccurate language attributes that may interfere with screen reader functionally and overall digital accessibility.
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