We follow the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) from the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) in our work on DeepL. Here are some of the key guidelines we follow:
Providing text alternatives for images;
Being sensitive to screen size and font sizes
Providing keyboard capabilities to use the site’s various functions
Structuring content to make navigation easier;
Ensuring consistency of navigation across pages of the site.
One of the most important steps to make our web translator more accessible is to ensure that it is keyboard-only. This enables users to switch between different navigation options using the Tab key, and to carry out translations without using their mouse.
We also focus on visual accessibility and strive to make our service user-friendly for screen readers or screen readers. These programs (NVDA and VoiceOver, for example) read web pages and help users engage with the text and navigate the web.
Finally, we pay close attention to text-based content: product descriptions, navigation elements and company blog posts. We try to use plain and simple language and adhere to a number of relevant rules included in our style guide, such as:
avoid excessive use of italics;
Use easy-to-read headings;
limit the use of special characters (for example, ampersand), which can create difficulties for screen readers.
We’ve recently made some important UI changes to our site thanks to our partnership with Fable: as a result of testing with the Fable platform, we were able to identify a number of problem areas, which we’re already working on.
Accessibility testing with Fable Engage
The Fable Engage service gives developers the opportunity to collaborate with testers with disabilities to conduct user research in order to further develop and adapt products. Feedback from accessibility testers is critical for companies looking to improve the accessibility of their services.
Fable uses the Accessible Usability Scale (AUS) to evaluate the accessibility of digital products. Testers test a website for compatibility with various assistive technologies, difficulty navigating, and ease of use without assistance, and give the site a score on a scale of 1 to 100, with 100 being the highest score. Over the course of our partnership with Fable, DeepL has significantly improved its web accessibility scores. Our first test score was 70. Based on the test results, we began work to improve our site. We changed the order of the tabs in the web translator and refined the names of the buttons, and in the subsequent tests Fable scored 90 points already.
What did we change?
First, we made improvements to the so-called focus display mode to make it easier for users navigating with a keyboard to understand what element they are interacting with. The new focus display mode conforms to AAA WCAG standards:
We’ve also changed the labels of all Translator components (both visual and screen reader elements) to make it easier for users to identify which page element they’re interacting with:
A new “Share Translation” icon with a “Share Translation” caption above it.
Finally, we’ve expanded the zoom capabilities so that users can increase the size of the content as needed while still using the Translator seamlessly:
Web Translator screenshot at a larger scale, making it easier to read without distorting the page.
After making these changes, we received the following positive feedback about our web translator from one of the testers:
“I like this site very much. It’s my first time using it, but it works very well. It was easy to identify which language was selected as the source language and which language was selected as the translation language. Finding the desired language or changing the selected language was also very easy. So I really enjoyed everything. Great site!”
The aforementioned improvements were also implemented in the new mobile version of our website, which received a score of 80 on the AUS scale. We continue to work with Fable to continue to make improvements to our products and raise the bar in digital accessibility among AI companies.
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