Caribe Royale Accessibility Evaluation
Overview
The following evaluation details the accessibility of the Caribe Royale Orlando Resort homepage and Suites & Villas subpage. The evaluative methodology includes both manual and industry standard automated assessments. Accessibility violations are categorized by the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) four principles, perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust (POUR).
Role
Accessibility Specialist
Affiliation
DePaul University, CDM
Areas
Accessibility
Background
Caribe Royale is a tropical resort located near major Disney and Universal theme parks in Orlando, Florida. This resort markets to families and couples looking for an upscale and relaxing getaway near the Disney and Universal park locations. This report will evaluate accessibility within the Caribe Royale homepage and the Suites & Villas subpage through a series of industry standard methodologies.
Challenge
High-traffic pages must be accessible for all users regardless of ability.
Accessibility issues must be identified through automated and manual testing within a POUR framework.
Provide high impact and accessible design recommendations.
Impact
The contributions established in this accessibility evaluation enable the prospective client to quickly remediate the identified accessibility issues. The high-impact solutions offered in this evaluation offer an effective path towards developing an accessible website while maintaining a unique visual identity.
Method
I evaluated the Caribe Royale homepage (https://www.cariberoyale.com) and the Suites and Villas subpage (https://www.cariberoyale.com/orlando-suites-villas). These two pages were chosen due to the high likelihood that a user will visit the homepage then wish to select an accommodation in the subpage. Screen captures of the homepage and subpage can be found in the appendix. The mentioned pages were evaluated using Safari and Chrome browsers.
WAVE - Web Accessibility Evaluation
TAW - Web Accessibility Test
WebFX - Readability Test
Accessible Rich Internet Applications (ARIA) Evaluation
W3C Evaluation
Screen Reading Test
Keyboard Navigation Test
Findings
Automated testing revealed four cases of missing alternative text. Upon manual inspection, similar results with specific instances of insufficient and missing text were identified such as:
The WorldHotels Rewards image alternative text reads “a logo for a hotel”.
The small logos that credit prestige to the resort lack properly detailing.
The image beside the Suite Autumn Getaway text is missing alternative text.
The footer image in the homepage reads “image footer flamingo”.
Automated testing revealed 83 violations on the homepage and 26 instances on the Suites & Villas subpage. Manual inspection confirmed automated results and revealed a variety of significant color contrast violations such as:
The homepage’s hero feature video with text overlaying does not pass AA standards.
The ubiquitous white text over the pink background for buttons across all pages does not pass AA standards.
A significant portion of the text on both pages results in color contrast violations.
Upon a manual keyboard test of both pages, no issues were found.
Manual inspection revealed media that holds no capability for adjusting speed, pausing, or hiding.
Automated testing revealed significant link purpose violations on both pages.
Manual inspection revealed similar violations such as:
A button on the homepage simply announcing simply as “Read More”.
Clickable image labels on the subpage provide no context as to the navigational orientation.
Homepage Evaluation:
Overall score of 39.3 out of 100.
Easily understood by 14 and 15 year olds.
25% of words categorized as complex.
Subpage Evaluation:
Overall score of 27 out of 100.
Easily understood by 16 and 17 year olds.
28% of words categorized as complex.
Homepage Evaluation:
Readability index of 7.1.
Flesch Kincaid Grade Level score of 9.5.
Gunning Fog Scored 5.9.
Coleman Liau Index scored 15.4.
371 total complex words.
Homepage Evaluation:
Readability index of 9.4.
Flesch Kincaid Grade Level score of 11.4.
Gunning Fog Scored 5.2.
Coleman Liau Index scored 17.8.
281 total complex words.
Navigation elements were consistent throughout both pages, focus on an element of the page did not alter the content to a degree that would denigrate understanding of the content.
In the footer of the homepage and subpage, the email sign up form does not give feedback for when a user clicks ‘submit’. Any error preventive capability is not present in this form.
Upon manual inspection of ARIA within both the homepage and subpage, a significant number of empty or insufficient ARIA labels were found. WAVE and TAW were unable to identify these violations.
Upon manual inspection, status messages are present throughout both pages.
Recommendations
Findings suggest significant accessibility violations that can be corrected by the following:
Adding missing alternative text and enhancing the detail of current alternative text.
Develop an accessible design system, ensuring color contrast reaches AA compliance at a minimum.
Enhance the readability of both pages through the reduction in unnecessary complex words.
Ensure all submission forms provide confirmation and error presentation feedback to the user.
Add missing ARIA labels across both pages, ensuring detailed descriptive text is present.
Enable all forms of video media to be hidden, paused, or slowed.
Design Recommendations
Adhere to an accessible design system that allows a full AA compliant experience while maintaining a distinct visual identity.
Reference Images
Figure 1. Caribe Royale Homepage (https://www.cariberoyale.com/)
Figure 2. Caribe Royale Suites & Villas Subpage (https://www.cariberoyale.com/orlando-suites-villas)
