Accessible360 is a web accessibility company based in Edina, Minnesota. It can assist with dealing with accessibility audits, and has skilled disability testers under the leadership of its CEO, Ariel Kunar. It is a relatively newcomer in this space, as it was founded in 2016, and subsequently acquired by T-Base communications in December of 2020. Accessible360 garners some kudos for its claim that it provides free work to assist non-profits.
- Interested in Accessible360? Check out the website here
Services
Accessible360 has its “A360 Roadmap,” that can make a plan to have your digital content more usable by those disabled individuals. This includes all types of digital content, from websites, to PDF’s, to mobile apps, and even Internet of Things. This A360 Roadmap breaks down the process to three steps.
The first step is to ‘Assess’ the environment to determine the needs, along with the priorities. This is done via a live audit of the existing content, done from the perspective of a disabled user. A design audit can also be done for projects in development to have it fully accessible from when it goes live, and to save further development costs by having it done upfront, while avoiding further problems down the road.
Taking the next step leads us to ‘Enable’ which is to develop the web accessibility for your content, and to support the work to remediate any deficits. This includes the Accessible360 help desk to directly offer expertise to the client as it is integrated into the A360 Hub. This step also will train staff to bring content up to the WCAG 2.0 AA standard, for long term planning to have fully accessible web and other digital media content. There is some support for the team, such as online videos, additional training, and a knowledge base.
The third step is to ‘Stay,’ and remain compliant. Accessible360 will check digital assets prior to going live, via its quality assurance testing. Also, the environment is monitored as it changes (the web is often quite dynamic after all), so that an alert can be provided to a possible issue with accessibility, before it becomes bigger. There is also ongoing support, from a legal, process, as well as technical standpoint. The dividend of all of this is to mitigate the risk of a legal action in the future.
Accessible360 targets its services to a number of markets. These include e-commerce, financial, agencies, education, government, healthcare, law firms, and real estate.
User reviews
A definite weakness of Accessible360 is the lack of user reviews. We looked on both social media, and on internet searches and could not find a user experience. Google did have a few reviews, but it was about working for the company (which was positive), and not about the user experience for the product.
The Facebook company page is well done, with frequent- almost daily- updates. While it does have hundreds of likes, it was disappointing to see that there was no user feedback that we found. With such a lack of user feedback, it makes it harder to go with this company’s services when compared with products that are better reviewed.
Pricing
As is too common for the segment of web accessibility, no pricing is to be found on the Accessibility360 website. Furthermore, a web search did not find us any idea of the pricing, other than that the plans can be paid annually or monthly. Speaking of plans, and pricing aside, we also did not find any info about the tiers of plans.
Rather, users are encouraged to get into contact with the company for a custom quote, which is somewhat reasonable as each client is likely to have unique needs. However, for those that want to avoid dealing with salespeople, or have an idea of the types of plans offered prior to initiating company contact will be frustrated.
Support
Support options for Accessible360 are lacking, and there are only a few options. This includes a physical address for snail mail, but let’s be honest that nobody really wants to resolve an issue over the mail. Better options are offered that include a direct phone number, but it is not a toll free number. An online portal is also available, as is a direct email address.
Some fancier support options are missing from the mix. This includes no chat, eBooks, or whitepapers. While we could not find examples of it on the Accessible360 website without an account, it is reported that they have “Knowledge Base, videos & training,” along with “An experienced help desk.”
Final verdict
The web accessibility service, Accessible360 provides an effective service to bring digital content up to accessibility standards. We highlight the integrated help desk, the three step approach to identifying and remedying defects, and the ongoing monitoring to remain in compliance. We feel that this service falls short in some key areas, such as the totally opaque pricing, the lack of indication of a free trial, the failure to find any user reviews and the limited support options. At the end of the day, take a full look at Accessible360 to see if it fits your needs, and make a thorough comparison to its competing services.
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