The Accessible SDLC Powered by TPGi and the ARC Platform
Building and maintaining accessibility in silos is nearly impossible. Our approach embraces integrating accessibility across the entire workflow including SDLC integrations.
An accessible SDLC is where accessibility is integrated into the software development lifecycle at every stage from planning through maintenance. This includes accessibility policy, automated testing against that policy, incorporating into your QA processes, as well as verifying and documenting conformance requirements such as a VPAT creation.
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See how TPGi solutions enable accessibility at every stage
The Planning Stage sets the foundation for the work to come. During this phase, you identify tasks to be completed, who will be impacted, timeline, cost, and define success. Without a proper foundation, you could potentially have to completely rebuild underlying structures of code— a time-consuming and expensive process— which often leaves companies feeling like accessibility isn’t achievable.
How we can support the Planning Stage:
- User Experience Consulting
- Systems and Frameworks Accessibility Consulting
- Accessibility Roadmap and Strategic Consulting
- Comprehensive Audits
- ARC Projects
- ARC Test Initiatives
The Analysis Phase is the time to evaluate and take a dive deep into the information collected in the planning stage. It’s also optimal for surfacing and evaluating new information, and preparing contributors for the design phase by providing knowledge, techniques, and guidance.
How we can support the Analysis Stage:
- User Experience Consulting
- ARC Dashboards
- ARC User Flow Data Sets
- Comprehensive Audits
- Strategic Consulting
The Design Phase allows engineers and designers to use the information sourced from the previous stages to architect and design solutions at a tactical level. Outputs of this stage include wireframes, mockups, logical coding diagrams (blueprints) with enough detail to enable engineers to build the systems.
How we can support the Design Stage:
- ARC KnowledgeBase
- ARC Tutor
- Strategic Consulting
- Design Reviews
The code is written during this stage. Engineers can benefit from specific code-level accessibility techniques and the ability to quickly test, fail, and retest code against a required acceptance level or policy, without having to formally submit code for acceptance.
How we can support the Implementation Stage:
- ARC KnowledgeBase
- ARC Tutor
- ARC Toolkit
- Guided Accessibility Consulting
- Accessibility Training
Once code has been written and is ready for integration, it undergoes testing against defined acceptance criteria. In the accessible SDLC, you must integrate a new accessibility policy for code acceptance (most organizations use the W3C WCAG 2.0 AA as the standard to achieve conformance).
How we can support the Accessibility and Testing Stage:
- ARC Test Initiatives
- ARC Dev Tools for CI/CD Integration
- ARC Toolkit
- TPGi Code Verification Reviews
Once a code snippet has passed testing, documenting success is an essential step to demonstrate conformance. This can be as simple as marking an item complete for small updates, to VPAT production, to even creating an Accessibility Conformance Statement for large initiatives (like a website overhaul).
How we can support the Documentation Step:
- VPAT Creation Support
- Accessibility Conformance Statement Creation
- ARC Test Initiatives Goal Success
Applications and websites rarely remain static. Content producers and authors add new text, images, and pages. Engineers continue to ship and layer in new functionality features. Ensuring these modifications do not diminish the site’s accessibility is the last critical step to the accessible SDLC.
How we can support the Maintenance Stage:
- ARC Domain Monitoring
- ARC User Flow Monitoring
- ARC Test Initiatives