BoardScribe is designed to work with our Accessibility Checker WordPress plugin and support accessibility remediation.
Background
BoardScribe came out of a need for our own remediation client work. Whether we were remediating university, k-12, public library, nonprofit, or city government websites, we noticed a common problem with how these organizations were posting public meeting notices and board meeting agendas and minutes.
Common problems flagged in our audits and Accessibility Checker scans included:
- ambiguous links
- empty or missing table headers
- links with the same name going to different URLs
- missing list or semantic structure
- links to non-HTML documents (like PDFs or Word Docs) without warning
BoardScribe solves these problems while making it easier for non-technical content authors to post meeting information and documents in an accessible format with minimal work.
How the Plugins Work Together
Switching to BoardScribe may resolve issues in Accessibility Checker
If you have accessibility issues flagged on your board meeting page(s), such as those described above, switching to BoardScribe may eliminate them. If you have years of minutes and agendas, this switch may clear hundreds of issues in Accessibility Checker.
Accessibility Checker can enhance BoardScribe links
If you want to add file type and size information to BoardScribe links, a setting in Accessibility Checker Pro can do this automatically. BoardScribe block and shortcode output was coded to allow Accessibility Checker to recognize the links and label them as needed.
Some other platforms that bypass typical WordPress content output or that utilize embedded iframes can’t benefit from this feature in Accessibility Checker.
Coming Soon: Scannable agendas and meeting documents
Current BoardScribe users primarily link agendas and minutes as documents. BoardScribe Pro (coming soon) will let organizations stop using PDFs and start posting agendas and meeting minutes as pages on their websites.
This will let Accessibility Checker fully scan and report accessibility issues in board meeting agendas and minutes, making it easier and faster for organizations to meet both open meeting and accessibility legal requirements.
As we continue developing both plugins, we’ll ensure they are fully compatible and enhance one another where possible.
Do I need Accessibility Checker to use BoardScribe?
No. Accessibility Checker is not required to use BoardScribe. BoardScribe will work fully if Accessibility Checker is not installed or activated.
Accessibility Checker is an optional tool that can provide additional automated accessibility testing as part of your meeting publishing workflow, but it is not required.