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E.ON

Energy Calculator Accessibility Assessment

2 min read
Design Research
Service Design
energy & utilities
situation & task

Accessibility compliance against WCAG 2.0

E.ON are one of the UK’s leading power and gas companies, employing more than 79,000 people worldwide. Supplying more than 50 million people with electricity and gas, their vision is to be their customer’s trusted energy partner. They do this by talking to customers and aiming to product clear and simple communication that is easy to understand.

We were asked by E.ON to assess several key pages for accessibility compliance against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 on their E.ON Age UK Energy calculator application, taking into account the use of JAWs screen readers.

action

Code inspection and technical testing

We supplied a list of 12 page types and interactions to test against including:

  • Login
  • Compare input screen,
  • Results
  • Details pages
  • Payment
  • Confirmation…

We performed a manual inspection of the source code using a standard web browser and used lightweight tools such as the W3C Online HTML and CSS Validators, AIS Accessibility Toolbar and AIS Colour Contrast Analyser (based on WAI algorithm) as part of our technical testing.

We also performed a JAWS screen reader expert review using JAWS 10. We gathered requirements and performed the manual testing using the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 as a checklist and also provided further guidance and prioritisation of the results as required by E.ON.

Checking compliance with screen readers was particularly important due to the older audience using application process. Accessibility considerations included:

  • Copy – All copy needs to be readable by a screen reader, which means no text should be shown in an image format.
  • Image/video representation – All non-text formats such as images, video and audio should have a representation in text.

at a glance

Methods

Code inspection, technical testing, accessibility testing, expert review

Primary objective

Assessing several key pages for accessibility compliance against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 on the E.ON Age UK Energy calculator application

Tested against

Login, input screens, results, details pages, payment, confirmation and other

Technical tools

W3C Online HTML validator, CSS validator, AIS Accessibility Toolbar, AIS Colour Contrast Analyser

Spotless package recommendation

Elevate Your Existing Business

OUTCOMES & RESULTS

Identifying confusing or misleading areas

Through this study we were able to identify areas of the process that would potentially confuse or mislead older users, particularly for users of screen readers such as JAWS. We provided a detailed report clearly highlighting specific examples of accessibility issues, their impact on users and examples of how they could be improved to meet accessibility standards.

CREDENTIALS

Direct insights from our valued partners, capturing the essence of Spotless collaborations.

“Spotless don’t retell stories, they get to know our business, repurpose our insight, identify the gaps and create innovative solutions."

Nicola Charlton, Research & Insight Manager
Tyl by Natwest

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Ubisoft

"Spotless worked with us as our business partner, always going the extra mile to ensure our needs were met in a professional and timely manner."

Sharon Stinton, Learning & Development Leader
GE Money

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