Case Study: Guiding a State Consultancy in a Journey to Full Accessibility for Their AI Tool
Outlook Insight engaged QualityLogic to perform an accessibility audit of their AI-based Knowledge Interpreter product. Accessibility is critical to Outlook Insight’s values and the usability of the product by their customers. With QualityLogic’s professional auditing team and customized delivery method, Outlook Insight was able to achieve WCAG 2.2 AA compliance.
A Leader in Inclusive AI Solutions Needed A Leader In WCAG Solutions
Outlook Insight is a leading Washington-based software and technical consulting services company that has supported state agencies (like Social and Health Services, OSPI, and Ecology) and private sector organizations (like Cascade Natural Gas and XO Communications) since 1999. They are committed to developing technology solutions that prioritize universal design and inclusivity, blending the best of modern technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) with direct mentorship services to empower agencies to operate more efficiently, facilitate smooth employee transitions, and extend their societal impact.
Outlook Insight engaged QualityLogic to audit their AI-based flagship product, Knowledge Interpreter, for compliance with WCAG 2.2 AA, and assist them in their accessibility journey. Knowledge Interpreter is a groundbreaking AI solution that streamlines information discovery and usability. This solution helps employees better serve their customers by providing them instant access to laws, regulations, policies, and guidelines of their state agency. Ensuring this solution is compliant and usable to all users is a critical part of their values and ability to fulfill their mission.
A Tailored Plan for Compliance and Usability
QualityLogic met initially with Outlook Insight to understand their compliance goals, both short- and long-term, and their vision for success. This involved collaborating on the best way to support Outlook Insight and integrate with their teams, the standards to test to, how documentation would be used and shared, and other topics. It also included a walkthrough of the product to align on unique functionality and templates to include in the audit. After agreeing on an approach, QualityLogic and Outlook Insight aligned their internal teams via a kickoff call.
This call included setting up access to the product, establishing communication channels, reviewing timeline and approach, and otherwise aligning key contributors to ensure a smooth and successful project.
The Initial Audit: Identifying Gaps and Opportunities
QualityLogic engaged a team of professional accessibility auditors to evaluate Outlook Insight’s solution for WCAG 2.2 AA compliance. This team included individuals with physical and cognitive impairments to ensure real user feedback was provided in the engagement.
Issues were reported to the Outlook Insight team in their preferred tracking tools and each issue included:
- Brief issue description
- Detailed description
- Issue severity
- Expected result
- Actual result
- Steps to reproduce
- Technologies/platforms the issue occurs on
- WCAG success criterion
- Reason for non-conformance
- Remediation guidance
- Audio/video assets to illustrate the issue
Documented issues included both compliance-level issues and usability feedback. Compliance issues were made sortable by WCAG version and conformance level for easy prioritization. Usability feedback was included as an enhancement recommendation – these issues are important to ensuring experiences are also easy and intuitive to assistive technology users.
All issues were made available to Outlook Insight developers in real-time throughout the audit. QualityLogic auditors also remained available to explain findings and help developers with issue triage.
During each day of the audit, QualityLogic’s team produced a daily report for Outlook Insight which described project progress to completion, defects identified that day, and plans for the following day.
At the conclusion of the audit, QualityLogic’s team produced an Accessibility Conformance Report (ACR) in the Voluntary Product Assessment Template (VPAT) format. This VPAT initially reflected non-conformance with WCAG 2.2 AA, but that would soon be adjusted.
Retesting and Resolving Accessibility Issues
Following the initial audit, Outlook Insight’s team worked diligently on remediating the identified issues. This included occasional feedback and support from QualityLogic’s accessibility team to understand how best to implement accessible controls and features.
QualityLogic’s auditors then re-tested for the identified defects, including testing in and around the product areas impacted to ensure no regression occurred.
As fixes were validated, QualityLogic updated the Accessibility Conformance Report to reflect the new state of compliance.
Success! Reaching Full WCAG 2.2 AA Compliance
With the support of QualityLogic, Outlook Insight was able to achieve full compliance with WCAG 2.2 AA and include functionality that made the Knowledge Interpreter product delightful to use by assistive technology users. This was a critical milestone for Outlook Insight and of significant importance to their state agency and privately held customers.
The future partnership between QualityLogic and Outlook Insight now looks toward maintaining compliance with the latest industry standards and providing additional training to Outlook Insight’s team to help them produce highly accessible code in a cost-effective, scalable manner.
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