Accessibility for an investor relations website should cover the entire path to information: navigation, results pages, filing links, documents, forms, data displays, and webcasts. Set a defined target, test representative tasks, and assign responsibility for resolving barriers after launch.
WCAG 2.2 Level AA is a useful technical target for planning and procurement. It is not, by itself, a determination of every law that applies to a company. Keep technical conformance and legal applicability distinct.
Set the scope before testing
Identify the pages, documents, integrations, and complete processes included in the assessment. A third-party registration form remains part of the investor journey even when another supplier operates it.
WCAG conformance has specific requirements, including complete pages and complete processes. [1] Do not describe a whole site as conforming based only on a homepage scan or a small set of corrected components.
Record the target version and level in the project agreement. Then identify who tests the interface, who remediates documents, and how external providers participate.
Test navigation and controls in context
Walk through the site using a keyboard. Confirm that menus, filters, dialogs, and forms can be reached and operated, and that the current focus is understandable. Test overlays and sticky headers while moving through the page.
WCAG 2.2's Focus Not Obscured criterion addresses focused components becoming entirely hidden by author-created content. [2] For an IR site, test whether a cookie banner or fixed header obscures a filing filter or form control when it receives focus.
Check small interactive targets such as archive controls and document icons. WCAG 2.2's Target Size Minimum criterion uses a 24-by-24 CSS-pixel baseline with stated exceptions, including spacing alternatives. [3] Apply the full criterion rather than treating one dimension as an unconditional rule for every link.
Make financial content readable
Use real headings, clear table structure, descriptive link labels, and text alternatives appropriate to the content. Avoid communicating a change only through red or green. Give charts enough accompanying information for a reader to understand the relevant message without relying solely on the image.
For text contrast, WCAG's minimum criterion generally specifies 4.5:1, or 3:1 for qualifying large text, with defined exceptions. [4] Evaluate the actual typography and backgrounds, including hover, focus, and error states where applicable.
Review PDFs and presentations as separate deliverables. Check reading order, document structure, tables, and meaningful links. Provide usable HTML context, but do not assume that a summary automatically remedies every barrier in a required document.
Include events and media from the outset
Plan the needed captions, transcripts, descriptions of meaningful visual information, and player controls before an event or recording is produced. W3C's media guidance distinguishes these components and their purposes. [5]
Confirm the supplier's responsibilities for live access and archived media separately. A transcript and captions serve different uses; the availability of one does not automatically satisfy every requirement associated with the other.
Evaluate the result and maintain it
Combine automated testing with informed manual review and representative user tasks. Log each issue with its location, impact, owner, and retest result. Include new templates, uploaded documents, and changes to third-party tools in ongoing review.
For legal context, DOJ's guidance discusses web accessibility for public accommodations under Title III. Its separate Title II web rule concerns state and local governments; a publicly traded company is not a state or local government merely because it is called public. [6] [7]
Use the monitoring guide to assign ongoing work and the hosting guide to coordinate technical ownership. Include accessibility findings in the same issue-management process as other failed investor tasks.
Questions companies ask
Does an accessibility widget establish compliance?
Do not treat a widget as evidence of whole-site conformance. Evaluate the actual content and complete processes against the agreed criteria.
Are PDFs part of the scope?
Include the documents that visitors need and identify their evaluation method. Do not limit the project to the surrounding HTML pages.
Should WCAG 2.2 be described as a universal legal requirement?
No. State the technical target accurately and have advisers determine the company's applicable legal obligations.
What evidence should a provider supply?
Request the tested scope, methods, findings, remediation ownership, and retest results. A generic badge or score is not the same record.
Bring that evidence standard into a VendorGroup website brief so accessibility is part of delivery and maintenance from the beginning.
Related VendorGroup resources
- Investor Relations Website Best Practices
- IR Website Hosting, Security and Reliability
- Why Investor Relations Websites Need Ongoing Monitoring and Support
