Easterseals: Building with Accessibility at the Core

How we kept focus on accessibility during Easterseals website redesign.

Easterseals, one of the largest disability-focused nonprofits in the US, hired Capellic to develop a new website for its national office and a web platform for its 70+ affiliates across the country.

Web accessibility is a priority for Easterseals, not just because many program participants have disabilities. Easterseals needs its website to reflect its mission of empowering people to live independent, full lives.

Is accessibility and inclusion part of your organization’s mission? Like with Easterseals, your website is a chance to “walk the talk.”

Our web accessibility work for Easterseals took the form of six steps:

An accessibility-focused landscape analysis to see what other nonprofits are doing on their websites when it comes to accessibility
User interviews with recipients of Easterseals services to understand what they need from an Easterseals website
A content strategy and content production training series anchored in plain language, readability, and comprehension
Accessibility QA conducted by a front-end developer certified in web accessibility, including automated, manual, and assistive technology testing
Accessibility user testing, where we tested an early version of the site with people with disabilities and those who use assistive technology to navigate the web.

Results

At the beginning of our work together, we defined key project stakeholders and what success would look like to them. Site users managing stress and uncertainty needed a welcoming, intuitive, and accessible experience. Easterseals Affiliates needed a platform that they could maintain easily and independently, yet allow for growth. Easterseals National needed a platform that clearly and compellingly educated audiences about their mission and approach—and quickly connected users looking for support with the right local affiliate.

Below, Easterseals stakeholders share their perspective on the redesign.

End User Perspective

I'll say this ... it's probably one of the easier websites I'll navigate today. When I come across a site like this—OK, everything is labeled, everything works right, this is cool, this is a breath of fresh air.”

A participant who is blind and uses a screen reader to navigate the web

Affiliate Perspective

This new website will make a huge difference not only in helping us serve more children and adults in need, but also in getting more people to understand the profound difference they can make in someone's life by giving to Easterseals. I feel like it's a whole new era.

Affiliate Director of Development

National Perspective

Affiliate adoption [resulted in] increasing brand cohesion and recognition, and decreasing support time needed per affiliate and affiliates’ IT expenditure, freeing up budget for programs and services.

Leadership team member