Kasmin Gallery
ADA Compliance
The Brief:
To fully audit kasmingallery.com for accessibility needs under ADA/WAI-ARIA compliance guidelines and make any required improvements.
The Outcome:
A nearly perfect Google Lighthouse score for accessibility across the entire site, ensuring disabled individuals can enjoy Kasmin’s online experience.
The Project Story:
Over the past decade, larger digital properties have faced legal notices indicating potential violations of the Americans With Disabilities Act if their website doesn’t meet certain accessibility benchmarks.
Caravan has worked with several clients to improve accessibility ratings, including in 2019 when Kasmin approached Caravan to conduct an audit and deploy any necessary code changes to bring their site into full compliance.
The Plan:
The ADA doesn’t currently offer an enumerated list of legal requirements for digital compliance on sites and apps. Therefore in each of these cases, Caravan’s work involves investigating current best practices and then fully scanning page templates and individual pages for non- compliant content.
Kasmin has a large site, so we instituted significant programmatic changes sitewide for an initial lift, then followed up with more isolated adjustments as needed to attain a satisfactorily compliant score from multiple online rating tools. This approach allowed us to deliver large gains early on, with the client paying for additional fine-tuning at their discretion.
The Process:
Considering that the scope of work in a job like this is largely unknown up front, we began with a full audit and report of our findings, paired with suggestions for immediate action items and subsequent follow-up considerations once those had been amended. These were created by a deep dive into the source code, along with the use of Google Chrome’s Lighthouse tools and a number of WAI-ARIA and WCAG auditing programs. Once reviewed with the client, we instituted the first suite of fixes and re-ran the scanners to measure the overall effect, then shared the results with Kasmin. We proceeded to follow up with a number of additional updates that brought the site well above compliance thresholds for several tools in accordance with best practices
Measuring Success:
Once the overhaul was completed, we shared assessment insights from Lighthouse, comparing the original scores to the updated scores. Many of the areas in which work was done saw their scores jump by over 30 points, and a full site audit revealed that all metrics now exceeded 90 out of a possible 100 points for accessibility.
About Kasmin:
Founded by Paul Kasmin in SoHo in 1989, Kasmin cultivates a rigorous exhibition program that places historic figures of Post- War art in dialogue with the evolving practice of established and emerging artists working today. For over 30 years, the gallery has nurtured the careers of eminent modern and contemporary artists including Tina Barney, Walton Ford, James Nares, Ivan Navarro, Roxy Paine, Elliott Puckette, Mark Ryden, Bosco Sodi, and Bernar Venet, among many others, and put on the first-ever U.S. gallery shows of artists including Les Lalanne.
About Caravan:
Caravan is a leading firm in the field of art and technology.
Caravan has worked with some of the largest art institutions in the world to sell millions of dollars of art and art merchandise online.
Contact us today at https://crvn.net