Optimal’s mission is to help create better experiences for everyone. We believe in empowering anyone to conduct meaningful user research so they can confidently deliver the right experiences.

To support this mission, we’re working to provide a highly accessible web experience to both our users and your participants.

The more inclusive our platform can be, the more we can support research and insights for a diverse range of needs and perspectives. We know complete inclusion and usability is an evolving target, and that’s why we are committed to continuous improvement.

As part of our commitment, we’re working to align with industry-acknowledged accessibility standards, where applicable, and addressing our most common requests, wherever possible.

Optimal looks to the WCAG 2.1 level AA guidelines to guide accessibility across our platform.

Our first priority is to adapt our participant experiences to support engagement from more diverse audiences. Throughout our platform, we look for opportunities to ensure accessibility across keyboard navigation, visual accessibility, screen reader friendliness, and mobile friendliness. Note that due to the nature of first-click testing and prototype testing that rely heavily on visual interaction, they do not currently meet WCAG standards.
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The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are a set of requirements for making web pages accessible to people with disabilities. We are currently working towards these standards, with some experiences already in line with guidance. Please see the above tables for the current status. If you have any questions, please let us know.

First-click testing and prototype testing cannot comply with WCAG 2.1 because of Criterion 1.1.1: 'All non-text content that is presented to the user has a text alternative that serves the equivalent purpose.'

First-click tests and prototype tests require interaction with static images, like screenshots and wireframes. It's therefore not possible to test with people who can't see and click on the image. A text description of the image would not help complete the exercise, as people who rely solely on text descriptions can't interact with the image in any meaningful way. The testing method would need to change completely to be capable of being traversed by assistive technologies like screen readers.

In some cases, we require action from survey administrators to ensure that their content is accessible. For example, content creators should ensure that language metadata is present and that the color contrast on buttons is adequate. Optimal will provide guidance but will not enforce accessibility standards for content created by our customers.