WCAG 2.1: Live Chat and Chatbot Accessibility

‍Talkative built our suite of digital contact channels with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines at the forefront of our minds.

As such, we’re proud to say our chat widgets comply with the WCAG 2.1 guidelines when tested using the WAVE accessibility tool. 

It means that, when using Talkative to engage your customers, you can rest assured that they’re enjoying the most accessible chat experience possible!

Of course, there’s a lot of factors involved in testing your website for WCAG accessibility. There’s a lot of moving goalposts in the guidelines too. 

Nevertheless, Talkative is keen to help you provide more accessible interactions across all your digitals touchpoints. Here’s why. 

Talkative and accessibility: our ethos

All users deserve the opportunity to enjoy maximum web accessibility when visiting your website or using your online services.

And after all, the key accessibility considerations Talkative puts into place directly affects how accessible an experience your end users enjoy.

It means we like to take accessibility seriously.

But while we're proud of our live chat and chatbot accessibility, we're always aiming to improve the accessibility of all our channels.

It's why we've been working hard on updating Talkative to provide a better experience for all.

With that in mind, we're excited to share some of the recent updates we've made to improve Talkative as a solution - helping to provide better online services to all your customers!

At the same time, we also wanted to take this opportunity to list some of the features that've been available within Talkative for many years.

We want to make sure you’re fully up to speed with all that Talkative has to offer. 

So, take a look for yourself. Make sure you're offering all your customers the best experience possible.

Web content accessibility guidelines: Talkative's features

Below you'll find the key features Talkative has built to provide better live chat, video chat, and chatbot accessibility for your users.

But if you're a new customer who'd like to try any of the features for yourself? Start a free trial with Talkative today!

Accessibility features for text readability

Colour configurability for suitable contrasts - With Talkative's chat widget designer, you can ensure you're providing the most accessible color contrast choices for all your customers, whatever channel they're using.

Hyperlink underlining - Customers will never miss any important hyperlinks thanks to this feature. With all hyperlinks underlined, both your customers and support agents can enjoy quicker comprehension and navigation.

Configurable sizing and text spacing - This new feature enables you to adjust both the size and the spacing of your text. This can not only improve readability for your users, it can also help improve your brand consistency. What's more, you can resize text at a browser or OS level too, providing your customers with maximum accessibility.

Accessibility features for viewing images

Descriptive button titles - Now, site visitors that use assistive technology like screen readers will always find what they're looking for. Thanks to this latest update, all images can be correctly interpreted and described, meaning no image is lost in translation. 

Configurable alt tags - Following on from the above update, all images with Talkative now have configurable alt tags - full up to date with WCAG guidelines. It means screen reader users will always be able to identify what an image is

Accessibility features for improved data entry

Configurable autocomplete attributes - This feature allows your customers’ browsers to autocomplete any given data collection input fields. Less input for your users, and a quicker more seamless interaction overall. 

Browser level form validation - Following on from the above, Talkative can now help users’ screen reading tools to identify when inputs are invalid. It's a type of error identification that identifies whether your customer has entered data that is either too long, too short, or missing. Either way, if any adjustments need to be made, your customer will be informed and they'll be able to make the necessary amendments with speed and ease.

Accessibility features for improved navigation

Mouseless keyboard navigation - Fields within Talkative now have accessible keyboard shortcuts built-in. It means your customers can always navigate to a necessary input field or a recent message with ease.

Input modalities - Continuing from the above, we've also made sure that Talkative assists customers  using pointers and other non-keyboard tools. In turn, you can cater to all customers - regardless of the assistive technologies they use to navigate your site. This is achieved through the use of the appropriate CSS classes which help to identify elements that can be interacted with.

Responsive and mobile-friendly design - Talkative's responsive reflow design means that no scrolling is required for customers navigating our chat widgets. What's more, with a design that's friendly in both portrait or landscape mode, Talkative can be enjoyed on both desktop and mobile devices. Whatever screen orientation your customers prefer, Talkative takes care of it all.

General accessibility features for improved usability and navigation

Fully configurable language strings - The Web Contact Accessibility Guidelines state that all text must be readable and understandable on any web page. As such, we've made sure that our chat widgets, windows, and any agent or user messages are always easily viewed, read, and understood.

Moreover, to provide the most accessible chatbots and live chat content, we've enabled the use of configurable language strings. This allows you to add helper text that opens in a new window for your customers. It's another accessible form of assistance that creates a more seamless experience for those visiting your site. 

Customisable link targets - Customers can now change link targets within your live chat, video chat, and chatbot interface. It means you can configure links to open in the window of your choice - be it a new window or the same.

Adjustable chat wait messages - You don't want to cause any unnecessary timeouts on customers who require a little more time to fill out any input fields. Thankfully, Talkative's adjustable wait time messages allow you to provide all users with enough time to fulfil their needs. 

No flashing content - Finally, Talkative has taken the utmost care to protect customers and end users who experience seizures and physical reactions to flashing content. As such, we've made sure that Talkative doesn't provoke any reactions from your end users.

Learn more about Talkative's accessibility

Want to learn more about how you can offer the best experiences to your organizations' diverse users and customers?

Want to make sure your conversational agents know how to offer the best service too?

Visit our knowledge base to search through all of Talkative's capabilities and functionalities.

Alternatively, get in touch with your Talkative Account Manager if you've got any specific requirements. We're always happy to help.