Segala Web Accessibility Certificate

Segala

www.segala.com [opens in a new window]

Segala is a Dublin based company helping organisations to ensure their Web sites are accessible to as many potential users across as many devices and browsers as possible.

Segala provide independent testing and certification services to the global market.

For further information visit segala.com/about-segala

About the Trustmark

Organisations demonstrate their commitment and conformance to industry standards such as Web accessibility by placing a Segala Trustmark on their Web sites.

Segala's Trust system contains 3 layers of trust, providing the most cost effective, flexible and highest degree of trust for accessibility and assertions about conformance to other standards and codes of conduct.

• Visual Trustmark (badge, quality seal)
• Visual certificate linked from the Trustmark
• Content Label

Segala is the first company worldwide to provide a machine-readable Trustmark for accessibility, enabling compatible search engines and browsers to highlight Web sites that have been certified by Segala or one of it's Certified Partners. This empowers end users to filter search results based on sites that contain Segala's Trustmark.

Segala-Certified™ Trustmark

The Trustmark is a visual logo placed on certified Web pages. This enables a Web site owner to demonstrate that its Web site complies with Web accessibility standards & legislation. For example, organisations in the US may wish to display the certificate to demonstrate their conformance to Section 508.

This is also a common frame of reference for users to recognise accessible Web sites.

The Certificate can be viewed when a user clicks on the Trustmark. This allows them to see what claims are being made about a specific page or site. It includes information about the Web site owner, domain, and unique certificate number, status of certificate and expiry date.

The certificate resides on Segala's secure server for trust and to maintain authenticity.

Maintaining quality

The Certificate provides end users with an option to report a misuse of the Trustmark directly to Segala, or a Certified Partner if appropriate.

The reporting mechanism provides feedback to help Web site owners maintain their sites to the highest possible standards. It also prohibits the use of the Trustmark on a site that is making fraudulent claims about accessibility.

The reporting mechanism can also be used to remind clients that a change to their content may have inadvertently had an impact on the original claims. Segala will revoke a certificate if a site is unable to address non-compliance issues that are claimed if there is no alternative course of action. Segala will seek to work with Certificate holders to make adjustments that are needed to ensure the Certificate remains valid.

Content Label

Content Labels are files that contain metadata just like the title and description metadata contained within Web pages. Until now, users had to click through to Web sites before viewing conformance claims to a standard or code of conduct.

Content Labels can be read and utilised by search engines and browsers to display more information about a Web site in search results.

The extra information comes in the form of an icon beside each search result. Clicking on the icon displays a screen with the conformance claims made by the site owner. This means users can see which sites are making assertions about conformance to a particular standard such as accessibility without having to view lots of Web sites before finding one that is accessible to them.

How can Segala help you?

Accessibility benchmark evaluation report
Accessibility compliance audit
WCAG, DDA, Section 508 and more.