Deque

Deque Review

What is Deque?

Deque Systems, Inc., or Deque as it is popularly known, is a technology provider that has built a high prominence for its web accessibility evaluation tools for about two decades. They provide the most robust accessibility solution service in the accessibility provider community and are a known market leader.

Deque has a strong reputation for market-tested tools, industry-proven practices, and a record of effective delivery for meeting the full breadth of accessibility business needs, including testing, analysis, remediation services, training, and support. Deque is not your regular manual accessibility solution; they offer the industry’s most complete suite of accessibility tools, accessibility audit and verification, remediation, program strategy and compliance, and a robust accessibility training program. 

Deque’s digital accessibility tools are designed for developers to build accessibility into the development process, and it is with these automated tools Deque’s seasoned accessibility experts, with a clear methodology, combine to perform a full assessment of your web assets. Together with their custom tools, they manually assess your current state of accessibility and provide a detailed audit report that matches your specific needs and guidelines. Deque’s experts can also take your team through remediation and training, guiding them to fix every accessibility problem identified to ensure WCAG, ADA, Section 508, and other accessibility standards effectively and efficiently.

Deque Service(s) and Features

For its authoritative and comprehensive website accessibility solution, Deque provides a range of accessibility suites that are designed to match the needs of your web development team across the entire development cycle. These tools will ensure your team indoctrinates accessibility from the ground up and after, ensuring end-to-end and full accessibility coverage.

Deque’s fast and secure WorldSpace Attest toolkit is quick and easily customizable integrates with all significant testing frameworks and is used for running automated web accessibility tests, preliminary audit scans, and fixing lower-level issues and code defects during the development phase.

The WorldSpace Assure is an automated and manual WCAG 2.1 Level AA testing and reporting tool that provides comprehensive web accessibility reports. WorldSpace Comply is used to perform advanced accessibility audits and continuous reporting to capture complex accessibility issues on websites and mobile web app and to keep up with accessibility changes and updates.  At the same time, the WorldSpace Amaze remediation solution is used from the outside-in to fix accessibility defects without modifying your source code.

Deque’s Amaze has the potential to add missing textual information, missing HTML attributes, and structural information to the page. The Deque Axe Plugin is an open-source testing tool that tests accessibility in applications during the development phase of the application lifecycle. The program evaluates the web accessibility of sites and applications and generates web accessibility evaluation results and automatically checks single pages, password protected or restricted pages included based on WCAG 2.0 and Section 508 requirements. The program only supports Google Chrome plugin and the HTML and XHTML formats, and it is free to access.

These patented tools, together with experts’ efforts, are used to identify and remove barriers to accessibility compliance. It is with these Deque tools accessibility experts use to assess the current state of your site’s accessibility (covers 30-40% errors) and determine your level of risk, provide developer support, and together with your IT team, perform remediation of your web and mobile components, documents, and multimedia. On completion, verification testing is done to identify unresolved issues, and accessibility statements/proof of conformance are issued to document your level of compliance with required standards.

Deque also provides strategic accessibility integration for your organization to ensure ongoing compliance. By opting for the consultation option, you can always incorporate accessibility at the inception of your web content development, at the design phase, or any stage at all. They help you consolidate your accessibility endeavor by developing your internal policy and custom accessibility specifications across your organization, save your organization significant cost, time, and effort and keeping you in compliance with  WCAG 2.0 AA, ADA, Section 508 among other accessibility standards.

Since there will always be updates on your web asset after your remediation, continuous effort is required to keep a website compliant. Luckily, Deque University offers one of the most comprehensive digital accessibility training for up to 6 (six) months. Their training is structured in different formats for a different level of team or individual expertise and it covers a wide range of technical accessibility topics such as accessibility tools (developer toolkit) training, design training, mobile web accessibility, document accessibility training, and accessibility management training to maintain WCAG, ADA and Section 508 compliant websites. They can be instructor-led or self-paced, online and can be customized to your organization’s needs, timelines, and accessibility goals.

Deque Pricing

Deque’s pricing is bespoke given that they can help you initiate accessibility from any stage of your project and according to your accessibility requirements. Pricing will, of course, depend on the intensity of the service required (audit, remediation, training, or consultation). You can start with a free and quick site audit on their website but the tools cost a separate fee in excess of $700.

Deque Platform and Support

For its range of robust accessibility services, that is, web accessibility consulting, specific audit or remediation, accessibility training, product support, or even urgent accessibility help, Deque equally provides a range of mediums to get in touch. This will ensure that Deque’s experts understand your organization’s accessibility needs and recommend a suitable accessibility compliance strategy and tools.

Deque provides mail options (the response period is within one business day of your form submission), a phone number to speak with one of their experts in case you need urgent accessibility help or product support, and few videos to take you through their products. Deque’s resources are just as robust as its services. You can find a good number of blog posts, webinars, news, and reports spanning various accessibility topics and standards for experts and beginners. Deque’s support could, of course, be better with a few FAQs and live chat.

The summary. 

Why Deque? Pros and Cons

Deque provides industry-accepted testing tools along with comprehensive manual accessibility solution services to ensure your organization maintains accessible digital assets and stays compliant with various accessibility regulations. Let’s examine some of the positives and negatives:

The Final Verdict On Deque

Deque does not just provide web accessibility remediation, they provide tools your development team can use across the entire software development life cycle for full accessibility coverage. The Worldspace solution fosters an accessible, secure, private and high-quality web experience for everyone by allowing you to automate website testing. The tools can be integrated early in development efforts or handle remediation and complaint issues. 

The WorldSpace Attest and Assure tools are particularly used for running accessibility tests while you code and to validate for quality assurance and create a comprehensive report. Deque’s accessibility team provides validation while the Amaze tool, although not a long-term solution, is a patented JavaScript overlay used for fixing accessibility issues and complaint handling. Deque’s WorldSpace Comply is used for advanced scanning, reporting, compliance monitoring, and management of accessibility issues while Deque’s aXe is a JavaScript library for auditing and testing HTML-based applications, an automated tool (certified by Google and Microsoft) to find accessibility defects on your web site. The introduction of these accessibility testing tools earlier in the development cycle will foster a more inclusive website and mobile apps, hence keeping WCAG 2.0 AA, ADA, and Section 508 compliant.

Combining some of the best tools in the market with its experienced web accessibility experts and a clear methodology which includes web accessibility training ensures Deque helps you meet your compliance goals in a cost-effective way and as early as possible. Speaking of cost-effectiveness, I’d recommend you let the Deque team walk your team of developers and designers through the use of the report and the tools as it is very expensive to have their experts remediate for you.

Deque’s comprehensive offerings make it a household name a leader within the digital accessibility solutions community and a standard among accessibility testing tools. Best for a reason.