1. 1. Problem addressed • Real-life websites usually show less-than-perfect accessibility — even those that strive to be accessible. • WCAG Techniques and Failures have binary tests which make it difficult to deal with minor flaws: neglect them, or be too strict? • The German BITV-Test (www.bitvtest.eu) uses a 5-point graded rating scale to address this problem.

2. 2. Major difficulties • When rating individual instances, results can often be somewhere between pass and fail. • Some ratings will apply not to instances but to patterns. What level of deficiency will constitute a failure? • Some instances can be critical, others minor • Often, some instances on a page pass while others fail. Should the page then pass or fail a particular success criteria?

3. 3. The graded rating approach • BITV-Test has 50 checkpoints mapping to WCAG level AA with a weight of 1, 2 or 3 points (adding to 100 points) • Full “pass” will contribute 100% of checkpoint weight. Further grades: 75%, 50%, 25%, 0 % • Ratings reflect both the frequency and criticality of flaws • Results per page are aggregated to a site score (X of 100 points) based on the page sample

4. 4. The reliability of graded ratings • Reliability can be expressed as degree of replicability in an independent test with another tester • The BITV conformance test is conducted as independent tandem test followed by an arbitration phase • Arbitration corrects oversights and rectifies both too lenient and too strict ratings • Experience shows that the 5 point graded rating scale is quite reliable. A statistics function has been added to quantify inter-evaluator reliability