Hamilton Health Sciences

About our partner

Hamilton Health Sciences is a hospital network comprised of seven hospitals and a cancer centre, serving communities all across southwestern Ontario. Hamilton Health Sciences is truly a unique hospital network as they are leaders in healthcare research and are the only hospital network in Ontario that provides specialized care for all ages.

About the project

Hamilton Health Sciences’ (HHS) website was redeveloped and launched by Sandbox in March 2019. Since then, Sandbox has maintained a close partnership with HHS through our maintenance program and managed hosting services. In an effort to continually elevate the user experience on their website, and to ensure that all site visitors can intuitively engage with their website, in May 2023, HHS decided to revisit a select list of their web pages through an accessibility review.

Accessibility Review

In May 2023, Sandbox’s Certified Professional in Accessibility Core Competencies (CPACC) reviewed selected pages on the Hamilton Health Sciences website.

Each page was manually tested and reviewed for compliance with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 and 2.1, at a minimum conformance level of AA.

At the completion of the accessibility review, Hamilton Health Sciences was provided with an Accessibility Report, detailing Sandbox Software’s recommendations and insights.

Accessibility Remediation

Remediation on a website can be challenging because it involves enhancing existing elements while ensuring that current features keep working. With Sandbox Software’s experienced team, the selected pages on Hamilton Health Sciences’ site were enhanced to meet a minimum conformance level of AA, and in some areas, an improved experience at level AAA. Updates to these pages resulted in further site-wide benefits.

To remediate the accessibility, Sandbox enhanced the focus ring and its prominence, which has site-wide effects. Additionally, design element adjustments were made to improve the contrast across the website, and updates were made to the code to ensure it adheres to today’s standards, directly improving how assistive technology reads and announces elements on a page. Overall, the remediation and enhancements improved Hamilton Health Sciences’ conformance to accessibility requirements.