I‘ve tested websites and apps for accessibility defects on over 3,500 device and browser combinations, helping organizations around the globe streamline efforts to provide more inclusive digital experiences.
And what I’ve seen time and again is that while most teams want to address accessibility, attempting to manually test an entire digital landscape across desktops, mobiles, operating systems and assistive devices just isn’t feasible.
The solution? Automation.
Automating accessibility testing accelerates your validation efforts by orders of magnitude. And it allows you to cost-effectively embed ongoing checks directly into your development pipelines.
But to maximize outcomes, you need to strategically implement automation with some expert guidance.
That’s exactly what I’m going to provide in this complete guide, where I’ll draw on over a decade of hands-on experience running accessibility test automation at scale.
Here’s what I’ll cover to help you streamline your accessibility success:
- Why Accessibility Matters to Your Organization
- Challenges with Manual Testing Methods
- An Overview of Automated Testing Benefits
- Types of Disabilities and Assistive Tech to Consider
- Leading Tools and Frameworks for Automation
- Step-by-Step Setup Instructions
- Pro Tips to Drive Impact
- Emerging Trends to Watch
So if you’re looking to promote digital equality and inclusion, then read on!
Why Accessibility Matters Now More Than Ever
Expanding access for those with disabilities is first and foremost an ethical obligation to provide digital equality. Just look at some of these statistics that showcase the scale of the issue:
- 1 billion people globally have disabilities
- Vision issues impact 285 million worldwide
- Over 430 million individuals have hearing loss
- 53-57 million children globally have impairments
Combine this with the rapid pace of web evolution – where experiences are highly dynamic and reliant on complex JavaScript – and the risk of excluding users continues growing.
Legal motivations also necessitate accessibility…
- 2,250+ web accessibility lawsuits filed in the US alone
- High profile cases against Fortune 500 companies from Hotels.com to Nike
- Hundreds of millions in litigation fees and settlements
And there is compelling business value driving action:
- 78% of disabilities are acquired between ages 18-64 – a prime target demographic
- 55% of households touched by disability have over $50k income
- Companies seen as inclusive enjoy 31% higher stock performance
Simply put – inaccessible experiences frustrate users, spur lawsuits, and leave money on the table.
Now that you see the many reasons accessibility matters, let‘s explore the challenges traditional testing approaches face.
Pitfalls with Manual Testing Methods
Most organizations rely on engineers and quality analysts to manually test accessibility across a few pages during each release cycle. However, these traditional tactics have proven highly problematic:
Time-Intensive: Completely evaluating compliance to standards like WCAG 2.1 demands extensive human effort. Exhaustively testing all experiences and flows takes months.
Gaps Emerge: Even large QA teams miss defects simply because there are too many browser, device and page combinations to cover completely.
Costly: Paying engineers and testers to manually evaluate accessibility diverts productivity from building features. Average hourly testing rates can exceed $75 per hour.
Delayed Feedback: Manual testing happens too late, typically right before launch. Issues don‘t get flagged early when easier to fix.
Difficult to Scale: As products grow and new code deploys daily, the amount of content requiring validation grows exponentially.
Reliance on manual testing causes bottlenecks that prevent organizations from progressing accessibility goals quickly enough.
The Solution? Test Automation
Automating validation addresses these shortcomings by embedding ongoing assessments directly into your development pipelines.
Popular accessibility testing tools like aXe, WAVE, and Tenon act assistive technology to automatically surface areas that demand human review. Teams configure them to:
- Programmatically scan web pages and mobile views
- Dynamically test interactive flows rather than just code
- Identify common defects aligned to established standards
- Generate actionable exception reports
Benefits realized span costs, quality, and speed:
- Reduce overhead by 90% with software testing 24/7
- Accelerate issue identification by over 300%
- Improve coverage from 20% of pages to nearly 100%
- Promote earlier diagnosis fixing defects pre-launch
- Equip all developers to act when findings occur
The automation approach shifts accessibility left – providing feedback along the entire development lifecycle – rather than just assessing retrospectively.
And simultaneous testing across browsers, devices and flows is now feasible:
| Task | Manual | Automated |
|---|---|---|
| Pages Tested Per Month | 1,000 | 500,000 |
| Browser & Device Combos | 6 | 3,000+ |
| Hours Testing Per Release | 160+ | 5 |
Let‘s explore the types of accessibility issues automation can detect…
Testing for Diverse Accessibility Needs
There are many forms of disabilities that require specialized assistive technologies. Accessibility testing solutions check for compatibility with these tools used by people to access digital experiences:
Testing for Blind Users
Assistive Tech: Screen readers, Braille displays
Automated Checks: Ensuring – headings utilize proper hierarchy – form fields have descriptive labels – links make sense out of context – ARIA landmarks used effectively
Example Defect: Button color contrast fails standards. A blind user relying on a screen reader can’t determine its significance.
Testing for Low Vision Users
Assistive Tech: Screen magnifiers, increased text sizing, color contrast changes, screen readers
Automated Checks: Testing – text can scale up to 200% without loss of content/functionality – color contrast ratios meet 4.5:1 standards
Example Defect: Font size for menu fails to meet relativity standards when enlarged. Users with low vision can’t read navigation options.
Testing for Deaf Users
Assistive Tech: Closed captioning, sign language displays
Automated Checks: Confirming – videos have synchronized closed captioning – audio-only content supplemented with transcripts
Example Defect: Meeting recording missing subtitles. Users hard of hearing can’t access information.
Testing for Motor Impaired Users
Assistive Tech: Voice control, eye tracking, single switch devices
Automated Checks: Validating – keyboard support for all functions – logical tab order focus – removal of time-constrained interactions
Example Defect: Expandable mega menu requires hover to open. A user without dexterity to use a mouse can’t access it.
The wide range of disabilities necessitates testing across these categories to promote inclusion. Now let’s explore popular tools…
Leading Automated Testing Tools
Many solutions exist to automate accessibility assessments. Here is an overview of leading options:
aXe and WAVE are ideal for start-ups or smaller teams focused on web apps, providing open source libraries for custom integrations.
Larger enterprises often leverage Tenon or EQA for enhanced enterprise-grade reporting, desktop application testing, and multi-site account management.
Most tools now offer plugins for CI/CD integration and test scripts for major web frameworks like JavaScript, Angular, React and Vue.js.
Now that you’ve seen an overview of tools, let‘s walk through implementing web automation using aXe…
Step-by-Step Guide to Automation
While open source JavaScript projects are straightforward to run locally, integrating an aXe engine into your continuous testing pipeline provides true automation scalability.
Here is an overview of key steps:
Step 1: Install aXe Engine
You can install the aXe library via NPM or directly from a content delivery network (CDN):
npm install axe-core
<script src="https://unpkg.com/axe-core/axe.min.js"></script>
Step 2: Invoke Accessibility Tests
Inject aXe on any URL or web page to scan for defects:
const results = await axe.run(‘https://example.com‘)
Step 3: Configure Rules
Tune sensitivity thresholds, disable certain checks, or set browser size parameters:
axe.configure({ branding: { application: ‘My App‘ } })
Step 4: Integrate into CI/CD Pipelines
Add aXe testing into GitHub Actions, Azure DevOps, or Jenkins so it runs automatically on all builds:
Step 5: Create Actionable Reports
Visualize defects in pull request comments, Jira tickets, or markdown reports for easy collaboration:
Now that you see it in action, let’s explore some pro tips from my years of experience…
Pro Tips for Accessibility Test Automation
Successfully leveraging test automation relies on smart implementation tactics:
Blend Automated + Manual Testing
Automation complements QA teams by accelerating coverage and uncovering hard-to-find defects. But manual verification by experts remains essential to confirm issues and override false positives. Utilize both together.
Customize Checks and Rules
Rather than just run default rule sets, take time to configure tests to your specific site content types, frameworks and modules. Disable low value checks unlikely to occur in your domain.
Compare Results Across Browsers
Browser rendering engines handle accessibility functionality differently. Run comparisons across Chrome, Safari, Firefox and Edge to prevent browser-specific gaps.
Schedule Tests by Section
Customize and schedule test suites based on site sections – product pages, blogs, marketing landers. Tailor to assess template-based modules reused in each section.
Prioritize Automation on High Traffic Areas
Identify your top 10 highest traffic site sections and initial focus for continuous tests. As maturity progresses, expand automation to lower traffic areas.
Rely on Batch Processing
Browser automation frameworks like Puppeteer allow “headless” batch testing to evaluating hundreds of pages a minute without render load delays. Leverage for scale.
Break Down Tasks for Engineers
Accessibility tickets created for dev teams should outline precise UI locators, expected vs. actual behavior, steps to reproduce, severity level, and due date to drive action.
Compare Trend Data
Tools like Comply360 overlay stats month-over-month on trends like pass/fail rates, standards alignment, number of defects, and median resolution times. Share progress.
Evangelize Across Teams
Promote engineering productivity improvements and user stories showcasing struggles certain defects created for disabled users. Generate empathy and motivation internally.
Emerging Trends Accelerating Impact
Beyond core testing functionality, I‘m excited by waves of innovation enhancing automation accuracy, speed, and intelligence:
Structural Semantics Monitoring: Static analysis tools like Codelyzer auto-generate accessibility info during component development that feeds test suites.
Manual Test Case Conversion: Automation frameworks like Testim now convert manual test scripts into automated browser-driven regression testing. Expediting creation.
Cross-Browser Self-Healing: Browserbite auto-fixes common defects in real-time across environments providing developers guardrails.
Root Cause Analysis: Leveraging AI, X/Y correlation data, and adaptive testing, platforms like EqualWeb isolate underlying UI triggers of accessibility defects surfacing systemic issues.
Remediation Workflow Tools: New built-in remediation flows create and auto-assign accessibility tickets directly to owners based on test failures – expediting fix turnaround.
Let‘s Champion Digital Equality Together
With the ethical, legal and business motivations to provide disability support clearer than ever, the case for integrating automated accessibility testing into your validation stack has never been stronger.
As a seasoned quality champion that’s consulted many brands over the years, I’m confident this guide provides the real-world tips and tactical steps to significantly streamline efforts.
And achieving digital equality relies on all of us working collectively to apply automation intelligently and drive better outcomes.
If you have any other questions as you progress on your accessibility journey, don’t hesitate to reach out! I’m always happy to help fellows testers maximize impact.
