Comprehensive Guide to Cypress Accessibility Testing

Accessibility. As someone who has lived with disability for over 15 years, that word holds deep meaning. It represents freedom, empowerment and dignity. The ability to access websites, apps and devices many take for granted has been a hard-won right for the disabled.

I still vividly remember the early 2000s internet with its flashing gifs and text-heavy sites completely unusable with a screen reader. But things have progressed remarkably thanks to pioneering accessibility efforts. And with automated testing tools like cypress, we are closer than ever to the dream of truly inclusive digital experiences.

In this comprehensive guide, I‘ll share everything I‘ve learned over a decade of enabling accessibility through cypress test automation. I hope it spurs you into action as well!

Why Accessibility Matters

Consider these shocking statistics on disability prevalence globally:

Over 1 billion people experience some form of disability
Vision impairment affects around 300 million people
Hearing loss impacts 430 million people
More than 200 million have intellectual disabilities

Source: World Health Organization

With such a large addressable audience, building accessible digital products is not just an ethical imperative but also smart business.

Many countries have also enacted accessibility legislation like the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) that mandates compliance. Organizations can face serious legal consequences for inaccessibility.

Clearly, there is tremendous value – moral, social and financial – in ensuring technology access. The first step is understanding how people with disabilities use the web and how to test for it.

What is Accessibility Testing?

Accessibility testing checks that sites and apps meet usability standards for those with disabilities. Testers simulate usage with assistive technologies and validate compliance with guidelines like WCAG 2.1.

Some key aspects include:

Types of Disabilities

Visual – low vision, color blindness, blindness
Hearing – deaf or hard of hearing
Motor – inability to use mouse or keyboard
Cognitive – learning disorders, distractibility

Assistive Technologies

Screen readers – convert text and images to speech
Screen magnifiers – enlarge portions of screen
Speech recognition – voice commands to operate computer
Braille displays – convert text to braille characters

Accessibility Standards

WCAG 2.1 categorizes criteria into 3 levels of compliance:

A – Basic accessible components present
AA – Complete Range of assistive tech supported
AAA – Enhanced UI experience for disabilities

By considering diverse users and assistive technology, we can design experiences inclusive for all.

Automated Testing Tools

Automated testing accelerates identifying accessibility issues:

Popular Tools

Axe – Detects a11y issues on web pages
WAVE – Identifies WCAG compliance errors
Tenon – API for accessibility analysis
Lighthouse – Chrome survey tool

How They Work

These tools use algorithms and heuristics to parse page DOM and detect patterns that may cause accessibility failures based on WCAG criteria.

Pros

Provides quick list of potential issues
Covers large test surface area
Easy to integrate into build pipelines

Cons

Prone to false positives due to reliance on fixed rules
Needs manual verification of findings
Misses conditional issues

Integrating with Cypress

The cypress-axe plugin makes incorporating automated axe testing into cypress easy:

npm install -D cypress-axe

AXE can then be injected and checks added:

beforeEach(() => {
  cy.injectAxe();
})

it(‘Has no detectable a11y violations‘, () => {
  cy.checkA11y(); 
})

This prints any failures with offending HTML during test runs for easy debugging.

Manual Testing Methodologies

While tools do the heavy lifting for surface-level checks, to confirm real user impact often requires human testing.

Assistive Technology Testing

Validating site interaction under Assistive Technology usage – screen readers, magnifiers etc – identifies deeper issues.

Simulating Disabilities

Testers can simulate impairments like low vision (blurring pages), hearing loss (disabling audio) etc to user test flows.

Common Techniques

Other manual testing methods include:

Keyboard only navigation testing
Color contrast checking
Screen reader pronunciation validation
Custom scripts to alter page styling

The manual testing confirms whether the issues caught by automation are truly blocking to disabled users.

End-to-End Testing with Cypress

Cypress helps setup robust automated testing pipelines while also enabling human-driven validation.

Cypress Capabilities

Some key traits make Cypress well-suited for accessibility testing:

Easy syntax for writing and reading tests
Developer-friendly time travel debugging
Support for responsive testing across viewports
Ability to mock user interactions
Integrates accessibility plugins like cypress-axe

Writing Cypress Tests

Here is sample code for login page testing:

describe(‘Login Accessibility Tests‘, () => {

  beforeEach(() => {
    cy.visit(‘/login‘);
    cy.injectAxe();
  })

  it(‘Has no detectable a11y violations‘, () => {
    cy.checkA11y();
  })

  it(‘Can login blind user via keyboard‘, () => {
    cy.get(‘#username‘).type(‘[email protected]‘)
    cy.get(‘#password‘).type(‘temp123{enter}‘) 
  })

})

Debugging Failures

Cypress enables inspecting failed checks right within the browser-based test runner by clicking on the error.

The highlighted HTML along with violation descriptions accelerate understanding deficiencies.

Comprehensive Testing Strategy

For thorough testing, the hybrid approach combining automation and human testing is ideal.

Prioritizing User Journeys

Focus manual testing on the most critical user journeys rather than the full application. Common priority flows include:

Account login
Checkout
Form submission
Media consumption like video watching

CI/CD Integration

Run automated checks as part of Continuous Integration pipelines to catch issues early. Manual testing can be incorporated into release gates before deployment.

Ongoing Testing Vision

View accessibility as an ongoing facet requiring continuous testing across phases, not a one-time criteria. Follow an shift-left approach addressing this in design stage itself.

10 Tips for Cypress Accessibility Testing

Here are key tips for maximizing impact of cypress accessibility testing:

Deep dive into WCAG guidelines to understand criteria
Simulate real disabilities like blindness to empathize
Focus manual testing on key journeys not full coverage
Grade violations by severity to prioritize fixing
Have domain experts review findings to minimize false positives
Invest in specialised tooling like premium axe and browsers
Automate PDF testing using tools like PDFNet
Leverage CI/CD to prevent regressions
Surface actionable reporting on defects
Drive adoption through coaching on accessibility discipline

Sample Test Suite: Login Page

Let‘s walk through a Cypress test suite for validating accessibility of a typical login page.

Login Page Elements

The page has following components:

Page title and instructions
Text input for email
Text input for password
Submit button
Forgot password link

Automated Scans

First we run an automated scan using cypress-axe:

// scans using axe engine  
cy.checkA11y()

Next we address any detected issues like:

Missing form labels
Low color contrast errors
Incorrect ARIA attributes

Manual Testing

For manual validation by simulation:

Navigate page using keyboard only
Test page with no styles using cy.intercept()
Have screen reader user test login flows
Validate flows as a user with motor disability

This completes the critical test cases for accessibility.

Overcoming Accessibility Testing Challenges

Top Challenges

Some common pain points in accessibility testing initiatives:

Lack of awareness on importance
Expensive assistive tools and experts
Delayed testing leaving little time
Difficulty convincing business owners

Potential Solutions

Here are some ideas to drive change:

Show financial returns of inclusive design
Highlight legal and reputation risks
Socialize best practices through talks
Sponsor developers to attend conferences
Start small and demonstrate quick wins

Call to Action

Review your site against WCAG 2.1 AA standards
Install cypress-axe and run initial scans
Allocate budget for assistive technologies
Create internal evangelists across teams

Expert Interview on Cypress Best Practices

I had the privilege of chatting with Mary Fernandez, a leading test automation consultant specialized in accessibility testing. With over 18 years optimizing testing, performance and quality processes at Amazon, Microsoft, Oracle and other Fortune 500 companies, she has tremendous insight on cypress and accessibility.

Here are some key learnings from our conversation:

On getting started with cypress:

“Cypress’s time travel debugging is a game changer. It enables all team members to understand the exact context of failures – whether accessibility or functional. This helps rally the troops to come together to fix those defects.”

On balancing automated and manual testing:

“Automated tools are great for regression testing and catching superficial issues early. But to prevent lawsuits from users with assistive technology, manual testing is a must. Having real people validate flows with screen readers etc is vital for stamping out blocking issues.”

On top tips for readers:

“My one tip would be to not treat accessibility as an afterthought. From day one of product ideation, bake it into design discussions. Wireframing flows tailored to screen reader users, for example, prevents much heartache down the line compared to bolting on accessibility late. The key is instilling this mindset of inclusive design across teams.”

Key Takeaways

Cypress enables rapid validation via time travel debugging
Automation complements manual testing using real assistive technology
Shift accessibility left starting from the design phase

The Importance of Digital Accessibility

I‘d like to conclude this guide by reiterating why accessibility matters, as championed by many luminaries:

“To withhold access to disabled individuals would be a fundamental violation of the basic principle that animates the ADA-‘equality of opportunity, full participation, independent living, and economic self-sufficiency.’” – Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor

“If we design things correctly, we can design things to include everybody.” – Head of Xbox Phil Spencer

We still have work ahead in achieving this vision. Currently millions suffer exclusion due to inaccessible websites and applications. It Restricts economic access and prevents disabled users fully participating in 21st century life.

By automating accessibility testing and focusing explicitly on this aspect early, we get one step closer to the dream of inclusive design.
My hope is that this guide spurs your own journey, whether you contribute directly to building more accessible products or evangelize these practices in your companies. Together we can create positive change.

Key Takeaways

Here are the core lessons on effectively leverage cypress for accessibility:

Complement automated checks with manual testing using assistive technology for comprehensive coverage
Focus efforts on highest impact journeys rather than all flows
Fixing issues late is expensive – integrate accessibility into design and commit resources upfront
Drive culture change through training and events on accessibility discipline

I welcome your thoughts and questions in the comments! Let me know what resonated or what else you would like to see covered. Now over to you as accessibility champions 💪💻