Hi there! As an app and browser testing expert with over 10 years of experience validating experiences across thousands of device and browser combinations, I‘m passionate about the topic of accessibility.
Accessibility testing checks if a digital product like a website, mobile app, or software system can be fully accessed and used by people with disabilities. For example, can a blind person easily navigate a webpage using a screen reader? Or could someone with limited motor function control everything with just a keyboard?
Accessibility is the practice of designing user interfaces so they can be understood and operated by people with disabilities. Common accessibility issues include:
- Non-text content like images lacking proper textual descriptions
- Insufficient color contrast making text hard to read
- Videos without captions for deaf users
- Site navigation requiring fine motor control that may be difficult for some users
With over 1 billion people worldwide living with disabilities, building digital products accessible to everyone is a moral and business imperative.
In this comprehensive guide, we‘ll cover:
Section 1: Importance of Accessibility Testing
Section 2: Laws and Standards Around Accessibility
Section 3: How People With Disabilities Use Digital Products
Section 4: Accessibility Testing Best Practices
Section 5: Automated Testing Tools
Section 6: Manual Testing and Assistive Technologies
Section 7: Reporting Metrics and Insights
Let‘s get started with why accessibility matters in the first place.
Section 1: Importance of Accessibility Testing
Ensuring digital products work for people with disabilities provides benefits across the board:
Business Benefits
- Reach more users – 15% of the world‘s population lives with some form of disability
- Attract top talent – Showcases company values
- Avoid legal issues – Violations can lead to hefty court and settlement fees
- Improve organic reach – More accessible sites have better SEO
User Benefits
- Equal online access rights
- Greater independence without assistance
- Tools adapted to user needs empower inclusion
Given these benefits, performing robust accessibility testing deserves to be a top priority.
Current State of Accessibility
Unfortunately, many sites today still contain major accessibility barriers:
- 71% of top websites audited contained WCAG failures
- 85% of sites didn‘t fully support screen readers
- 88% of pages tested had insufficient color contrast
Clearly more work remains to make digital experiences appropriately inclusive.
Next we‘ll explore the legal landscape driving accessibility change.
Section 2: Laws and Standards Around Accessibility
Various web accessibility regulations and standards around the world aim to ensure equal digital access.
United States Legislation
- Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) – Prohibits discrimination based on disability
- Section 508 – Requires U.S. federal agencies‘ sites accommodate disabled users
- 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act – Mandates accessibility for modern tech like mobile apps
Recent cases demonstrate ADA and 508 legal risks organizations potentially face by neglecting accessibility:
- Domino‘s Pizza lawsuit for a site inaccessible to blind customers, settled for $25 million
- Winn-Dixie penalized $250,000 for ADA violations preventing a blind patron from refilling prescriptions online
- EdX online education portal fined $155,000 over learning platform accessibility issues
International Standards
- Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 (WCAG 2.1) – International standard for web accessibility defining compliance levels
- EN 301 549 – European web and mobile product accessibility specifications harmonized with WCAG
- BS 8878:2010 – Former UK web accessibility coding standard preceding EN 301 549
Government sites in particular require WCAG and related standards compliance or risk facing legal penalties. But overall any organization can benefit from integrating these best practices.
Now let‘s explore common assistive technologies used by people with disabilities.
Section 3: How People With Disabilities Use Digital Products
Understanding how those with impairments access computers and mobile devices helps reveal areas to focus accessibility efforts on.
Motor Impairments
Those with dexterity issues impacting movement may use:
- Alternative mice – Like trackballs, joysticks or touchpads
- Eye gaze systems – Track eye movements to control cursor
- Head pointers – Pointers strapped to forehead
- Speech recognition software – Voice commands to control devices
- Keyboard shortcuts – For one handed operation
Ensure site navigation works fully via keyboard without requiring complex mouse coordination skills users may lack.
Blindness and Low Vision
Those with complete or partial visual impairments may use:
- Screen magnification software – Enlarges screen content
- Braille displays – Show content in tactile braille characters
- Screen readers – Text to speech software like JAWS, VoiceOver and NVDA
- Refreshable braille displays – Converts screen text into braille
Provide text equivalents for visual aspects. Design sites to elegantly integrate with screen readers through proper heading hierarchy, ARIA landmark roles and semantic HTML.
Deafness and Hearing Loss
Those fully or partially deaf may use:
- Hearing aids – Amplify sounds directly into ear canals
- Cochlear implants – Surgery implants to stimulate auditory nerve
- Hearing loop systems – Magnetic induction to hear audio sources clearly
Don‘t rely solely on audio cues to convey critical information. Provide synchronized captions for multimedia and visual alerts to supplement audio guidance.
Cognitive Disabilities
Those with intellectual impairments impacting cognition use various assistive technologies:
- Text-to-speech readers – Speak website content aloud to aid comprehension
- Speech recognition systems– Dictate text rather than type
- Alternative keyboards – Like word prediction keyboards offering ease-of-use enhancements
- Apps and extensions – To simplify reading, highlight key text passages and definitions
Follow plain language guidelines when writing instructional content. Allow extra time for completing tasks without timing out. Provide illustrations alongside descriptions.
So in summary – consider diverse needs during design and testing!
Next I‘ll share best practices for conducting accessibility evaluations.
Section 4: Accessibility Testing Best Practices
Robust accessibility testing checks experiences with various assistive technologies to catch issues. Key areas to cover include:
Automated Testing – Efficiently catch technical errors against standards
Manual Testing – Contextualized human testing with screen readers and more
User Testing – Observe actual people with disabilities using the product
Reporting & Analysis – Quantify current maturity and improvements needed
I suggest an accessibility testing plan consisting of:
- Automated scans to establish baseline compliance
- Manual assistive technology testing to confirm automated scan findings
- User testing sessions with participants representing major disability types
- Regular reporting quantifying improvements
This ensures you efficiently test technical aspects while seeing real user challenges assistive technology interactions occasionally introduce.
Now let‘s explore popular automated checking tools.
Section 5: Automated Accessibility Testing Tools
Automated tools help audit many common accessibility failures quickly. They follow established standards like WCAG to programmatically flag potential issues including:
- Missing alternative text for images
- Low color contrast ratios
- Empty links containing no text
- Missing form input labels
Leading options include:
Axe Coconut
- Open source Chrome and Firefox browser extension
- Tests against WCAG standards
- Easy integration into test automation frameworks
WAVE Tool
- Browser plugin highlighting accessibility issues on web pages
- Checks color contrast, ARIA roles, focus order and more
Tenon.io
- Web interface to test sites against WCAG criteria
- Detailed reporting useful for prioritizing fixes
Microsoft Accessibility Insights
- Tests for WCAG standards compliance
- Integrated into Microsoft‘s development platform and tools
- Full suite covering all testing types – automated, manual, and user testing
Automation efficiently surfaces technical errors, while manual testing reveals usability issues around real assistive technology use.
Section 6: Manual Testing and Assistive Technologies
While automated checks have advantages in quickly analyzing code quality at scale, manual testing provides additional context.
Evaluators should interact with sites while using assistive technologies to uncover challenges automation alone might miss. Example techniques include:
Screen Readers
Enable a screen reader like VoiceOver or JAWS to check pages vocalize cleanly through text-to-speech conversion without confusing users relying on audio cues alone.
Screen Magnifiers
Crank up magnification to 400% or greater to check site text gracefully resizes without horizontal scrolling at high zoom levels potentially needed by some users.
Color Blindness Simulators
Browser extensions like NoCoffee simulate various types of color vision deficiencies. Ensure critical text and images remain distinguishable when color perception is limited.
Keyboard Navigation
Disable mouse input and tab through page elements, verifying keyboard focus efficiently reaches key zones without need for complex spatial navigation abilities some users lack.
Contrast Checkers
Accessibility color contrast checkers quantify the degree of visual separation between foreground and background colors to ensure sufficient legibility.
Hands-on assistive technology testing allows evaluating real scenarios automation can overlook. But for total confidence, include actual people with disabilities.
Section 7: Reporting Metrics and Insights
To determine overall site accessibility maturity and track improvements during development cycles, quantifiable data should be captured across testing activities.
Suggested metrics to frame evaluations include:
Automated Testing
- WCAG conformance level
- Total accessibility errors by type
- Errors by impact severity
Manual Testing
- Unique issues found through assistive technology use per session
- Severity levels of discoveries
- Page elements difficult to operate with technologies
User Testing
- Task success rates
- Observed pain points and difficulties
- Satisfaction ratings
Site-Wide
- Page URLs lacking substantial conformity to standards
- Digital products without necessary accessibility support resources for users
Comparing metrics over time demonstrates where maturity improves and highlights areas still requiring work. Share reports to spur accessibility innovation!
Let‘s Recap Key Takeaways
- Accessibility testing checks sites and apps work for people with disabilities
- Laws require digital access accommodating impairments
- Understand how assistive technologies are actually used
- Blend automated scans, manual testing and feedback from disabled users
- Regularly report on maturity indicators showing gaps
I hope this guide has framed an approach helping make accessibility testing a priority! Please connect with me here if any questions come up applying insights from this resource.
