6 January 2023
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18 January 2023
15 Minutes Read 
BY
Adarsh Gupta
Imagine that you are blind and trying to book a flight on a website. You are using a screen reader to navigate the site, but you find that the buttons and links are unlabeled, and there are no alt tags on the images. This makes it difficult for you to use the site, and you become frustrated as you are unable to complete your task. How would you feel in this situation?
There are many instances where people with disabilities may have difficulty using products, services, or websites. For example, a screen reader may not be able to access the content of a website, or it may be difficult to use a mobile app with only one hand. These situations highlight the significance of accessibility testing to ensure that people with disabilities can effectively use these products and services.
As technology continues to advance, it’s important to ensure that everyone has equal access to the digital world. Accessibility testing plays a crucial role in this by identifying and addressing barriers that may prevent certain individuals from using a website or application. In this blog, we’ll explore the various techniques and tools used in accessibility testing, as well as best practices for creating accessible digital products. Join us as we work towards a more inclusive digital landscape for all.
The World Health Organization estimates that 1.3 billion people today live with a disability, comprising 16% of the global population. Any product or service is said to be accessible if they are usable by people who are differently abled.
An accessibility practice involves making websites, mobile applications, and other digital products or services accessible to all the people who are using them. A person can be disabled in many different ways, which may affect their ability to use products.
Visual, hearing, mobility, and cognitive disabilities can all pose barriers to accessibility. The developer has to make sure the final result is an accessible product, and the tester has to ensure the product is accessible.
Accessibility is important for several reasons, including
There are several social commitments that companies and organizations can make to support accessibility testing and improve the accessibility of their products and services. Some examples of these commitments might include:
Making products and services accessible can help people with disabilities participate more fully in society, which can improve their overall quality of life. Accessibility not only benefits people with disabilities, but it can also make products and services better for everyone.
People with disabilities may have difficulty accessing and using the web because of a variety of disabilities. Several types of disabilities can affect web accessibility, including:
Visual impairment: People with visual disabilities such as blindness, and low vision might have difficulties seeing the visual content on the page.
Auditory impairment: Audio content on the web may be difficult to hear for people with auditory difficulties, such as deafness or hearing loss.
Motor impairments: People who have motor impairments, such as spinal cord injuries or mobility issues, may find it challenging to use a mouse or keyboard to navigate the internet.
Accessibility testing is the practice of testing a product, service, or device to ensure that it is accessible to people with disabilities. This can include testing for visual, auditory, motor, and cognitive impairments and other types of disabilities.
The goal of accessibility testing is to identify any barriers to access that may exist and to make recommendations for how to remove or mitigate those barriers so that the product, service, or device is as accessible as possible. Accessibility testing is an integral part of the design and development process and can help to ensure that a product is usable by the widest possible audience.
Here is a simple breakdown of accessibility testing:
Planning: This stage involves identifying the goals and objectives of the accessibility testing, selecting the target audience and testing environment, and developing a testing plan.
Preparation and design: As you plan your test, you will identify certain aspects that will most impact users. You can prepare and gather the necessary tools, resources, and guidelines that you should follow.
Implementation: During this stage, testers evaluate the product or service for accessibility issues using various methods, such as manual testing, automated testing, or user testing.
Analyze: At this stage, testers review the results of testing to identify any issues. As a result, recommendations may be created to improve the product’s accessibility.
Reporting: Testers compile and present their findings in a report. This report is usually shared with the development team and includes a summary of the testing process, a list of identified issues, and suggestions for improving the accessibility of the product or service.
Here are some specific tests that can be performed to ensure that an application is accessible for users:
Test for sufficient color contrast: Use a color contrast checker to ensure that the text and background colors have sufficient contrast, as defined by the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). This is important for users with low vision or color blindness.
Test for highlighted links: Confirm that highlighted links are distinguishable from surrounding text and can be easily identified by low-vision users.
Calculate the recommended line height: Multiply the font size by 1.5 to determine the recommended line height. For example, if the font size is 16 pixels, the recommended line height would be 24 pixels.
Test for time-based interactions: Provide the user with the option of pausing or adjusting time-based interactions, such as quizzes and carousels, since certain users may have difficulty completing these interactions on time.
Mobile device testing: Test the application on various mobile devices, including smartphones and tablets, to ensure that it is accessible to users who use these kinds of devices.
There are several tools and techniques that can be used to conduct accessibility testing to ensure that a website or other digital product is accessible to people with disabilities. Some common tools and techniques include:
Automated accessibility testing tools
Using automated accessibility testing tools, you are able to scan a website or other digital content and identify potential accessibility problems. There are many such tools, and some of the most popular ones include
WAVE:
WAVE is a set of assessment tools that authors can use to make their web content more accessible to people with disabilities. WAVE can identify many accessibility issues and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) errors, but it also facilitates human evaluation of web content.
axe®
The axe® tool is a browser extension that can be used to scan a webpage for potential accessibility issues. It provides a report on any issues it finds and suggests ways to fix them.
Google Lighthouse
The Google Lighthouse, like the majority of accessibility tools, evaluates web content in reference to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). WCAG, which is published by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), is the accepted digital accessibility standard.
Screen readers
A screen reader is a type of assistive technology that outputs text and image content as speech or braille. It basically reads the content displayed on a screen out loud. It is primarily used by people who have low vision to access digital content.
Text-to-speech software
An application that converts written text into audio is known as text-to-speech software. You can use it to read electronic documents aloud, like news articles, reports, and eBooks. Sometimes you don’t need to install any special program or tool, there are some inbuilt libraries available in programming languages, with which we can build a text to speech software within the application.
Magnification software
Software that enables users to enlarge website content is known as magnification software, and it is beneficial for those with visual impairments. The features of magnification software include things like pointer trails, color adjustments, and adjustable magnification.
Web AIM Color Contrast Checker
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines state that normal text for Level AA should have a color contrast ratio of 4.5:1. The normal text must have a contrast ratio of 7:1 to reach Level AAA.
This tool will analyze the two colors you’ve selected and provide the color contrast ratio. You can determine whether a color scheme will violate any accessibility guidelines before you start using it.
Manual Testing in Accessibility
There are several steps you can take to manually test the accessibility of a product or service; some of the recommended ways include:
Testing a product or service on actual people with disabilities can be an effective way to judge its accessibility and spot any usability barriers. The development team can then assess what needs to be improved. Recruiting a group of people and giving them instructions on how to use the product is the first step.
The users can go through the application and then share their thoughts and overall experience, which will help identify any issues they face.
Simulation
With the advance of technology, it is possible to simulate what it would be like to use a good or service while having a disability. For example, a developer might use a screen reader simulation tool to test the accessibility of a website or application for users who are blind or have low vision.
Heuristic evaluation
It is a technique for assessing a product’s or service’s usability that involves using a set of predefined heuristics, or guidelines, to spot potential usability problems.
The guidelines may be based on standards such as the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). WCAG is a set of internationally recognized guidelines for making web content more accessible to people with disabilities.
As a software tester, there are several key considerations and best practices to keep in mind when testing for accessibility in web applications:
Many additional techniques can help the tester and developer create an accessible product, and they have to make sure that all users can see the page’s content.
To ensure that the application is accessible to everyone, many nations have adopted specific measures as well as various legal and regulatory frameworks. Here are a few examples of legal and regulatory frameworks for web accessibility:
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG):
The World Wide Web Consortium’s Web Accessibility Initiative has a number of accessibility recommendations, including the WCAG guidelines.
It is a set of recommendations that are widely accepted for enhancing the accessibility of web content for those with disabilities. It offers a list of technical and functional specifications that may be used to assess how accessible web content is.
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
The ADA is a federal law that prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities in the United States.
It applies to websites and online services that are considered “public accommodations” and requires that they be accessible to individuals with disabilities.
According to the ADA, “accessible site” refers to a site, facility, work environment, service, or program that is easy to approach, enter, operate, participate in, and/or use safely and with dignity by a person with a disability.
The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 (RPwD Act)
In order to safeguard and advance the rights of people with disabilities, India has passed the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 (RPwD Act). It establishes a system for the defense and advancement of the rights of people with disabilities and offers a legal framework for doing so.
These are just a few examples; many other nations have taken various steps to guarantee that everyone is treated fairly and that no one is overlooked because of their disability. This is one of the most important reasons to create a user-friendly application.
Testers are humans, and they are bound to make mistakes. However, here are some of the most common mistakes that software testers should avoid when conducting accessibility testing.
Here are some of the common mistakes that should be avoided in accessibility testing:
It is important to make sure you build an application that is accessible, and though it might not be 100% perfect, we should maintain the minimum standard to make sure that no one is ignored in the first place.
Congratulations on reaching this far! You’re a fantastic reader!
In this detailed blog on accessibility testing, we looked at how we can make our application accessible. We have looked into various accessibility tools that are popular in the testing community. We have also covered some of the best practices that ought to be followed when conducting accessibility testing.
By making commitments to accessibility and using a combination of automated and manual testing tools, companies and organizations can work to create products that are inclusive and accessible to all.
6 January 2023
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A full-stack JavaScript developer based in India. I love creating meaningful technical content on Twitter, where I connect with like-minded individuals and developer communities. I share my knowledge on Twitter through insightful threads! and I am very curious about advanced tools and Web technologies and loves to be a part of the fast-moving technological world.
