What is Accessibility Testing?

What Is Accessibility Testing?

Accessibility testing is a type of software testing where the main objective of the tester is to validate that the product is equally usable by people with disablities. This definition on a broader level would also include people having hardware technical challenges as well.

Example of Accessibility Testing

Some examples of tools that get integrated with applications for more accessbility are:

1. Speech Recognition: This feature is widely used in applications having videos and audios. Subtitles are also built on the same use case. Speech recognition converts speech to text which allows application to be used by people suffering from hear loss. On wider perspective, it is also useful for people having speaker issues in their hardware.
2. Text to speech extension: People suffering from visual impairments can hear a text via these softwares. These extensions are widely used in news sites or applications with heavy text.
3. Screen Magnification: In old age specifically there comes lot of eye sight based issues. Eye sight problems is faced by majority of people anyway in the world. Screen magnification gives life to those people use the application without any trouble.
4. Special keyboards: Keywords with mic option, Keywords with movement features etc are there is the market for people facing physical challenges to type.

Purpose of Accessibility Testing

1. To cater to people with disability section: Accessibility testing ensures specially abled section of the society is also having at par user experience.
2. Allow product to be used in case of hardware failures: In case microphone, speaker, keyboard failures of laptop or mobile. Still person is able to enjoy the features of the web and mobile application.
3. To promote Inclusitivity: The product which promotes inclusitivity gains trust among the people. Trust becomes a huge factor as company grows. As more people would use the product, the company would also grow.

Myths about Testing Website Accessibility

1. Accessibility testing can be skipped: Accessibility testing is not optional as if your product is growing, and doesnt include sections of people the company would be violating many fundamental rights of equality.

2. Accessibility testing is expensive: To make a product accessible. Well-tested products are added as extension to the website or app product. Only integration testing is done here.

3. Accessibility is only for specially abled section: Accessibility main aim is inclusitivity, but is also a crucial part in case of hardware failure.

Challenges of Accessibility Test

1. Integration Testing: Accessibility testing is used for integration testing. Integration testing with an external application where data flow, testing in itself is tricky.

2. Setting up test environment: Enviornment setup for test cases for use of cases like special keyboards is tough as it involves medical expertise as well.

3. Validating test cases: Validating if the test case has passed, efficiency of it again requires huge medical dependency.

How to Do Accessibility Testing?

Accessibility Testing is usually done in 2 ways which are:

1. Manual Accessibility Testing Manual accessibility testing is a hands-on approach to evaluating the accessibility of digital products and services. Testers interact with websites, applications, or software using assistive technologies like screen readers, keyboard-only navigation, and magnification tools to simulate the experience of users with different impairments. Manual accessibility testing allows for a comprehensive evaluation, considering factors such as usability, interaction, and contextual elements that automated tools may overlook. By incorporating manual accessibility testing into the development process, organizations can ensure their digital products are truly inclusive and usable by everyone.

2. Automated Accessibility Testing Automated accessibility testing is a method used to assess the accessibility of digital products and services through the use of specialized tools and software. These tools analyze the underlying code, structure, and content of websites, applications, or software to identify potential accessibility issues. Automated testing can quickly scan large volumes of content, perform checks for common accessibility violations, and generate reports with detailed findings. It helps developers and testers identify issues such as missing alternative text for images, insufficient color contrast, improper heading structure, or inaccessible form elements.

Disabilties covered under Manual and Automated Accessibility Testing

1. Visual disability:

• People with weaker eyesight must have magnification, light adjustment and text to speech features.
• Screen reader should be operatable via voice commands like Alexa operates in Amazon.
• Keyboard also should be operatable from voice commands.
• Alerts having sound features.

2. Hearing disability:

• Having subtitles for videos and audios content.
• Keyboards with vibrations for every sound based commands.
• Navigations having text for routes to take.

3. Speech disability:

• Text to speech integration at microphone.
• Shorter ways to write text using shortcuts and mouse actions.
• Using AI tools to predict user patterns of text based on geolocations and previous searches.

Accessibility Testing Tools

1. Quality Logic:

• Quality Logic is quality service provider company specializing in accessibility testing
• The company tests the website functionalities for accessibility and provide continuous support to achieve the website accessibility for visually and hearing impaired people
• Company also specializing in certification program for accessibility.

2. Wave:

• WAVE is a collection of evauation tools to ensure web content is more accessible for people with disabilities
• They provide Accessibility IMpact (AIM) service for gathering information about site's accessibility
• They have subscription WAVE API model which companies can pay for getting information about site's accessibility.

3. Jaws:

• JAWS stands for Job Access With Speech is a popular screen reader helping visually impaired to navigate to site facing challenges in keyboard and mouse operations.
• It provides Braille based output for applications.
• It helps to browse the Internet and even write an email

4. Dynomapper:

• It provides Website Accessibility Testing for companies.
• It would rate your site and also support in measures to be taken.
• It covers multiple disabilities like speech and vision.

5. Designer:

• It is a disability simulator to helps designers make usable by mostly the visually impaired.
• Voice browsering and screen reading functionality is also provided.
• Currently the tool is not suitable for highly graphical material.

Accessibility Test Checklist/Test Cases/Scenarios

• Video and audio content should have controls
• Icons and images should have magnification options.
• Alerts and prompts have audio for visually impaired people.
• Colors of the application should be adjustable. Dark mode feature should be present.
• Video and audio content should be subtitled and text attached.