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Hi, in this article we will talk about Accessibility testing.
What is Accessibility testing?
Let’s start with the definition of what is Accessibility testing, is defined as a type of Software Testing performed to ensure that the application being tested is usable by people with disabilities like hearing, color blindness, old age and other disadvantaged groups. Importance for this type of testing covers:
- Easy and efficient access to users with disabilities
- Improves maintainability and efficiency
- Satisfied existing and future legal requirements
Types and causes of disabilities.
There are many types of disabilities that people may experience at one time or another in their lives. These are some of the most common disabilities:
- Physical Disability
- Cognitive Disability
- Eyesight/Vision Disability
- Hearing impairment
- Temporary Disability
Measure of Accessibility feature.
How Web Accessibility is Measured? There are web accessibility standards, like Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), etc. Evaluating the Accessibility of a Website:
- Content
- Size
- Code
- Mark-up languages
Examples of Accessibility testing cases.
Among others some basic tests should verified:
- Page title
- Image text alternatives (“alt text”)
- Headings
- Contrast ratio (“color contrast”)
- etc
Scenarios to check under Accessibility testing.
- If the labels are correctly written
- If the audio/video content is properly audible/visible
- If the color contrast ratio is maintained
- If the short keys are provided for the menu
- If a meaningful multimedia caption is provided
Tools to be used.
From my experience for the web used next tools:
1) Chrome DevTools.
2) Chrome accessibility test under audit tab for scanning the whole page (Chrome Lighthouse)
3) MacOs built-in accessibility features, from System Preferences
4) JAWS, as a screen reader for windows
5) For IOS, accessibility inspector (Xcode built-in)
6) For Android can be activated VoiceOver from System Preferences
Conclusion:
Accessibility testing helps in making your application disabled friendly.
