Now the site is built and it’s time for QA to test the Experience. There are a few things you need to keep in mind to help pass web accessibility standards.
User Testing
Provides quantitative and qualitative from real users performing real tasks with a product
Evaluates how usable accessibility solutions are by some people with disabilities
Accessibility testing provides benefits such as:
- Increasing understanding of how people with disabilities use your website or app
- maximizes customer satisfaction where the user is actually able to complete the task they wished to accomplish which makes the customer feel satisfied
- Increase brand recognition
- Increase the number of site visitors
- Improves the experience for all users — even though usability improvements are geared to users with disabilities, overall there are benefits for all users
Some steps to follow when conducting user usability/accessibility testing:
- Create a recruitment plan
- You need to make sure you have the right users in your study
- Need an appropriate sample based on what it is you are testing
- The script should be the same
- Should not include leading language
- The script that you are using to conduct the testing should be the same regardless of the user performance test
- Considerations when conducting the usability test:
- Ask about assistive technology the user is familiar with or has used
- Ask if they are comfortable and willing to turn the speed of the AT (assistive technology) down
- Ask if they are willing to turn the volume of their AT up
- It is good practice to have a quick test page ready to make sure everything is portrayed clearly on your end
- Analyzing test results
- It is important that this question is answered for both the tester and user: did the user accomplish the goal of the test?
- If the answer is no, then it needs to be determined to what degree was the failure
- A second important question to ask is: what was the degree of friction the user encountered when trying to complete the task or test
- Examples of unique accessibility factors to go over in questioning:
- How many tabs did it take to get to the element the user needed to advance in the narrative — the issue may be reading or tab order
- Did they end up cycling through/use shortcuts such as Skip Links — in this case, the functionality may not be marked up for AT properly
- Did they get into a keyboard trap — yes is not the answer you’re looking for
- Were the live region readouts clear as to what the information presented was or how it was properly engaged — functionality should be accurately described for AT
- Was there a general understanding as to how certain pieces of functionality work
QA
About 20% of the entire population has accessibility issues
- 1 in 10 people have a severe disability
- 1 in 2 people over the age of 65 have reduced abilities
When first QAing for accessibility, first you need to step into the shoes of a person with disabilities — experiencing how their experience is different from yours
- People with disabilities physically interact with a computer differently compared to people who do not have disabilities — these interactions if not considered when developing a website will cause an unpleasant and incomprehensible experience
- Put away the mouse — only use the keyboard
- Listen to your site — this will show you what it’s like to use a computer without being able to see the screen
- Myths about testing for website accessibility:
- MYTH: It’s expensive
- FACT: Considering accessibility issues at the design stage itself can reduce the cost
- MYTH: Converting from an inaccessible website is time-consuming
- FACT: Prioritizing these issues can help with the distribution of work that must be done
- MYTH: Accessibility is boring
- FACT: Having an accessible web page doesn’t mean that it can only contain text
- MYTH: Accessibility testing is for blind and disabled people
- FACT: software is useful for all — this testing is for all users
- How is web accessibility measured? with the help of web accessibility standards created by the W3C known as Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) — there are a few other departments who also have developed their own guidelines such as the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)
- Factors of a website to take into consideration:
- Content
- Size
- Code
- Mark-up languages
- Development tools
- Environment
- MYTH: It’s expensive
- Four principles that the WCAG are based on:
- Perceivable Information and user interface — this specifies everything that has to do with text alternatives for non-text content, captions, and other alternatives for multimedia, and different presentations of content
- Operable user interface and navigation — focuses on a website needing to be navigable and interactive entirely through the keyboard
- Understandable information and user interface — the language of the website needs to be very clear (seems obvious but needs attention)
- Robust content and reliable interpretation — compatibility with older, newer, and coming accessible technology
- In the end, QA performs the same tests that they would for usability testing — taking into consideration the tools and software people with disabilities would use
Tools
WAVE: (web accessibility evaluation tool) a tool developed by WebAIM for evaluating accessibility of web contents
- Performs the accessibility evaluation tool which evaluates the accessibility of web content by annotating a copy of the web page
- Shows some recommendations to overcome accessibility issues in the system
- Available online as a toolbar for Chrome and Firefox
JAWS: (Job Access With Speech) a tool developed by Freedom Scientific used as Blindness Solution
[ https://www.freedomscientific.com/products/software/jaws/ ]
- This is the most popular screen reader for customers who have lost their vision
- Popular features include two multi-lingual synthesizers Viz. Eloquence and Vocalizer Expressive
- Compatible with IE, Firefox, and Microsoft Office and also supports Windows
AXe: (the accessibility engine) a tool developed by Deque Systems for Chrome and Firefox
[ https://www.deque.com/axe/ ]
- Can be added as an extension for both Chrome and Firefox
- Shows the exact piece of code that caused the issue along with the solution of how to fix it
- Allows performing manual accessibility testing using a Screen Reader for some areas
SortSite: a popular one click user experience testing tool for Mac, OS X, and Windows
[ https://www.powermapper.com/products/sortsite/checks/accessibility-checks/ ]
- Evaluates accessibility of a website against Accessibility standards such as WCAG 2.0 110 checkpoints, WCAG 1.0 85 checkpoints and Section 508 15 US 47 checkpoints
- Compatible with IE, Desktop browser, and Mobile Browser
- Checks for HTTP error codes and script errors
- Validates HTML, CSS, and XHTML