Power Hour - Accessibility Testing

[adystokes]

@gemma.hill1987

Firstly: how are you both so amazing?

Secondly: what tools or heuristics do you use to keep in mind the bits of accessibility that are less…technical I guess? So if you have a tool to check that contrast is okay and you can use a screen reader and things like that, how do you keep in mind things like clear icons and not violating expectations and making sure the design isn’t too distracting or the wording isn’t too complex. The stuff that’s a bit more human.

Aw, shucks Thanks Gem. Back to the question. Let’s start with tools. There’s potentially a big list of tools depending on your specific circumstances but for web a great start is WAVE, Web Accessibility Evaluation (yes, I know it doesn’t quite work as an acronym), available as an add on for both Chrome and Firefox as well as a website (link in the answer to Faith). Also as previously, tools and automation will only get you so far in my experience. As testers, when we explore a system we are never doing one thing. While we might have a clear charter, test case etc. We can’t help but emotionally react to what we are doing. Look and feel, ease of use, the language used are all things we think about while testing. If something annoys you or feels hard, there’s a good chance users will too.

In terms of heuristics as you probably know I like a good visual one so I created the Accessibility Quadrants to show that compliance is only part of a good and accessible site. I included some details in the post I did for the bloggers club on my first experience with accessibility testing. Mine and links to the other posts are on this link, Sprint 13: Your first experiences with accessibility testing - #7 by ThePirateTester