5 Recommendations For Accessibility Testing

As the new year is shining its light upon us, the growing requirement for investing in accessibility testing is increasing. While it is right to say that this requirement has strived for a long time, the pandemic offers a stronger pose for a grounded emphasis and the corresponding requirement for availing accessibility testing tools. As a result, 2022 will continue to focus on sustaining a digitally included system and areas that will help enhance the domain.

Recommendations for Accessibility Testing

Let’s take a look at certain recommendations that you can implement in accessibility testing for seeing what this new year will be presenting us with:

1. Accessibility is no more an afterthought

The conventional procedure of bringing a product to life is always considered accessibility as an afterthought. However, the notion that existed was once you release a built product then accessibility comes into play therein. But involved complexities with this age-old process are numerous, from overhauling the whole code to rectifying accessibility pain points for releasing a product that accounts for over 15% of the total world population that lives with some disability in the first place.

As a recommendation for incorporating accessibility, you can adopt this trend as it is advancing. As a parallel effort throughout development and the core engineering processes, you can consider accessibility essentially. Thus, web accessibility testing would become a general effort for identifying and eradicating any issues that would plague differently-abled end users. Meaning accessibility would also help align with the set accessibility of laws and guidelines such as Section 508, the Americans and Disabilities Act(ADA), and WACG.

Thus, instead of considering accessibility as an afterthought, the shifting left could be the way for going forward. It should deliberately be paid interest to and included as an equal effort from the get-go for ensuring minimal remediations in the end. If you do this from the designing stage, a product with a comprehensive design could do wonders for advancing accessibility.

2. Advantage of Automation Inaccessibility

Else the foothold of automation is establishing in the digital place its importance and requirement in the domain of accessibility are growing simultaneously. A few years ago, what couldn’t be thought of was incorporating the nuances of AI and ML within accessibility automation testing with Selenium and it is becoming a reality today.

Organizations have started leveraging their automation capability within accessibility for arriving faster and economical results. For example, using test automation tools within accessibility testing comprehensive test coverage will become helpful for identifying pinpoints easily and early on. Additionally, our human-centric approach is equally significant. Taking into account the end user’s perspective becomes remarkably essential for delivering a wholesome product. Automation does only so much in ensuring faster deliverables.

Nevertheless, real users add immense value to the product when it comes to logical coherence. For instance, automation tools that check all text for delivering the right meaning as a real user play a key role. So while the paired testing laboratory testing effort of an SME and its differently-abled user could perform wonders in arriving at realistic results, you can execute it in a parallel environment with an automated testing effort.

3. Accessibility as part of Mobile Application Testing

When smartphone apps have become an indispensable part of our lives, the need to make them available to everyone has become a pressing concern. Moreover, with the pandemic as a whole, reliance on smartphone apps has skyrocketed. It was a significant shift for differently-abled people who had previously relied solely on smartphone applications for their day-to-day tasks, such as shopping, phone calls, and so on. As a result, accessibility automation testing with Selenium is becoming more common, but it also needs improvement to help consumers use apps more smoothly. Any usability bottlenecks can be quickly detected and removed with a combined method by using automation testing tools and actual users testing a mobile application—especially with a shift-left approach to do so early on. In addition, you can do accessibility checking for smartphone devices quickly with the aid of software or assistive technology. 

4. Accessibility is not just for the Differently-Abled

Accessibility has long been regarded as a distinct nuance for people of varying abilities. However, this idea is flawed since the domain now encompasses any single person that uses the internet. You can translate it in two ways: first, inclusion is commonly known in the literal sense of making a commodity accessible to all people, and second, recognizing the need for a technologically inclusive space and raising consciousness about it must be vigorously promoted.

Because digital transformation is increasing, it is important that everyone be satisfied with their needs. Having technology easy to use in terms of functional abilities benefits all, from students to the elderly. Connectivity is no longer simply a concept for the differently-abled, but all. Understanding this aspect and furthering the notion of digital inclusivity by making accessibility a thought for every person to imbibe and spread information is a solid web accessibility testing recommendation for 2022.

5. Concentrating on Invisible Disabilities

The fields with disabilities have been expanding with WCAG improvement by day, with WCAG 2.2 being shortly launched and WCAG 3.0 being introduced. Besides only visual and auditory impairments, the autism and developmental spectrum have both been at the forefront of latent disorders. Thus, the recommendations were enhanced to bring about a systematic expansion in terms of considering and aligning the best in the market various categories of disability. As the new year offers us an exciting area of accessible research, these guidelines for testing usability will improve browser functionality, such as the introduction of dark mode into websites, since they are in line with the most recent domain developments.

Conclusion

Trends aligned for accessibility testing that have highlighted certain enhancements are expected to materialize this year with all these accessibility testing tools. From accessibility not being considered an afterthought for focusing on intervisible disabilities, these recommendations for accessibility testing would help the trends be alive. It would have the way forward for accessibility testing and incorporate the latest testing effort with the best industry practices and updated guidelines and norms for digital accessibility.

Also Read: Importance of Accessibility Testing for Superior Quality Website