Accessibility Testing

What is an Accessibility Testing?

Accessibility testing is a subcategory of usability testing under Acceptance testing that is executed to make sure the application can be easily used by people with disabilities such as hearing loss, color blindness, and loss of vision. These disadvantaged groups of people rely on assistive technology to operate all types of electronic devices and software systems. Without accessibility testing, these groups of people would not be able to enjoy most software products.

The end goal of accessibility testing is to ensure that people can easily use a piece of software no matter what the case, and that the feedback given improves future designs and implementations.

This testing method is very formalized. There are laws (and don’t forget the opinion of the public) that look down on those who discriminate against others who have disabilities. In order for companies to be fair and cater to this group of people, there are accessibility standards that must be adhered to such as the WCAG– web content accessibility guidelines. It is important that, when accessibility testing, the software meets the needs of people with all types of disabilities, balances those with differing disabilities, and uses clear language to cater to or meet those needs.

Human needs- Why Accessibility Testing Matters?

With each passing day, the web is assuming greater significance in our lives, be it e-commerce, e-payments, Internet banking, e-paper, social media, etc. So it becomes important to make available all electronic and information technology tools to everyone, especially for people with some kind of disabilities. Web Accessibility testing ensures that individuals with disabilities will be able to use the system. Accessibility Testing helps to comply with legal obligations and make products usable across millions of people who have one or multiple forms of disabilities.

How can you implement Accessibility on your website or software?

• Bigger fonts for users that can’t see very well.
• Narration for article.
• Option to tone up or down for the deaf and heavy hearing.
• Subtitles for videos.
• Use of software helpers for better accessibility like plugins etc.

How to do Accessibility Testing?

Accessibility Testing can be performed in several ways in an application:

Following are the point's needs to be checked for application to be used by all users. This checklist is used for signing off accessibility testing.

• Whether an application provides keyboard equivalents for all mouse operations and windows?
• Whether instructions are provided as a part of user documentation or manual? Is it easy to understand and operate the application using the documentation?
• Whether tabs are ordered logically to ensure smooth navigation?
• Whether shortcut keys are provided for menus?
• Whether application supports all operating systems?
• Whether response time of each screen or page is clearly mentioned so that End Users know how long to wait?
• Whether all labels are written correctly in the application?
• Whether color of the application is flexible for all users?
• Whether images or icons are used appropriately, so it's easily understood by the end users?
• Whether an application has audio alerts?
• Whether a user is able to adjust audio or video controls?
• Whether a user can override default fonts for printing and text displays?
• Whether user can adjust or disable flashing, rotating or moving displays?
• Check to ensure that color-coding is never used as the only means of conveying information or indicating an action
• Whether highlighting is viewable with inverted colors? Testing of color in the application by changing the contrast ratio
• Whether audio and video related content are properly heard by the disability people ? Test all multimedia pages with no speakers in websites
• Whether training is provided for users with disabilities that will enable them to become familiar with the software or application?

Accessibility testing helps in making your application disabled friendly, As our understanding of human needs changes, technology changes as well to adapt to these needs. Accessibility requirements will change over time as current standards will be replaced with new ones. An accessibility evaluation must understand and pay close attention to what it is like to interact with a product using different senses or cognitive abilities.

Ref: 
https://www.guru99.com
https://saucelabs.com