Can we automate accessibility testing?

When accessibility testing is automated, the entire testing activity becomes sustainable and more efficient.  This in turn helps in providing optimal results that will benefit the organization. Through the strategic implementation of automated accessibility testing, not only the efficiency of the testing process is enhanced, but also irrelevant costs and time are saved to quite an extent. In this article, you will get to know the ways to automate accessibility testing.

Is it necessary to automate accessibility testing?

Automating accessibility testing is considered to be a strategic and wise move. Most of the accessibility testing activities are carried out manually, but, companies are embracing the concept of automating accessibility testing slowly and steadily. Though accessibility testing is not a part of the core development and testing process, still it has its unique and relative importance.

It is better to embed accessibility testing right when the application or website development is being initiated. By applying the shift left technique, accessibility defects can be identified and are considerably less expensive to fix. If accessibility defects are found in the production stage, then the cost of fixing them will be way too high when compared to addressing the issues in the design stage itself.

The significance of automated accessibility testing:

All the users’ need should be met with accessibility testing, especially the need of disabled users should be the focal point. It is already a law in many countries, where business owners dealing with developing websites or user specific applications should implement accessibility testing. According to the WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines), there are specific guidelines that need to be met. If the guidelines are not being met, then the fines imposed would really cost a lot to the company.

In order to make sure that the user is satisfied with the application or website, automated accessibility testing is considered to be important from an implementation perspective. Be in line with WCAG to avoid any sort of business loss. The objective is to make the product easily accessible to the disabled community.

Following are the four steps required to perform automated accessibility testing:

1. Strategic evaluation of the design phase: The core working of accessibility testing begins with the designing phase of the application or website. The components of the user interface are designed by the designers. There should be a proper communication channel between the designers and the developers so that the functionality can be implemented correctly by the developer as communicated by the designer.

2. Incorporate accessibility testing tools: Most of the organizations adopt a manual approach toward accessibility testing. But, with the incorporation of the right accessibility testing tools, the manual approach can be automated. The first step is where generic accessibility testing libraries need to be considered. They’re available for different platforms such as iOS, Android and HTML. By leveraging these libraries, up to 50% of accessibility issues can be identified.

Interactive intelligent guided testing is another accessibility testing tool that can be leveraged. Through this tool, buttons and links can be tested by developers. This in turn makes sure that the accessible names that are associated with links and buttons are accurate. 

3. Automated regression tests need to be developed: Regression tests enhance the performance of automated accessibility testing. The costs of testing are also greatly reduced when regression tests are integrated. Upon that, most of the manual testing tasks can be eliminated from the development process by the strategic implementation of regression tests.

4. Select the right test automation platform: Finally, in order to automate accessibility testing, the right test automation platform needs to be selected. Pick the right service provider who not only has the necessary expertise but also clearly understands your testing specific requirements. After doing the technical and project analysis, the service provider can come up with a credible and feasible test automation platform that is well-suited for your project specific requirements. Also, make sure automation accessibility testing tools can be easily integrated with the test automation platform.

Conclusion: If you are looking forward to implementing accessibility testing for your specific project, then do get connected with a globally renowned software testing services company that will provide you with a methodical testing strategy that is precisely in line with your project specific requirements.