What are the categories of accessibility testing?





Making a web application or website will not only open new avenues by welcoming disabled communities but will also boost the brand’s business, thereby widening the business scope from a customer perspective. Upon that, an accessible website that is in line with WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) standards and other specific guidelines can avoid costly lawsuits, boost SEO optimization etc. The implementation of accessibility testing ensures that an application or website is accessible to a wider audience thus providing them with seamless navigation and easy-to-use user-friendly interface. In this article, you will get to know about accessibility testing along with its categories. 

Body:

What is accessibility testing?

It is a testing method that ensures that a website or application is fully accessible and the disabled community can also access the website or application easily.


Following are the two categories of accessibility testing:



1. Manual accessibility testing: Any test case that requires the usability of the user interface and physical interaction with the application across potential barriers should be manually tested by the QA testers. Manual accessibility testing examples include text sizing, content scaling, style disablement, UI structural elements and keyboard accessibility. 

It is an amalgamation of assistive computer technologies, keyboard only interactions and web browser plugins, which, in turn, helps testers to determine the accessibility of various software’s, applications, sites and pages. 

Pros:

  • Users can carry on with the testing process

  • Testing can be carried out on various devices

Cons:

  • It’s a time-consuming process

  • As humans are involved, hence the error rate can be considerably high


2. Automated Accessibility testing: Accessibility testing can be performed on a website by automating it. Automated APIs (pa11y, Axe etc.,) and browser plug-ins (Web Accessibility toolbar, Axe for Chrome and Firefox etc.,) can be used to automate accessibility testing. Upon that, accessibility testing tools such as Color Contrast Analyzer, JAWS Inspect, Accessibility Inspector etc., can also be used to automate accessibility testing.

There are specific tools that can identify errors across a huge number of web pages. This type of testing method is ideal for scrutinizing application functionality, design styling and image contrasting because these cannot be tested manually. The accessibility of various mobile and web applications can be efficiently tested by the automation testing method.

Pros:

  • The testing process is carried out rapidly

  • Areas that require re-mediation and extra attention is focused upon

  • Efforts and time are saved to a great extent, thus making it cost-effective 

Cons:

  • It is not considered to be a thorough process

  • Accessibility barriers are not eliminated 


Benefits of implementing accessibility testing:

1. Search results are almost accurate: If the website or application is being built, keeping the accessibility factor into perspective, there will be rich text in it because of which search engines can find websites more easily. The simple reason being search engines search for text, while the content is being looked up.

2. Legal issues can be avoided: Most of the countries across the globe have made it mandatory to build websites that are fully accessible and is in line with WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines). This will in turn help in avoiding legal issues as the website is legally compliant.

3. User experience is enhanced: A fully accessible website or application will not only prove to be helpful for general users but, disabled users also, as they can also browse for information they are looking for. A structured application’s design will make the application’s appearance, text clarity, navigation etc., easy to use and will also provide to be appealing and user-friendly.

Conclusion: If you are looking forward to implementing accessibility testing for your specific project, then do get connected with a well-established software testing services company that will provide you with a strategic testing roadmap that is in line with your project specific requirements.

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