Accessibility testing tools are becoming increasingly vital as organizations aim to create digitized products that are accessible to everyone, including persons with disabilities. Curating an inclusive and welcoming online environment should be a key focus, and that’s why QA professionals across the globe are placing strong emphasis on these tools. Regardless of their disability, all users should be able to navigate, interact, and access content online with ease.
What Is Accessibility Testing?
To put it simply, accessibility testing is a type of software testing that ensures that the website/application/software under test is usable by persons with disabilities such as hearing loss, old age, color blindness, and other disadvantaged groups. It falls under the category of usability testing.
This kind of technology is used by people with disabilities to help them utilize any software with ease. Popular accessible software includes:
- Speech recognition software: Software for speech recognition translates audible words into text that can be entered into a computer.
- Software for visual impairments: Screen readers, braille displays, magnifying devices, and tactile interfaces and graphics are examples of software for visual impairments.
- Software for hearing impairments: Multimedia transcripts, visual alarms, and closed captions are examples of software for hearing impairments.
- Speech impairment software: This includes alternate communication aids (AAC devices) and speech recognition software.
- For those with color vision deficiencies: High contrast themes and color blindness simulators are examples of software designed for color vision deficiencies.
- Special keyboard: A special keyboard designed to make typing easier for those with motor control issues.
- Screen reader software: The text that is shown on the screen can be read out using screen reader software.
- For cognitive disabilities: Step-by-step instructions, streamlined user interfaces, and text-to-speech technologies.
- Screen magnification software: This software is used to make the screen larger so that those with vision impairments may read more easily.
Why Accessibility Testing Matters?
As the demand for inclusion in product development increased, so did accessibility testing. For instance, practically all stick-shift automobiles are made for right-handed persons, who make up quite a significant amount of the global population, thereby excluding left-handed people.
A user-centric approach has led several automakers to replace the stick-shift design with an interactive touchscreen in recent years. Accessibility testing is necessary to assess the quality of such new technologies. The same pattern was seen in the software sector.
Automated Accessibility Testing: An Overview
The key notion that pushes accessibility testing is making products accessible to all. Since a lot of people with disabilities use digital products and services, the need for inclusive design is growing, and hence, automated accessibility testing is crucial.
Digital accessibility is a basic human right. This guarantees everyone, regardless of ability, access to utilize technology.
Let’s take a glance at some reasons as to why automating accessibility testing is a good idea!
- Automation makes it feasible to test several mobile apps, web pages, and other digital items together at once. This guarantees that accessibility problems are found and fixed across the entire digital environment.
- Testing for accessibility by a human has proved to be time-consuming, expensive, and prone to a plethora of mistakes. By rapidly and effectively detecting accessibility concerns, automated accessibility testing may save time and money.
- Maintaining digital accessibility is a social obligation as well as a legal and commercial need. Digital accessibility is a need that can help organizations and society as a whole, not merely a passing fad.
- Laws and regulations in a number of nations mandate that digital goods and services be accessible to those with impairments. This can assist organizations in maintaining compliance and averting any legal action.
How To Boost Accessibility Testing Through Automation?
The four methods listed below can be used to achieve excellent results from automated accessibility testing:
- Create a strategic plan of action for putting accessibility testing into practice. From the standpoint of agile methodology, accessibility testing must be done all the way through the agile process. Design is the ideal place to start since it actively influences testing. The design provides a foundation and structure for efficient testing. When a clear framework is in place, accessibility testing functions effectively.
- Create regression tests to automate accessibility testing. Regression tests significantly enhance automated accessibility testing’s functionality. This approach also turns out to be economical. After that, the majority of the manual testing step in the development process can be removed.
- Make the most out of the accessibility testing tools. It may be difficult to apply accessibility testing at some points in the development process. The reason for this is that the majority of organizations believe that accessibility testing using the manual testing platform works really effectively. However, automation has the potential to revolutionize efficiency if it is paired with the appropriate accessible tools.
- You should choose the best test automation platform. Automating accessibility testing may be simple, quick, and efficient with the correct test automation platform. The finest test automation platform that can completely support the project requirements must be chosen by the automated testing team.
We will have a look at some automated accessibility testing tools in the next section.
Audits for Inclusivity: Automated Accessibility Testing Tools
Accessibility testing tools are essential for teams striving to build inclusive, user-friendly apps. For those aiming to ensure complete accessibility, the following automated tools are excellent options.
- LambdaTest
To commence, we have LambdaTest, a platform that helps developers identify and report accessibility issues across websites and applications using automated scripts and scans. LambdaTest is a GenAI-Native test execution platform that allows you to perform manual and automated tests at scale across 3000+ browsers and OS combinations.
One of its standout features is the Accessibility DevTools extension, which allows real-time accessibility checks directly in the browser. This makes it easier to catch and fix issues during development, without switching environments.
In addition to manual browser-based checks, LambdaTest also offers automated accessibility testing across popular automation frameworks like Selenium, Cypress, Playwright, and more. This ensures consistent compliance with accessibility standards such as the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), even during rapid release cycles.
Moreover, AI test tools such as LambdaTestKaneAI enhance the process further by generating test cases from natural language inputs. These tests can uncover accessibility gaps at scale and provide detailed reporting, making it easier for QA teams to prioritize and act on violations.
By incorporating accessibility automation into your workflow with LambdaTest, you can:
- Save time and effort by reducing manual testing.
- Maintain consistency across large and evolving applications.
- Ensure inclusivity for users with disabilities, no matter the platform or device.
- Google Lighthouse
Google Lighthouse is a well-known open-source automated accessibility testing tool. It enhances online applications’ performance, accuracy, and quality. Lighthouse is a useful tool for accessibility testing that can be used automatically or as a Chrome or Firefox plugin.
Despite its convenience, Google Lighthouse may appear undeveloped to teams wishing to do thorough accessibility testing. Nonetheless, this tool can still identify a lot of accessibility problems for testers who do not need to go into the specifics.
- Siteimprove
You can quickly verify if your webpages are accessible in Chrome by using Siteimprove Accessibility Checker. You can find and fix accessibility problems right away with the help of this automatic accessibility testing tool, which offers rapid feedback and suggestions.
Mobile app accessibility testing is not included in Siteimprove, and hence, it is restricted to online accessibility testing.
Limitations of Automated Accessibility Testing
Tools for automated accessibility testing have become a vital resource in any organization for detecting typical accessibility issues. These tools shouldn’t be viewed as a remedy for all accessibility issues, though. Keep in mind, they are essential to accessibility testing, but they cannot serve as the sole component of your accessibility plan.
Here are some of the reasons why you can’t fully rely on automated accessibility testing!
- Automated tests cannot catch everything!
Automated accessibility tests analyze aspects only according to predetermined accessibility standards, such as the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), using complex algorithms.
These algorithms, however, are limited to their predetermined limits and are unable to evaluate qualitative elements that have a substantial impact on the User Experience (UX). These algorithms can check off items on a compliance checklist, but they are unable to assess a user’s ability to engage with the website and comprehend its content.
These tools are good at looking for typical technical problems that make accessibility difficult, such as pictures without alt attributes, wrong ARIA roles, non-functional keyboards, or poor semantic HTML structure.
- The evolution of accessibility
The paradigm of web accessibility is dynamic and always changing; it is not a static one. Assistive gadgets, design trends, accessibility guidelines, and new web technologies are always being developed. These advancements may present fresh opportunities and difficulties for digital accessibility.
- The importance of human perspective!
The incapacity of automated accessibility tools to accurately simulate the human viewpoint, which is essential to successful accessibility testing, can be considered their worst drawback. Automated tools can examine code, but they are unable to comprehend or mimic the variety of ways that actual users engage with websites or the particular difficulties that individuals have when interacting with material that is inaccessible.
- Real users, real scenarios
Although they are adept at what they do, automated testing programs follow preset guidelines and situations. Their ability to replicate user interactions in a controlled setting makes them useful for identifying a variety of accessibility problems. They do not, however, adequately replicate the variety and impromptu nature of actual user encounters, particularly those involving people with impairments.
Most Practices for Accessibility Testing
After looking at the limitations, we now come to best practices that can help you make the most out of your accessibility tests. It is your duty to make every effort to maximize the benefits of accessibility testing for your product.
Let’s take a glance at some of the ways through which you can achieve this:
- Leverage both automated and manual testing techniques: Each has advantages and disadvantages. While manual testing might uncover more complicated flaws, automated testing can swiftly spot typical faults.
- Test often and early: Accessibility testing should be a pertinent component of the development process, and testers must carry it out at various phases, including design, quality assurance, and development.
- Test on several devices and browsers: Depending on the device and browser being used, accessibility problems may vary. Test across various devices, browsers, and platforms.
- Test with real users: The most effective method for identifying and resolving accessibility problems is user testing. A varied user base, including people with various disabilities, should be used for testing.
- Logkeeping: Keep a log of all accessibility problems discovered during testing and follow up to ensure they are fixed.
- Update and maintain your website often: Because websites are dynamic and subject to constant modification, accessibility testing should be a routine procedure to ensure that a website remains accessible.
- Choose the appropriate tools: LambdaTest is one of several platforms available that automates tests and quickly detects typical problems, making accessibility testing more efficient.
Final Words
Organizations must ensure that everyone, including people with disabilities, can access the material on their websites and apps. The secret to attaining accessibility is putting best practices into effect that we have mentioned above, and also others, such as employing captions and alt text, utilizing suitable multimedia placement, and maintaining adequate color contrast.
