How to Do Accessibility Testing?
Accessibility Testing can be performed in 2 ways:
1. Manual Accessibility Testing:
There are various tools available in the market to test the accessibility of a software application but many available tools are highly costly and/or are less skilled as per requirements. Therefore, manual testing is performed to check the accessibility of the software product. For example:
- Test brightness of software: Check the brightness of the software product. Check whether it is adjustable or not. Check if is it good for a person with less eyesight.
- Test the sound of software: Check the sound performance of the software. Check whether it is properly usable by a deaf person.
- Testing for captions: Check that the caption is visible and expressive. For example, on websites the images may take time to load in that case good captions help to understand what is in the picture and video.
- Modifying font size to large: Check the availability of the large font size and use the large font size.
- Use high contrast mode: High contrast mode helps to highlight the website’s content.
- Turning off cascading style sheet (CSS): Turning off CSS helps to check the background color, text style, and text presentation style.
- Use field label: The field label is what is seen while viewing the template. It is useful while filling out the form so that one can fill out the necessary information while signing up or while placing the order.
- Testing zooming: Test the zoom option to see if the image is visible or not.
- Skip Navigation: Tests if clicking Ctrl+Home moves the focus to the top of the page or not. This is helpful for people with motor disabilities.
2. Automated Accessibility Testing:
Automation is widely used in different testing techniques. In the automated process, there are several automated tools for accessibility testing. These tools include:
- WebAnywhere: It is a screen reader tool and it requires no special installation.
- Hera: It is used to check the style of the software application.
- Designer: This tool is useful for testing the software from the viewpoint of visually impaired people.
- Vischeck: This tool helps to reproduce the image in various forms and helps to visualize how the image will look when it is accessed by different types of users.
3. Hybrid Accessibility Testing:
The Hybrid Accessible method is always the best method to ensure the website is accessible. At first, you can use only a few features such as navigating and scrolling the page with the keyboard and are not able to test with the help of any software.