Automated tools for accessibility compliance
Accessibility testing tools provide support and assists people with disabilities access the web with ease without challenges that might arise due to their disabilities. These tools assist any web developer in creating and making their websites more accessible to everyone without discrimination.
Website accessibility
Website accessibility means that websites, digital tools, and technologies should be designed and developed with disabilities’ access in mind. Each person should be able to perceive, understand, navigate, and interact with the web.
WCAG refers to web content accessibility guidelines that have been developed by a cooperation between individuals, the government and organizations with a goal of providing a single shared standard for web content accessibility that will meet the needs of every web content user globally. Every organization should perform a WCAG compliance checking for their websites.
The crucial areas when developing the web include natural information like texts, images and sounds. The coding and website markup that defines the structure, the presentation also falls under this section. Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was designed to offer protection to people living with disabilities in the US. This law states that every product or service created for the public should be accessible to people with disabilities without discrimination. These services include web content and any other digital products.
Every website should be ADA compliant because accessibility is a human right that should be respected. The number of people with disabilities is significant globally, and they have experienced life differently from the rest, suffering from discrimination. ADA was passed in 1990 to cater to almost 15% of the global population classified as disabled.
Steps for a complete accessibility audit
A complete accessibility audit is a combination of automated and manual testing that accessibility experts carry out by using assistive technologies to determine how well your digital products support the needs of people with disabilities when using the web.
Automated test for accessibility audit is the performative audit used to build and iterate a product using automated tools. This is done to highlight accessibility guidelines violations and any potential accessibility issues.
The manual accessibility audit is the process of inspection of web content or application by hand to check for accessibility issues that might affect people with disabilities. There are many accessibility issues that a program cannot address, making manual testing essential in web content. These issues include keyboard-only commands and Screen reader compatibility.
Assistive technology describes tools that people with disabilities use to accomplish their tasks using the web and digital products.
There are web accessibility tools that can be adopted in carrying out your website audit when using assistive technology. Using an alternative keyboard, mouse, screen magnifier, screen readers will assist in carrying out an accessibility audit for your web content.
There are web accessibility tools that can enhance the performance of these audits with ease.
Websites for people
A website is a collection of pages on the web that has related content usually created by a person or an organization and published on a web server. The website is accessible to anyone, anywhere and at any time. It is important to note that people, not machines, use the website, hence making it accessible and friendly to everyone who will access it for any reason should be the main goal.
Accessibility of the web content, ease of interaction, and the use of the content are crucial aspects that should be considered when designing a website or any digital product and service. The number of people living with disabilities cannot be ignored in the world today, so it’s important in creating websites that support all kinds of disabilities and any cognitive disorders.
A good website should follow the accessibility standards that have been put in place to cover these four basics: perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust.
Value of automated testing
Automated testing refers to a field within a system that uses special tools to automate cases that give data, reports and metrics to improve and increase efficiency and productivity for an organization. Investing in automated testing will reduce the company overhead and expand business efficiency.
Most of these automated tests can be carried out during off-work periods, minimizing wasted development time. The use of automated tools requires less human resources in operations, saving on using the organization’s resources. There is the ability to test several systems, processes parallel when you use the automation tools, which will not be possible if you employ the manual method.
There are better insights that come with the use of automated testing when compared to manual testing. There is a high possibility of failure when using manual testing processes, unlike automated testing.
Automated testing is a tool that every organization should invest in if it wants to improve production, save on costs by reducing production costs, and increase efficiency while realizing the return on investment (ROI)
FAQ’s
Yes, you can automate the accessibility testing of your website to ensure user satisfaction and complying with the market set standards like WCAG and ADA.
Accessibility testing is the use of software to test the functional abilities of the web content by people with disabilities. This software includes speech recognition, screen reader, screen magnification software and a unique keyboard.
Accessibility refers to the ability for people with disabilities to do a similar task using an equal amount of time, effort as someone without any disabilities.
Accessibility features refer to special designs factored in when designing a website to help people with disabilities use the technology and web content with ease.
Conclusion
Every website should be compliant with the set standards and guidelines by the relevant government organizations and laws. The web applications and content should be accessible and valuable to everyone, including the people living with disabilities globally, without discrimination. Every website owner should carry out an accessibility check for their websites.
