The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0 and WCAG 2.1) of the World Wide Web Consortium are being adopted by several nations and included in their official legislation in part.
You’re undoubtedly already aware of the many automated tools and services available to assist you in testing the accessibility of websites. It can be tempting to write them off as not needed if you’ve been diligent about keeping up with online accessibility. But, accessibility is simply too big a work to be totally regulated by hand, even with careful attention.
Can Testing for Web Accessibility be Automated?
Yes. You can audit thousands of documents, web pages, or even numerous websites at once using automated accessibility testing technologies. On the other hand, manual accessibility testing calls for an individual or group of accessibility specialists to manually go through a website’s content and code for accessibility concerns.
A significant benefit of automatic accessibility testing is that it continuously verifies that your material complies with accessibility standards, saving your company time and money in the process. This frees up your time to concentrate on avoiding and resolving accessibility issues rather than searching through your website(s) for them.
What Is Checked During Automated Accessibility Testing?
Software created to discover locations that do not satisfy WCAG rules can save you a significant amount of time and work, whether you are just getting started with accessibility or trying to stay up to date with the most recent standards.
The code of your website is scanned by automated accessibility testing tools to identify potential problems and frequent accessibility faults. These programs assess your website’s accessibility against internationally accepted norms, particularly the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). Major issues like those below will be assessed during automated testing.
Navigation and page organization
- Identifying navigational or menu problems
- Improving the experience for people who rely on assistive technology
- Ensuring that section headers are appropriate
- Identifying the page areas that require marking for simple orienting
Readability and contrast in color
- Examining the font size and parsing to guarantee the best readability
- Recognizing fonts with complex or ambiguous character sets
- Examining the fonts’ spacing and weight
- Ensuring font and background components have enough contrast
Links, both internal and external
- Recognizing misleading link terminology like “click here.”
- Examining the focus and hover components of links to make sure they are clearly visible
- Finding links that are broken or empty
- Links and alternative text
- Recognizing photos without alternative text
- Examining web elements like symbols and emojis for the presence of alt text-based inputs
Accessibility of PDF
- Verifying that PDF images contain alternative text
- How to recognize PDF files without bookmarks
- Ensuring that PDF files have the proper tab and reading order
- Verifying whether PDF documents employ table elements for markup
- Examining PDF files for interactive form controls
Examining buttons
- Ensuring that buttons are sizeable and simple to click
- Examining the page for buttons that would enhance the text size and spacing
- Examining the presence of reloading button buttons
- Examining the accuracy of the button labels
Looking at HTML and CSS
- Checking for HTML parsing problems
- Ensuring that the HTML tag accurately identifies the page language
These are some of the most prevalent accessibility problems that automated accessibility testing may help you find on your website right away, while the list is not exhaustive.
Why Automating Web Accessibility Testing is Essential for Compliance
Although manual testing for accessibility has many advantages, it is frequently overly time-consuming and needs a high degree of accessibility knowledge, leaving room for human error and perhaps resulting in non-compliance.
If you’re considering automated testing but are on the fence, consider the following advantages:
- Attainable even for those lacking specialized accessibility knowledge.
- Frequently less expensive than hiring an accessibility expert inside.
- Easily identify recurrent accessibility issues.
- Check tens of thousands of pages at once, giving you a complete picture of how accessible your website is in a matter of minutes.
- Determine which mistakes have a single common cause.
- The most important problems can be fixed first by using task prioritizing tools, which are frequently incorporated.
- Over time, educate and train your company on accessibility challenges.
- With reporting capabilities offered by many platforms, you may monitor your accessibility compliance and advancement over time.
- Results and duties related to accessibility should be shared throughout departments, including website managers, designers, and content producers.
In actuality, a mixed approach of automated and manual accessibility testing will be the optimal strategy for many firms. Your first line of defense should be automated accessibility testing, which will enable you to find and address the bulk of issues that can be fixed quickly before moving on to areas that necessitate further investigation and manual testing in-depth. Your choice will also be influenced by the size and volume of websites you are responsible for managing, as well as how intuitive your content management system is.
Who Gains From Automated Accessibility Testing?
The quickest response is everyone! In order to avoid legal ramifications and to adhere to important accessibility rules in the US, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act, both public and commercial institutions must make sure their websites are accessible (ADA). For more details, check your website using our ADA compliance tester.
Inaccessible websites cause significant reputational and brand harm in addition to the financial costs of these lawsuits, which is why it’s crucial to routinely check your site for accessibility blockers using automated accessibility testing tools.
Other significant advantages of routine automated accessibility testing include streamlining regular website upkeep. Accessibility upgrades can be prevented from becoming a bottleneck problem that delays your digital team by identifying urgent accessibility requirements and lesser solutions that can be introduced into current procedures on a regular basis.
Higher search engine rankings are frequently given to accessible websites. Automated accessibility testing is especially crucial for organizations planning significant website redesigns or migrations because it can identify unexpected or unintentional accessibility errors that would otherwise quickly lower them in search engine results, such as failing to copy over image alt text or using an inaccessible new color scheme.
Conclusion
At QualityLogic, we offer automated accessibility testing, as well as a myriad of other services for you. If you’re curious about our services, visit our website at qualitylogic.com to learn more and to inquire about a free consultation. Our team will work with you to determine your needs and develop a plan for your systems and processes. Before long, you will be on your way to full digital accessibility.
