Test the Accessibility of a Website

Accessibility is not a wholly technical endeavour, because accessibility is primarily about the human experience. Manual testing is an important first step in determining the overall effectiveness of a website’s layout and design, and an easy way to find initial points of frustration.

Try to navigate a website using only a keyboard, using a combination of the “Tab” and “Enter” keys.

• Are you able to access all links, buttons, menus, or interactive components such as accordion panels, pop-up navigation menus or carousels?
• Are you able to pause an image carousel?
• Can you see where your cursor is located on the page?
• Does the cursor follow a logical path from top to bottom, left to right or does it jump around?

A screen reader is a common way for persons with disabilities to access online content. Understanding how screen readers treat your website and content can provide valuable information in ensuring all visitors have the same experience. You’re also more likely to catch redundant or poorly crafted content when you’re forced to listen to it and not skim visually.

Try navigating a website using a screen reader with your monitor turned off. If you are using an Apple computer, you can try the built-in screen reader utility called VoiceOver, which can be found in the accessibility settings. If you are using Windows, you can download a free screen reader like NVDA.

Another great universally available tool for content editors and developers is ChromeVox, a Google Chrome extension.

While using a screen reader, here are some things you should be listening for:

• When announcing the link to home (typically associated with the logo on the site) are you able to tell where the link directs you from what is being said? What about other links? Does what is read to you give context as to where it will lead?
• If there is more than one menu, are you able to tell which menu you are on and what link you are on within that menu?
• For all forms, are you able to tell what information is expected of you when you are asked to input text (i.e. does it speak something like “enter search terms”)
• Is all of the on-page content read to you?
• Does the alternative text of an image give appropriate context as to what the image is about/its value to the overall story?

There are many free tools, plugins, book-marklets and applications available to test the accessibility of a website. Although automated tools are great to determine compliance issues and errors from a content or developmental perspective, they should never be the only method used to validate conformance with accessibility guidelines. Accessibility is about the human experience.

Here are the tools Laurentian University recommends for automated testing:

• Sa11y Accessibility Quality Assurance Assistant by Ryerson University is an accessibility visualization book-marklet.
   
• WAVE Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool is offered both on their website and also as a browser extension for Chrome and FireFox.
   
• AChecker is a web accessibility checker geared more for developers.
   
• Color Contrast Accessibility Validator by sa11y is a valuable tool but only checks colour contrast ratios. Similarly, WebAIM’s Contrast Checker is a great tool for determining the accessibility of various colour combinations as you develop a new website.