When testing for accessibility you will need to include the following in your approach:
- Automated testing to identify common problems
- Manual testing using browser plugins that will automatically report problems
- Manual testing using a keyboard only
- Manual testing using screen readers
- Manual testing using screen magnifiers
- Manual testing using voice control
You also need to consider cross-browser testing. Unless you are supporting a single browser it's unlikely you will have enough time to complete all testing against all browsers. Therefore your test approach should be to carry out a selection of the above against all supported browsers.
- Automated testing using a tool in your build pipeline to identify common problems.
- Manual testing using browser plugins against each page of your website. Note the different browsers supported by each.
- Manual testing using assistive technologies (i.e. screen readers, screen magnifiers and voice control).
Set testing tools to WCAG 2.1 AA standard
- axe-core
- cypress-axe
- axe-playwright - axe-core integrated with Playwright test framework.
- Microsoft Accessibility Insights - for Edge and Chrome
- WAVE - for Chrome and Firefox
- a11yTools - Safari on MacOS
Use the app using the keyboard only. See WebAim Keyboard Accessibility to understand what to look for.
Read these guides to get an overview on how to test with assistive technologies:
- gov.uk - testing with assistive technologies.
- BBC - how to use the individual assistive technologies.
- NVDA - Windows
- Windows Narrator - built into Windows 10 but not used by many people so only use if NVDA cannot be
- Apple VoiceOver - MacOS
Note that JAWS is a common screen reader but it is not free. It also attempts to fix issues on-the-fly that does not help you find issues.
- Windows Magnifier - Windows 10
- Apple Zoom - MacOS
Note that ZoomText is a recommended tool for screen magnifiers but is not free.
- Windows Speech Recognition - Windows 10
- Apple Dictation - MacOS