Accessibility Testing Techniques

Tools and techniques for evaluating web site accessibility.

Tools Required

The following tools help to speed up the accessibility evaluation process.

WAVE Accessibility Toolbar for Firefox

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Firebug Debugger for Firefox

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Color Contrast Analyzer 2.2

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Techniques

Quick Test

• Use the WAVE Toolbar: Click on Errors, Features and Alerts

Conduct a Visual Inspection

Its good to get a quick idea of how accessible the site is.

• Click through the site to get a basic understanding of its structure and content.
• Is the global navigation consistent?
• Are there any things that immediately stand out? Make a list of dot points.
• Are the fonts big enough?
• Is there sufficient contrast between the foreground and background?
• Do all of the form elements have labels?

Code Inspection

How clean is the site code?

• Use the Firebug debugger
• Is the layout controlled via tables or CSS?
• Does the page use frames?

Heading structure

Most screen reader users navigate using headings rather than reading the whole page.

• Use the WAVE Toolbar: Click on Outline
• Are the headings nested properly?
• Do the headings represent the main parts of the page?

Keyboard

Can the site be navigated effectively without a mouse?

• Can I tab through the page effectively?
• Use the WAVE Toolbar: Click on Stracture/Order
• Do all of the mouseover states work the same with keyboard focus?
• Can I complete any forms using keyboard alone?

Color Contrast

Can users read the content?

• Use the Color Contrast Analyzer
• Is there sufficent contrast between the foreground and background?

Page Titles

Does the page title make sense to the user and to search engines?

• Do the page titles change for each page?
• Do the page titles accurately describe the purpose of each page?

Device Independence

Can the site be accessed by a variety of browsers on different devices.

• Will the site work in IE Firefox Chrome?
• Will it work on MAC PC and Linux?
• Will it work on mobile devices?

User Testing

Find out what the users think. Andrew Normand has a user testing panel that can assist with this.

• Visually impaired users
• Hearing impaired users
• Mobility impaired users
• Cognatively impaired users
• Older users

Additional Resources

WCAG 2.0 Guidelines

WebAIM's WCAG 2.0 Checklist

Help

For assistance please contact Andrew Normand, Web Accessibility Program Leader
Email: anormand@unimelb.edu.au
Phone: +61 3 9035 4867