Accessibility Testing

When designing, developing, or creating accessible digital content use various methods, including checklists, automated checkers, and the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines to ensure compliance with accessibility standards. 

Evaluation Guides and Checklists

Checklists and evaluation guides are one way to help ensure the accessibility of your digital content. 

Web content

Introductory

• W3C web accessibility initiative easy checks
  • Provides a foundational understanding of a page’s accessibility
• WebAIM’s WCAG 2 checklist
  • A valuable resource for beginners, presenting the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines in a simplified list format for better understanding
• WebAIM quick reference
  • A great starting point for evaluating a website’s accessibility

Intermediate

• Section 508 ICT testing baseline for web
  • Identifies minimum requirements for testing web content to meet Revised Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act (29 U.S.C. 794d)
• Deque’s web accessibility checklist
  • Organizes WCAG requirements and best practices by topic or alphabetically
• Elsevier’s accessibility checklist
  • Features a filter that allows users to search for WCAG requirements tailored to various coding platforms, such as JavaScript. It is highly beneficial for UX designers, developers, and coders
• Intopia’s accessibility guidance tool
  • Allows filtering by job roles and topics, such as moving content

Accessibility Checkers

Automated checkers provide a quick and easy way to assess digital content for accessibility, but they can’t catch every potential accessibility issue.

Digital document checkers

• Accessibility checker in Microsoft Office
  • Essential before sharing or converting a document to PDF format
• Adobe Acrobat Pro’s built-in accessibility checker
  • Assess your PDF and identify necessary accessibility improvements

Color contrast checkers

Color contrast tools streamline the design phase by quickly assessing text legibility and ensuring adequate visual contrast. Many color contrast checkers are available online to help ensure your designs meet accessibility standards. Below, we’ve listed some well-known tools to help you get started, but you can explore others to find the one that best suits your needs.

• TPGi’s colour contrast analyzer
  • A desktop application for Windows and macOS that helps designers and developers assess color contrast in digital interfaces to ensure readability and compliance with accessibility standards
• Contraste app
  • An application for macOS that allows users to check color contrast ratios directly on their desktop, providing quick evaluations of text and background color combinations for accessibility
• WebAIM’s color contrast checker
  • This is an online tool provided by WebAIM that enables users to input foreground and background colors and instantly evaluate the color contrast ratio to ensure readability for individuals with visual impairments
• WebAIM’s link contrast checker
  • This is another online tool from WebAIM specifically designed to check the color contrast of links against their surrounding text or background, helping to ensure links are clearly distinguishable for users with color vision deficiencies
• Deque color contrast analyzer
  • This online tool provided by Deque allows you to check both hex and RGB color values and features a color adjuster to quickly determine color combinations that meet accessibility standards

Web content checkers

• Microsoft’s accessibility insights
  • A suite of tools by Microsoft for assessing and improving the accessibility of web applications and websites, providing insights and recommendations for accessibility improvements
• Accessible name and description inspector
  • A tool developed by the Social Security Administration (SSA) that identifies accessibility issues related to accessible name and description computation in web content
• axe dev tools
  • A browser extension and developer tool that integrates with Chrome and Firefox Developer Tools to provide automated accessibility testing and debugging capabilities
• IBM equal access accessibility checker
  • IBM’s tool for checking web content and applications for compliance with accessibility standards, offering evaluations and guidance on accessibility improvements
• Photosensitive epilepsy analysis tool
  • A tool designed to assess web content for compliance with guidelines that aim to reduce the risk of seizures in individuals with photosensitive epilepsy
• WAVE web accessibility evaluation tool
  • A widely used web accessibility evaluation tool that identifies accessibility issues in web content and provides visual feedback on web pages
• TPGi ARC toolkit
  • A toolkit that includes various accessibility evaluation tools and resources developed by TPGi, focusing on assessing web accessibility and providing remediation advice