Web Accessibility Testing: Improving Quality Engineering Automation for Accessible UI/UX Design

The pandemic years blatantly highlighted the lack of accessibility on the web and mobile applications. Per reports there was a 15% increase in the number of lawsuits filed in ADA-based cases from 2020 to 2021 alone and the situation is far from managed even throughout 2022. However, experts in digital innovations have come up with a general roadmap for web accessibility testing that companies have started to adapt and integrate into their SDLCs. Here are some of the important milestones in this roadmap.

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• Accessibility audits: Incorporating web accessibility audits of your web applications and digital products to identify critical gaps and rooms for improvement. If administered unders proper experience and nuanced knowledge, these audits can help prioritize necessary improvements.
• Accessibility Policies: Based on the audits the companies can develop accessibility policies that outline their product’s alignment with web accessibility.
• Accessibility Training: An essential part of this journey is to implement accessibility policies at a cultural level. Business leaders need to ensure that all the different development, testing, and maintenance teams are trained in web accessibility standards and and the latest Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).

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With an cultural level execution, the necessary accessibility features such as alt text for images, keyboard navigation, and ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) tags can be easily implemented in the digital products and web applications. We can now discuss how user experience design and user interface design can strategize around these steps.

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Web Accessibility for UI/UX Design

QE experts ensure that the QA automation for UI/UX is well-planned across the CI/CD pipeline. Quality assurance engineers need to ensure that the application is usable, accessible, and offers an excellent user experience. Talking specifically about web accessibility, UI/UX testing gets more critical to ensure unhindered usage for users with special needs. Some of the essential elements that must be included in UI/UX testing plan for Web Accessibility are:

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• Assistive Technology: QE experts recommend AI/ML for testing the web application’s functionality with various assistive technologies, such as screen readers, voice recognition software, and magnifiers. Machine learning algorithms can be leveraged to simulate the interaction with such technologies to identify any accessibility barriers.
• Keyboard Accessibility: Automated simulations for keyboard accessibility can be built to understand the challenges faced by users with special needs in navigating a website. 
• Color Contrast Testing: Website colors should be analyzed and compared to the minimum accessibility standards by means of advanced QA Automation and AI/ML tools. Experts also recommend identifying color contrast issues for text content that that can pose difficulties in reading.
• Usability Testing: A huge challenge in web accessibility testing for UI/UX is simulating the interaction for different users that face different accessibility challenges. QE experts suggest AI/ML-based tools and algorithms that can help automate the identification of any confusing or non-intuitive user interfaces.

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Apart from these points, it is also essential that the accessibility testing ensures compatibility for different devices and browsers in order to be more inclusive in its functionality. 

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