Lesson 13How to evaluate the accessibility of your web content?
- Notion 90 - Evaluating your digital project's accessibility with the use of automated testing tools
- Notion 91 - Tools for evaluating colour choices and contrast
- Notion 92 - Tools for evaluating your digital project’s readability
- Notion 93 - Tools for inspecting your digital project's code
- Notion 94 - Tools for testing for any other accessibility violations
- Notion 95 - Tools for evaluating overall compliance with WCAG standards
- Notion 96 - Test the accessibility of web pages yourself with automated tools
Notion 90
Evaluating your digital project's accessibility with the use of automated testing tools
Target skills
So far, this module has covered different disabilities and how to make design adaptations based on web accessibility standards and principles (such as WCAG and its three conformance levels). We've also discussed measures you can take to manually ensure your content is accessible, such as adding alt-text and captions to multimedia. In addition, we've mentioned helpful tools that users with disabilities can use to make the most of these manual adaptations, such as screen readers and text-to-speech software.
Now we'll cover automated testing and checks that you can undertake to evaluate the accessibility of your digital project.
What are automated testing tools for evaluating web accessibility?
Automated testing tools target technical and harder-to-spot issues for evaluating web accessibility. They allow you to assess the extent to which you can improve your manual design adaptations. No single tool can meet all web accessibility requirements, so we recommend using a combination of the tools mentioned in this notion.
How can you go about using these automated testing tools?
The automated testing tools included in this notion only require an internet connection and a desktop computer/laptop. In addition, many of the tools are available for both Windows and Mac.
To use the tools, all you need to do is follow a simple information input process. Some information input examples include: copying + pasting the URL of the website you're interested in evaluating, adding the colour code of the colours you'd like to assess, typing the text you'd like to test for readability, etc. These tools don't require more complex procedures and test results are immediate.
Why should you undergo automated tests for evaluating web accessibility?
As mentioned, automated testing tools detect the more technically-demanding aspects of designing for web accessibility, such as colour contrast, clutter in websites, and coding errors. The simplicity of these tools is that anyone can use them regardless of their digital proficiency or familiarity with the topic of web accessibility. We've made sure to include options that are entirely free to use or that have an efficient free trial version.