In today's digital age, it's important to ensure that websites and applications are accessible to everyone, regardless of their abilities. Failure to achieve this not only violates the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), but also results in potential legal action, public relations issues, and additional costs of making changes to meet compliance regulations.
Accessibility testing is a vital part of any software because you want as many people as possible to be able to use what you’re launching. However, when you don’t have the tools and people for the job, ensuring accessibility compliance can be easier said than done. This guide sheds light on the importance of ADA testing, its requirements, and the best practices to ensure compliance.
ADA testing means auditing your software to see if it meets the regulations stated in the law. According to the ADA, any public accommodation, like websites, should not discriminate when it comes to disability.
In 2019, Mary Conner filed a lawsuit against Beyonce because her website was not accessible to the visually impaired. The case gained a lot of attention because of the defendant, but it also shed light on services that were lacking in ADA compliance testing. According to the complaint, some barriers prevented full use of the website — these included a lack of navigation, labels, and alt-text.
A similar case occurred a few years ago with Domino’s Pizza. Like Beyonce’s website, Domino’s website had no provisions for the blind. While the initial resolution favored Domino’s, it was later overturned in 2019. Interestingly, it happened in the same year that light was shed on cases that violated ADA accessibility testing. The Court of Appeals overturned the initial decision, stating that Domino’s website violated the ADA ruling.
Complying with the ADA has to do with following the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). There are guidelines set by WCAG 2.0, which all companies should follow. It’s a three-tiered grading system:
The goal is to at least satisfy AA to avoid any compliance issues. Failure to do so would lead to a potential lawsuit, PR issues, and additional costs of changing your technology to make it compliant.
One of the best ways to make sure you’re ADA-compliant is by having a checklist. Following are the points that you must consider:
A self-healing mechanism identifies any products that need to evolve for accessibility. They can detect and automatically update attributes for websites and applications. Some people call them automation for automation. You can find software in the market with automation for Web UI, accessibility, and more. It works within a similar framework to this:
Ultimately this process leads to fewer mistakes and saves a lot of time that would’ve been spent testing. Because it tests automatically, a self-healing mechanism allows your team to discover the root cause and address it directly.
There are two main types of ADA compliance testing used by all testers: manual testing and automated testing. Both have their advantages and disadvantages.
Manual testing is the traditional style of validating accessibility and ADA compliance. One uses their skills and knowledge to verify different aspects of the website or application. For example, they may check the website as if they’re visitors and see if they encounter any problems. It’s effective because it emulates a visitor’s experience using the site or programme.
However, this process is very time-consuming — identifying the different errors and problems will take numerous tests. Since there is the possibility of human error, there may even be a chance that no one discovers an issue until the product is released to the public.
One of the more recent advancements is automated testing which uses computers to verify different aspects of the website. A company will set parameters for a programme to check, and it will do so quickly and precisely. One of the best things about automated testing is that it’s incredibly fast. You’ll save a lot of time, giving yourself more opportunities to fix any errors it detects.
While automated testing is efficient, it doesn’t have the thoroughness that manual testing provides. Computers don’t take things from a user’s standpoint, meaning they might miss some accessibility issues. You’re able to check certain variables like HTML and alt tags, however, you won’t be able to analyze data from a user’s perspective.
There are several problems that testers often encounter when checking for ADA compliance. Learning about them will give you more insight into the things that people often overlook.
Developers are always creating tools to help with ADA compliance testing. There are many out there, but some stand out from the rest. You can also find that professional ADA testing services have a set of tools they rely on for QA. Here are tools to help you with ADA website testing and more:
Color contrast tools are an important part of ADA testing, specifically for web accessibility. They are used to measure the contrast ratio between text and its background, to ensure that the text is legible and easy to read for people with visual impairments. These tools include:
In ADA testing, screen reader tools are used to test the accessibility of websites and digital content for users who rely on screen readers. Screen readers can provide a way to test if web pages are accessible to people with visual impairments or other disabilities that prevent them from conventionally using a mouse or keyboard. These tools include:
These tools are used to ensure that all images on a website have appropriate alternative text that describes the image in a meaningful and accurate way. The tool scans each image on the website and checks if alt text has been assigned to it. If an image does not have alt text, or if the alt text is empty or inaccurate, the alt tag checker will flag it as an accessibility issue that needs to be addressed. These tools include:
ADA testing is essential because it allows your app or website to remain accessible to the majority of users. The lack of ADA compliance will cause disability discrimination issues to arise, which will cause a breach of the ADA. A breach will result in penalties and even a lawsuit as seen in the case of Domino’s Pizza. The good news is that professionals can help with testing, making sure that you’re not missing any crucial accessibility features.
QASource can help with both manual and automated testing. Our team has worked with hundreds of companies to verify accessibility compliance at the highest level possible. Contact us today to learn more about the services we offer.