What is ADA Testing, Tools & Examples

ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act)/ADA Compliance:

ADA compliance refers to Americans with Disabled Act standards for accessible design, stating that all electronic and information technology (such as websites) should be accessible to people with disabilities.

Accessibility Testing guides for an Application:

Application is going to be used by many kinds of people and being a tester (also human), it is our responsibility to check if it is accessible to all the users. This, in turn, will contribute a lot towards the success of a business as we work to get the application accessible to each user. This will also increase the user’s satisfaction and our business too.

Laws of Accessibility:

· United States: Americans with Disabilities Act — 1990

· Rehabilitation Act, section 504 and section 508: Section 504 accommodates all people with disabilities to access workplace, education & other organization and section 508 accommodates access to technology.

· Web content accessibility guidelines (WCAG): These guidelines suggest the ways that can help to improve websites to make it accessible to everyone.

General types of disabilities:

How to ensure Accessibility of an Application:

This can be decided with the help of web accessibility standards created by the W3C known as Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).

Important Factors to keep in mind while designing an Application:

· Verification of page title

· Headings

· Image text alternatives (“alt text”)

· Use Better Tables

· Keyboard Navigation

· Use Default HTML Tags

· Use the ARIA Tag

· Always Use the Title Tag

· Closed Captions for Media

· Contrast ratio (“color contrast”). etc.

There are three most important checklists of accessibility:

· Level A: Create an application that some users can access.

· Level AA: Create an application that almost all users can access.

· Level AAA: Create an application that all users can access.

Rules to follow if we want to develop an application that follows Level AA:

Free tools and the extension link that can be used to do accessibility testing:

1. Wave Accessibility Tool

Steps:

· Search wave extension chrome

· Click on the first link which you get.

· It will redirect you to Wave evaluation tool.

· From the right side click on Add to chrome.

How to use Wave:

Steps:

· Open your application in the browser.

· Run the Wave extension page, it will show you the errors.

· Then from the details tab on the left-hand side select the area which you want to test.

· Then tap on the error (highlighted in red) to see the details.

2. AXE EXPERT Accessibility Tool:

Steps:

· Search axe extension chrome.

· Click on the free axe extension in the first link which you get.

. It will redirect you to the below screen.

· Then add the extension to the chrome.

How To use Axe:

· Open the Application in the browser.

· Use right click then click on inspect.

· Then you will find axe.

· Once you click on axe expert you will get the below screen with Analyze button.

· Click on Analyze.

· Once you will click on analyze it will show you all the issues within the page

. It will show you all the details like what the issue is, how many are there, issue description.

· Even Axe expert show you the element source and will help you to solve the issue.

3. Lighthouse Accessibility Tool (Inbuilt Chrome tool for accessibility):

How To use Lighthouse:

· Open the Application in the browser.

· Use right click then click on inspect.

· Then you will find Lighthouse.

· In Lighthouse you will get an option for accessibility under category check that.

· Then Click on generate the report.

· Then it will show you all the errors within the page.

· Click on the error for more details.

4. Screen Reader Specially for blind People:

Steps:

Add screen reader extension to the browser.

How to use:

· Open Application in Browser.

· Toggle on the screen reader.

· It will read out all the screens.

5. JAWS (Job Access with Speech):

· Read documents like pdf, websites, and apps.

· Easily navigate with your mouse.

· Scan and read all your documents, including PDF.

· Fill out webforms with ease.

· You can add the extension to your browser

Some common errors for ADA testing:

· UI errors which include contrast error, label missing, text missing for images, etc.

· On resizing of the screen text should not be overlapped with images

· On resizing, images or logo of an application and text should be not distorted.

· On the disabled link, the speech tool should not call you.

· Images and text should not go out when the user resizes the screen.

· On navigation, through the keyboard, every link and button should be highlighted.

· When the user navigates through the keyboard every action should work like- click, navigation (arrow keys, tab, and shift-tab), selection, etc.

Some common Checklists used for signing off accessibility testing:

· The color of the application should be flexible for all users

· Audio and video-related content should be properly heard by disabled people

· Testing of color in the application by changing the contrast ratio

· Images or icons should be proper, so it is easily understood by the end-users

· Application should have audio alerts

· Logo or icon should have an alt attribute

· Hyperlinks should match minimum color contrast requirements

· Reading order should be logical

· If the application has buttons, then reading order for buttons should be logical

Designing for users of screen readers:

Designing for users with physical or motor disabilities:

Designing for users who are deaf or hard of hearing:

Designing for users with low vision:

Conclusion:

The entire web and the Internet are increasingly important resources in many aspects of our lives including education, employment, government, commerce, healthcare, recreation, and more. It is important for the web to be accessible to everyone to provide equal access to people with disabilities. An accessible web can help people with disabilities participate more actively in society.