Full course description
Location: Online Only, Self-Paced
Technical Level: Beginner
Duration: 60 minutes (estimate)
IAAP CAECs: 1.00 (This class counts toward renewal of IAAP Certification)
Presented By: DeQue University
Description:
While a formal assessment of WCAG 2.1 compliance conducted by an expert is a very important part of a digital accessibility program, nothing can ever replace hands-on usability testing done by real users with disabilities. But because none of us have unlimited time or resources, Deque recommends the following practical plan for accessibility testing:
Enterprise Accessibility Scans - comprehensive automated scans of all digital assets.
Accessibility Expert Manual Assessments - representative expert manual assessments against the appropriate digital standard.
Usability Testing for Accessibility - hands-on usability testing by real users with disabilities for critical paths/core functions.
Usability testing for accessibility is a subset of the testing that needs to be done to assure that your digital assets are fully accessible. Having people with disabilities confirm that the critical paths and core functions are working for real people is very valuable, but out of all the testing you will do for accessibility, it will require the most time and resources. So, Deque advises strategically conducting usability testing where both you and your users will get the most return on investment.
When conducting any usability test, you want to discover insights that you cannot easily find any other way. For example, if an image has no alt text or a page is not usable by keyboard alone or by a screen reader, it won't be very useful to conduct a usability test with a user who uses a screen reader or keyboard only. The best use of everyone's time and resources is to conduct usability testing with users who have disabilities after you've already confirmed that the site has no obvious accessibility syntax errors and after the site has already been manually tested by an accessibility expert.