New Resource: An Intro to Website Accessibility Testing

With an estimated 1.3 billion users with disabilities worldwide, an accessible website is a gateway to a wider audience and customer base. The Drupal community has long been dedicated to inclusivity and is committed to making sure that Drupal is an accessible tool for building websites that in turn can be accessed by people with disabilities. Drupal 8 brings with it additional accessibility features and enhancements, including more semantic markup, heavy use of WAI-ARIA, aural alerts, controlled tab order, and much more.

Choosing a CMS that’s built for accessibility is a great starting point, but how can you be sure that your website design and content meets the standards put forth by WCAG 2.0? Does your content translate to a text-to-speech screen reader? How does your site appear to color blind users? Having the right tools for testing is key to reaching all users.

At Mediacurrent, we champion the philosophy that accessibility is a way of thinking, not a set of criteria to be tacked on at the end of a development project. Our team uses a variety of tools and methods to review and test accessibility standards, relying on a combination of code review and automated and manual testing.

I’m excited to share more about our process in our newly-released Intro to Website Accessibility Testing whitepaper. In it, you’ll learn:

How to conduct an Accessibility review
Must- haves like Webaim’s WAVE Tool for your automated testing toolkit
The importance of manual testing- including how to use your keyboard, computer and browser settings, and visual checks for testing
How to avoid common accessibility pitfalls
I’ve also included a roundup of Mediacurrent’s Accessibility resources for developers and non-technical folks alike.

Wherever you are on your web accessibility journey, it’s important to remember that a combination of both automated and manual testing will give you the most comprehensive accessibility audit results. If this guide is helpful to you, I’d love to hear how. What are some of the steps you have taken to create an inclusive website experience for your users?