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Ask HN: Best way to test accessibility of a website?

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Re: Ask HN: Best way to test accessibility of a website?

#41

Post by scrollaway »

dbjorge wrote: post #11

Microsoft recently open sourced[1] one of the main tools they use for web accessibility testing. Accessibility Insights for Web ( https://accessibilityinsights.io ) is a Chrome extension that guides you through doing an accessibility assessment of a website. It includes a combination of automated checks (using aXe[2]) and assisted/guided manual checks. Its rules are based on the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelin…

Hey I just tried this out, it's pretty awesome. Hadn't heard of it at all before. Love the tab-index mapping. Have you folks talked to the Lighthouse team to get your work integrated there; or at least possibly referenced there? I know lighthouse has a couple of accessibility recommendations, would be nice to have visibility on it.

Re: Ask HN: Best way to test accessibility of a website?

#43

Post by leowoo91 »

dingus wrote: post #24

- Use blind accessibility tools with your website. If you're on iOS/macOS enable VoiceOver, figure out how it works, close your eyes and use your website. - Disable JavaScript and use your website. This may not be relevant for web apps, but regular websites should work normally. - Try to use your website with only the keyboard. - Try to use your website with extreme zoom levels and font size overrides. - Monitor your…

+ see if browser's readability function works (for long-read pages)

Re: Ask HN: Best way to test accessibility of a website?

#46

Post by philo23 »

Not seen anyone mention it yet, but the Accessibility feature in Firefox (might only be available in Nightly/developer edition, not sure) built into the developer tools are pretty good. You need to go into the dev tools settings to enable it from memory.

It gives you access to what is essentially an "accessibility DOM" that shows you how the page's structure will look to a screen reader, and you can also check the contrast of an elements text against its background.

It might not help you score any better on things like the webmaster tools tests directly, but it might help you identify things to change/fix.

Re: Ask HN: Best way to test accessibility of a website?

#47

Post by bryanrasmussen »

warent wrote: post #26
dingus wrote: post #24

- Use blind accessibility tools with your website. If you're on iOS/macOS enable VoiceOver, figure out how it works, close your eyes and use your website. - Disable JavaScript and use your website. This may not be relevant for web apps, but regular websites should work normally. - Try to use your website with only the keyboard. - Try to use your website with extreme zoom levels and font size overrides. - Monitor your…

> "Use blind accessibility tools with your website. If you're on iOS/macOS enable VoiceOver, figure out how it works, close your eyes and use your website." I doubt this is going to be very effective. Sure, it's better than nothing at all, but this is akin to sighted person with zero blindness experience testing the effectiveness of a newly designed white cane, only a website is much more complicated. You should alwa…

I agree that you should find someone who is blind to test your site for problems that a blind person will encounter, however I think you are wrong about a website being more complicated than a white cane - or rather it is not a white cane one tests, it is the accessibility of the world around you with that cane, and the world around you is more complicated to understand with a white cane than a website with voiceover turned on.

With voiceover it will very quickly let you know if you have something important for the user to get to that either takes too long to get to, or is not accessible at all. Voiceover is a useful tool at the development stage, after you have your near MVP then please get someone with personal experience to give it a full test.

Re: Ask HN: Best way to test accessibility of a website?

#48

Post by majewsky »

bookofjoe wrote: post #44

Ask me to look at it: 39 days ago, on this very site, I learned that I am what is called by cognoscenti a "breaker": https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19153810

I have this, but with typos. Give me a page full of text with a single typo, and somehow, against all odds, I'll immediately spot it.
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