Accessibility testing for websites and digital platforms draft guidelines

Draft guidelines

These guidelines are draft and currently under review. External testing websites and software listed are recommended but awaiting approval.

Accessibility explained

Accessibility is the concept of whether a product or service can be used by everyone, including people with a range of disabilities, including:

auditory
cognitive
neurological
physical
speech
visual

Our websites, tools, and technologies must be designed and developed so that people with disabilities and those using assistive technologies can use them. It's the law.

Everyone must be able to:

perceive
understand
navigate
interact
contribute

Assistive technologies are products, equipment, and systems that enhance learning, working, and daily living for people with disabilities. They can include:

screen reader
braille
screen magnifier
voice over
captions
transcripts
alternative keyboard or mouse
head wand or mouth stick

Discrimination (Disability) (Jersey) Regulations 2018

Discrimination Law 2013

Disability Strategy for Jersey

Video Introduction to Web Accessibility and W3C Standards (4 minutes)

Accessibility is everyone's responsibility

Everyone has a part to play in accessibility testing. For example, the testing process could look something like this:

content designers and writers check if content is written in plain language and follows heading structures and images have clear alt text
designers check if text colours have enough contrast, fonts are easy-to-read and tab and reading order is included in their design specifications
developers check that interactive elements can be used with a screen reader and speech input
QA do a final check using WAVE (an evaluation tool that helps make web content more accessible), tabbing through all elements with a keyboard and confirming that web pages work when zoomed 200% or magnified
user researchers test accessibility with real people

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are worldwide standards for web content accessibility. They explain how to make web content more accessible to people with disabilities.

They're developed through the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) in cooperation with individuals and organizations around the world.

Current guidelines: WCAG 2.1

WCAG 2.2 (Scheduled for April 2023)

How to check accessibility

You can use the WCAG 2.1 accessibility checklist on the GOV.UK website to make sure you're meeting WCAG 2.1 to level AA.

Accessibility testing tools

There are lots of accessibility testing tools available to help you make sure you are delivering accessible products and services to our customers, including:

Automated testing

You can use the following automated testing tools to check for WCAG compliance:

Pa11y: command-line accessibility testing interface

Automated Accessibility Testing Tool (AATT)

Tenon: API-first, automated accessibility testing tool

Integrating Tenon

Sitemorse

Browser extensions

These browser extensions highlight errors on screen and explain what is causing the issue and how to fix it:

Axe (Chrome and Firefox)

Easy Accessibility Testing with aXe (3.5 minute video)

WAVE (Chrome and Firefox)

WAVE Help

tota11y: an accessibility visualization toolkit (all browsers)

taba11y (Chrome)

Mobile apps

Use the following when testing mobile apps:

Testing for Accessibility on OS X

Accessibility scanner (Android)

Mobile testing with Access Continuum

Deque has testing tools for Android and iOS that can be used in a Continuous Integration environment or with an Accessibility API:

Android Accessibility

iOS Accessibility

Low vision

When testing for low vision use the WCAG Color contrast checker (Chrome), this lets you select colours on screen and test them. It will tell you if colours meet AA or AAA requirements for regular or large text.

Make sure your font size is at least 16px.

Zoom in 200% and make sure everything reflows so you can read without scrolling. You should also test using a screen magnifier:

Windows magnifier (7 minute video)

Use Magnifier to make things on the screen easier to see

How to zoom in on your Mac's screen (6 minute video)

Accessibility zoom feature on Mac

Screen readers

A screen reader is a form of assistive technology that makes text and image content into speech or braille output. Screen readers are essential to people who are blind, and are useful to people who are visually impaired, illiterate, or have a learning disability.

You should test your product using a screen reader.