What is accessibility testing?
Accessibility testing checks that people with disabilities can use a product, usually against the WCAG standard.
It covers whether the product works with keyboards, screen readers, magnification and other assistive technology, and whether content meets requirements for contrast, labelling, structure and motion.
Automated tools catch many issues quickly, such as missing labels and low contrast. Others, such as whether focus order makes sense, need human or journey-level testing. Continuous testing matters because accessibility regresses with ordinary design changes.
Example
An automated accessibility check flags that a new grey placeholder text has a contrast ratio of 2.9:1, below the 4.5:1 required by WCAG 2.1 AA.
Best practices
- Test against WCAG 2.1 AA as a baseline
- Run automated checks on every deploy
- Test key journeys with only a keyboard
- Check screen-reader output for critical flows
- Track new issues separately from existing debt
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