Testing For Digital Accessibility
'Learned the difference between usability and accessibility testing' a co-learner shared this feedback with us at the accessibility testing workshop conducted on 23rd September.
This workshop was hosted by Manumantraa and presented by Ajay Balamurugadas and myself.
In my humble know-how, this lack of certainty (between usability and accessibility) can occur when the testers are imposed to learn about the process and not 'how to test' at an/y organization. The ecosystem makes you *believe that as a new tester, knowing software testing fundamentals is not necessary but learning about the process is essential. The training program for testers is designed with this belief system at the organizations that I have worked with.
Point to ponder:
*As Sanath puts it 'lie' is at the center of the word 'believe'.
Any belief about software testing needs to be formed by the tester and it shouldn't be a blindly followed or a borrowed belief system from others(who have not studied this science). When we learn from the unlearned it impacts us and the next generation of tester's know-how. And this, in turn, gets passed down to gen-next as software testing knowledge.
So I call testers to *participate, discuss, talk and to get involved in the learning that is happening around us, in our team and at our workplace.
*Participate - Take part assertively and effectively to contribute for the greater good.
Testers who are on a learning path of accessibility(a11y) testing can find some of the below collated a11y testing tools useful and for reference only.
For the ease of developing a11y tools for testing and for a deeper understanding, a11y testing is broadly categorized into Visual, Cognitive, Speech, Mobility and Hearing impairment.
Some of the a11y testing tools developed to aid testing for the above categories are collated in a visual representation below:
https://a11yrules.com/series/a11y-rules-podcast/
This workshop was hosted by Manumantraa and presented by Ajay Balamurugadas and myself.
In my humble know-how, this lack of certainty (between usability and accessibility) can occur when the testers are imposed to learn about the process and not 'how to test' at an/y organization. The ecosystem makes you *believe that as a new tester, knowing software testing fundamentals is not necessary but learning about the process is essential. The training program for testers is designed with this belief system at the organizations that I have worked with.
Point to ponder:
*As Sanath puts it 'lie' is at the center of the word 'believe'.
Any belief about software testing needs to be formed by the tester and it shouldn't be a blindly followed or a borrowed belief system from others(who have not studied this science). When we learn from the unlearned it impacts us and the next generation of tester's know-how. And this, in turn, gets passed down to gen-next as software testing knowledge.
So I call testers to *participate, discuss, talk and to get involved in the learning that is happening around us, in our team and at our workplace.
*Participate - Take part assertively and effectively to contribute for the greater good.
Testers who are on a learning path of accessibility(a11y) testing can find some of the below collated a11y testing tools useful and for reference only.
For the ease of developing a11y tools for testing and for a deeper understanding, a11y testing is broadly categorized into Visual, Cognitive, Speech, Mobility and Hearing impairment.
Some of the a11y testing tools developed to aid testing for the above categories are collated in a visual representation below:
Few key takeaways for all the co-learners at this workshop is as follows:
- Accessibility, testing for accessibility is not for a category of people who are specially-abled but it is for all users of the software.
- Real users feedback is of prime importance to build accessible solutions.
- It is essential to build the software for a11y early on instead of thinking of it as a necessity to save the business from a lawsuit.
There is no alternate solution but having accessibility built into the software is the solution.Further reading/listening:
https://a11yrules.com/series/a11y-rules-podcast/
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