Full Stack Testing

Chapter 9. Accessibility Testing

Accessibility—essential for some, useful for all.

—W3C WAI

The web is an essential aspect of our lives in so many ways—we use it to purchase everyday commodities and have them delivered to our doorsteps, to communicate with friends and family, to learn new skills and keep up with world news. I can’t imagine how much more difficult it would have been to get through the Covid-19 pandemic without the connectivity, productivity, and information the web provides. Making such a vital commodity available to all users with permanent, temporary, or situational disabilities is termed web accessibility. This includes people who are visually impaired, elderly, have literary gaps, are driving cars, or face other challenges in accessing the web. Accessibility is a subset of usability, in web development terms. It is a subset of inclusivity in humanitarian terms.

Although the main goal is allowing people with accessibility challenges to avail themselves of the services of the web, it in fact enhances everyone’s lives. I love the tagline “Essential for some, useful for all,” coined by the W3C’s Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI); it emphasizes how web accessibility features are useful for all users, irrespective of disabilities or other obstacles. For example, all of us prefer a clear, structured layout where the different parts of the page are easy to locate and identify and the site is easy to navigate. Similarly, having simple, understandable ...