Basic Accessibility Test
Sample page selection
Select a sample of pages, including (where appropriate)
- your site’s homepage
- content pages that are mostly text based
- images, video and audio content
- interactive tools and transactions, like forms
- pages including login functionality, if your website has them
- PDFs and other document types you have
- dynamic content like pop-up windows
- navigation pages, including your sitemap and pages with search functionality
Note
We may need to get guidance or learn what is an appropriate coverage level.
Testing outlines
Text
| Text Content | Test text content for accessibility by utilising various tools and techniques to ensure that all text content is clear and simple to understand. | |
|---|---|---|
| How We Test Compliance | When testing our applications for compliance we use both screen reader (NVDA) and browser plugin (WAVE) to ensure content is properly read aloud, checking for proper heading structure and alternative text for images as well as testing for colour contrast to ensure readability, and verifying that content is keyboard navigable and meets the WCAG Standards. | |
| What We Test | Headings | How We Test Compliance Using WAVE, check and verify that the heading structure is logical and hierarchical, with proper use of heading tags (h1, h2, h3, etc.) to help users navigate and understand the content. |
| Titles | How We Test Compliance Check for descriptive and concise titles, ensuring that each page of the application has a unique and descriptive title that accurately reflects the content of the page. The page title should be concise and relevant to help users understand the purpose of the page. Using NVDA screen reader, listen to how the title is read aloud. Ensure that the title is clear and provides context about the page's content to users who rely on screen readers. |
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| Links / Navigation | How We Test Compliance Test using only the keyboard to ensure that all interactive elements, such as links, buttons and form fields, can be easily accessed and navigated without the use of a mouse. |
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| Contrast | How We Test Compliance Using WAVE verify that text and background colours have sufficient contrast to ensure readability for users with visual impairments. |
Images, Video and Audio
| Images, video and audio content | Testing images, video, and audio content for accessibility is crucial to ensure that all users, including those with disabilities, can access and understand the content on the application. | |
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| How We Test Compliance | Our testing involves ensuring that these media elements are perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust for all users, including those with disabilities. | |
| What We Test | Images | How We Test Compliance Using WAVE, ensure that all images have descriptive alternative text (alt text) that conveys the content and purpose of the image for users who cannot see it unless where an image is purely decorative and does not convey important information, in which case empty alt text (alt="") may be used. If an image contains text, ensure that the text is also provided in the HTML content or as part of the alt text and test with NVDA to verify that alt text is read aloud and provides meaningful information about the image. |
| Videos | How We Test Compliance Using NVDA, insure content includes closed captions or subtitles for videos to make the content accessible to users who are deaf or hard of hearing and ensure that for videos with important visual content, we provide audio descriptions that describe key visual elements for users who are blind or visually impaired. Additionally we ensure that users can control video playback using keyboard shortcuts for operability. |
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| Audio | How We Test Compliance Using NVDA, verify transcripts for audio content to make the information accessible to users who are deaf or hard of hearing, including captions or descriptions for any sound effects. |
Interactive tools and transactions
| Interactive tools and transactions | Accessible interactive tools and transactions make it easier for users with disabilities to navigate, interact, and complete transactions on the application, leading to a better overall user experience | |
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| How We Test Compliance | Tested with a combination of manual testing and automated tools to ensure the application is usable by individuals with disabilities. Check that all interactive elements can be accessed and operated using only a keyboard and ensure that users can navigate, interact with, and submit forms without the need for a mouse while ensuring that the focus indicator is visible and moves logically through interactive elements. | |
| What We Test | Form Fields | How We Test Compliance Using NVDA test to ensure that users can easily navigate between input fields using the keyboard and confirm the sequence is correct and that the focus indicator is visible. |
| Interactive Elements | How We Test Compliance Using WAVE, check and identify any issues with interactive elements, including size and spacing to improve the accessibility of interactive elements on the application. |
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| Field Labels | How We Test Compliance Using WAVE, verify each form field has a corresponding label that is properly associated with it using the "for" attribute in HTML or by nesting the input field within the label element. Ensure field labels are clear, descriptive, and concise to help users understand the purpose of the form field. |
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| Consistency | How We Test Compliance Manually verify that the form labels are used consistently throughout the application and ensure navigation elements are uniformed throughout the application. |
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| Time Outs | How We Test Compliance Using NVDA, ensure the user is notified on both "Session is about to expire" and "Session has expired" timeouts ensuring they have the opportunity to interact with the application to prevent the time out from happening. |
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| Error Messages & Validation Messages | How We Test Compliance Using both WAVE and NVDA ensure all error messages and field validation messages are clear and descriptive to help users navigate and understand the messages. |
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| Form Summary | How We Test Compliance Where the application requires it we verify, using both WAVE and NVDA, that the summary page enables the user to check their answers prior to submitting. This is not required on all forms but generally on those which would have serious consequences to incorrectly entered information such as a financial transactions or something that enters them into a legal contract. |
PDFs and other documents
| PDFs and other documents | Digital content, including PDFs and other documents, should be accessible to individuals with disabilities. | |
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| How We Test Compliance | Although we can not control if documents uploaded by other users are compliant with accessibility standards we can ensure that any newly created documents moving forward are. As with web applications we can test using WAVE to identify any accessibility issues. |
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| What We Test | Title | How We Test Compliance Using NVDA we can ensure that the title is read aloud correctly and provides meaningful information to users who rely on assistive technology. |
| Headings | How We Test Compliance Ensure proper heading structures are used to indicate its importance and hierarchy within the document and that they are tagged properly. |
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| Link Text | How We Test Compliance Using NVDA ensure any link text clearly explains where the link will take the user. |
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| Images, Charts and Tables | How We Test Compliance Using WAVE ensure any content has appropriate descriptive alt text and appropriate contrasts to make it easily distinguishable. Manually check that any visual way of conveying data like a table, chart or image is described in the surrounding text Using NVDA ensure tables have appropriate row and column headers and as you navigate through the table verify that the content is read out in a logical order and that all information is accessible. |
Technology
| Technology | Ensure the application is accessible on a variety of devices including mobile or tablet devices. | |
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| How We Test Compliance | We test this using both manual and automated tools to ensure the applications behave as expected on these devices | |
| What We Test | Orientation | How We Test Compliance Using the devices, change the orientation to confirm they respond properly. Repeating the changes in orientation should repeatedly respond to fit the view |
| Simple Gestures | How We Test Compliance Manually tested by use of single finger gestures to ensure application can be navigated. Also verify other gestures such as double-tapping to zoom in and out while holding or hovering your finger over an element to highlight it. |
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| Navigating using keyboard | How We Test Compliance Testing keyboard navigation is primarily tested in parallel with the screen reader (NVDA) when the user navigates through the application with only the user of the keyboard and not the mouse or trackpad. |
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| Location on application | How We Test Compliance Manually tested with the keyboard navigation and the form fields indicating the elements in focus. |
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| Skip to Main Content | How We Test Compliance Manually tested by ensuring the pages |
Results template
Sample size
Approximate number of screens in the service: Number of screens sampled:
Sample checklist
Did the sample include:
| Description | Y/N | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| your site’s homepage | ||
| content pages that are mostly text based | ||
| images, video and audio content | ||
| interactive tools and transactions, like forms | ||
| pages including login functionality, if your website has them | ||
| PDFs and other document types you have | ||
| dynamic content like pop-up windows | ||
| navigation pages, including your sitemap and pages with search functionality |
Results
| Number of issues found | Number of issues outstanding |
|---|---|
| 8 | 1 |
| Issue | Description | Notes / Mitigation |
|---|---|---|