THE TASK

Fimatix were asked to perform accessibility testing of a finance solution for one of our clients. The following case study highlights the process undertaken, how Fimatix tested, the resulting issues and the remediations made.

WHY IS ACCESSIBILITY TESTING IMPORTANT ?

•  MORAL OBLIGATION_‍ - By performing thorough Accessibility Testing, Fimatix prioritises the development of a digital experience that fully includes people with disabilities including visual, hearing or cognitive impairments.

•  WIDENING AUDIENCE - The more people your application caters for, the more people you can potentially reach.

•   IT'S THE LAW - Prioritising accessibility demonstrates our commitment of applying and promoting The Equality Act (2010).

WHY ACCESSIBILITY TEST ?

Accessibility testing is a method of testing to make sure that applications are designed to be usable by as many people as possible. When talking about accessibility, it can also be defined as usability for individuals with disabilities. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), 15% of the global population suffer from some sort of disability that impacts how they interact with digital devices.

To be truly accessible, applications need to be designed so they can be usable by people with various disabilities, such as visual impairments, hearing impairments or cognitive impairments for example.

WHAT ARE ACCESSIBILITY STANDARDS ?

World Wide Web Consortium's Web Accessibility Initiative provides recommendations for making web content more accessible in the form of Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).

At Fimatix, we test against the latest set of guidelines WCAG 2.1 by checking 78 criteria covering 4 categories (to ensure the application is Perceivable, Operable, Understandable and Robust), which are grouped into 3 compliance levels…

•  WCAG LEVEL A – Basic Accessibility - Considered the least strict, Level A success criteria are essential for every website - e.g. assistive technologies, such as screen readers, must be able to access content, non-text content (images and videos) must have a text equivalent, users must be able to access content using a keyboard only.

•  WCAG LEVEL AA – Strong Accessibility - Most accessibility experts recommend this conformance level as standard - e.g. text and background must use good colour contrast, content should be organised under clear headings, using a logical order, elements that affect navigation should be consistent across the site.

•  WCAG LEVEL AAA – Excellent Accessibility - May not be applicable or realistic to achieve - Organisations should strive to meet as many of its criteria as possible - e.g. contrast ratio between text and background is at least 7 to 1, pre-recorded video content must have a sign language translation, extended audio description should be provided for pre-recorded videos.

THE PROCESS FOR ACCESSIBILTY TESTING

i). DEFINING SCOPE - Define which pages or screens of the application need auditing.

ii). PERFORM CHECKS - Check each page or screen in scope against WCAG 2.1 (with AA standard compliance as a minimum).

iii). VERIFY / PRIORITISE ISSUES - List the issues found and manually verify to provide enough detail to remediate. Provide levels of severity so most important issues can be addressed first.

iv). REPORT / RETEST - Provide a detailed report at the end of testing and plan a follow-up, post-remediation audit.

THE FINDINGS

Of the 78 WCAG 2.1 Success Criteria tested against, we found issues against 18 different checks (5 x A, 6 x AA, 7 x AAA).

The most serious issues detected relate to icons and buttons in the application having no accessible text which enable them to be recognized and announced correctly by screen readers, which is vital for blind and visually impaired users reliant on screen-reader technology. Another issue relating to screen readers is that there is no relationship between field labels and their associated input fields, which again could cause confusion about which input field a user was on.

Another serious issue found is that the application cannot be used solely with the keyboard. Many users with motor disabilities rely solely on keyboard entry. Colour schemes used in the application also failed contrast ratio check between text / graphic and the page background, causing issues for users with visual impairment.

Rectification of other issues such as small icon size and text resize causing loss of application functionality will lead to a more accessible version of the product, helping visually impaired users in particular use the application more fully.

THE IMPORTANCE OF REGULAR ACCESSIBILITY TESTING

Regular accessibility testing is important for promoting inclusivity, expanding user market reach and the number of users who are able to use your software, compliance with associated legislation and maintaining brand reputation. It pays to accessibility test often to keep up with the ever-evolving requirements and guidelines on what makes a truly, accessible and inclusive product.