what is accessibility testing

Accessibility testing is a crucial practice that ensures digital content, such as websites and apps, is usable by people with disabilities. It involves reviewing digital content against common standards, such as the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 and 2.1, and evaluating usability for people who use assistive technologies. The goal of accessibility testing is to make digital content accessible to as many people as possible, irrespective of their disabilities. This includes ensuring that differently-abled users can interact with the software to its full potential without external assistance. Accessibility testing is essential to cater to the market for disabled people, as about 20% of the population has disability issues. It is also important for compliance and to ensure that applications are inclusive for all users. Accessibility testing tools can identify general issues that hamper the overall usability of the product, leading to a better quality codebase in general. However, its important to note that there is no such thing as fully automated accessibility testing, and different tools can provide different results. Therefore, it is crucial to have experts well versed in due diligence in accessibility testing to build a complete picture from different tool results and inform the organization whether they have done enough to ensure optimal accessibility.