Accessibility testing helps in ensuring barrier free access for the disabled segment of your target audience.
VPAT (voluntary product accessibility template) assessments help you confirm digital accessibility standards. For instance, the VPAT WCAG edition requires that you check your website for compliance with the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act).
ADA is a civil rights law that ensures digital accessibility for the disabled population. WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) is a framework used to assess ADA compliance. With these guidelines, you can test your product and be sure about the usability of your electronic documents or business website.
A variety of testing methods are used to confirm that a user with visual impairment, hearing loss or cognitive disability is capable of consuming the available digital content.
A lot has been commented on about using a VPAT testing tool for WCAG assessment. However, here are a few important aspects that you must keep in mind before relying on automated scans:
- Software scans are only 30% accurate
- Machine learning cannot replace human intervention
- Using only automated testing can violate certain WCAG criteria
Despite using automated scans, it is highly recommended to opt for manual testing before you publish the VPAT Report.
What Is Manual Testing And When It Is Useful?
As the name suggests, manual testing involves human intervention for accessibility audits. A software scan can only be helpful in finding missing captions or broken links, whereas below is a list of factors when manual testing becomes essential.
- Navigation: WCAG success criteria with level AA conformance requires that a user must be able to navigate a website using only the keyboard. This can only be possible when a human conducts a thorough evaluation and tries to move between webpages using only the keyboard. The audit specialists ensure that they can assess the entire menu without using the mouse. Besides, an auditor ensures that a user is able to highlight links and fields with just a keyboard.
- Screen reader software: The majority of digital accessibility lawsuits fall under this WCAG success criteria. Auditors ensure that the content is readable with assistive technology. They test a website to understand the barriers of a visually impaired user and check for assistive conditions such as navigation, links description, alternative texts etc.
Manual testing is more helpful in assessing the usefulness of screen readers. For instance, during WCAG audits, the experts not only catch the missing titles but also make sure that the titles/captions make sense to the user.
In addition to this, WCAG testing involves multiple conditions like form filling, assistive input, timed sessions etc. the type of testing method majorly depends on the determined level of compliance. It is best to consult an expert to understand the required tests of WCAG level AA accessibility standards.
How To Find The Best Manual WCAG Tester?
Automated scans are fast but less efficient, whereas manual testing can be time-consuming but these experts can help you reduce the risk of expensive lawsuits. Consider the below listed tips to find WCAG audit specialists:
- The experts must be highly trained professionals
- They must be well aware of browser plugins and assistive technology
- Choose an expert who is well aware of the latest WCAG standards
- The audit specialist must be able to offer the most viable remediation
Accessibility testing is an ongoing process. Even if you are doing it for a VPAT report, you must update the same once every 12-16 months. Therefore, it is important to find an experienced and highly recognized WCAG tester. You can also contact the accessibility specialists at ADA Compliance Pros. These experts provide comprehensive solutions to help you have a proactive approach against lawsuits with routine VPAT assessments and remediation.
