Testing for accessibility

Accessibility testing is one of the most important parts of your role.

You’ll always need to test, whether you’re working from an individual design or a library like the GOV.UK Design System and Frontend.

What to test #

Check that your work

has alt text (alternative text) for any non-text content
has a logical heading structure
uses meaningful text that makes sense out of context for all controls, buttons and links
has meaningful labels associated with all text inputs
flows and resizes appropriately for the screen size and viewport scale
uses valid markup with correct properties, states and roles that update when the page or component state changes
uses ARIA correctly

Set up a checklist for all of your projects to make sure you test as many things as possible.

The A11Y checklist uses the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and is a good place to start.

Test often and thoroughly each time a new change, fix or feature request is created to include both automated and manual testing.

Include testing