Introduction
As the new year sets its shining light upon us, incorporating digital accessibility has become the need of the hour – a practice which still requires a coherent and deliberate effort. And to effectively further this cause and embed it within each and every facet of a product, across various verticals, becomes the key to its true realization. Let’s delve into the various nuances within a product’s life cycle, especially accessibility testing services, as well as a niche way to incorporate digital accessibility comprehensively.
Realizing Digital Accessibility
Digital accessibility can be seamlessly realized only when an end-to-end adoption and incorporation takes place. From the very early stages of a software’s development, accessibility needs to be ingrained within the framework rather than being an afterthought. For this, a coherent effort needs to be put in during each and every phase of an SDLC. This is mainly defined with the three phases of accessibility development, accessibility testing and accessibility remediations and recommendations.
As part of a software’s development, digital accessibility becomes a crucial facet to incorporate from the very get-go. With such a shift-left approach, nuances such as alt-texts, color contrast, etc., are taken into consideration from the very beginning. Accessibility testing services become equally crucial to ensure that any accessibility pain points are identified and fixed comprehensively – this is also conducted with the help of real-users or engineers who are differently-abled. Even post release, accessibility remediations offer a pathway to rectify accessibility bottlenecks and propose industry best practices.
Incorporating accessibility within every phase offers a conducive environment for a software to ensure accessibility, all the way.
A Niche Accessibility Testing Approach
In the quest of realizing digital accessibility all the way, a niche accessibility testing approach which becomes an immense value-add is the paired testing approach. This approach offers a more comprehensive undertaking of accessibility defects and pain points. Within this, a differently-abled engineer works alongside an SME (Subject Matter Expert) to identify and fix accessibility bugs and defects. This approach has an array of benefits attached to it – to name a few:
- Realistic results – A paired testing effort offers comprehensive and realistic results as the end users themselves test it for accessibility anomalies.
- Collaborative approach – This approach also helps in enhancing collaboration and teamwork between SMEs and engineers to produce efficient results.
- Overall efficiency – It also brings forth efficiency and wholesome test coverage with real users testing the product.
Thus, a paired testing approach becomes a niche way within accessibility testing services to identify and eliminate as many pain points as possible for end users to have a flawless experience. Engineers with visual, auditory, speech, motor or cognitive impairments, are actual users who help identify real pain points that end users might face and thus, make this approach so unique.
For ensuring accessibility all the way, a more comprehensive outlook needs to be adopted by organizations – starting with the very notion of making accessibility a priority and not an afterthought. Thus, as the world becomes more digital by the hour, digital accessibility needs to be seamlessly incorporated into each and every product.