Talk delivered at SQUAD meeting August 9, 2016. Goal was to inform QA professionals of Section 508, WCAG 2.0, how to test for accessibility, latest on QA job postings related to accessibility, legal cases and outcomes, advocacy part of QA job, WAVE toolbar, Color Contrast Analyzer

1. QA Accessibility Testing
How and why you should learn to test websites for accessibility

2. Purpose of accessibility testing
• Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) - 1990
• Section 508 –Federal law (compliance standards) - 1998, 2000, (2017?)
• WCAG 2.0 – w3C – not law, guidelines. These are used across the world to
measure accessibility in software
• People with Disabilities (PWD) – the entire reason behind all this
legislation and interest

3. These are the kind of people I
test for:
Joseph Haynes – Keyboard Only
Angie DeMatteo - JAWS
Rudy Alphonso - ZoomText

4. What we’ll cover
1. Standards and Guidelines – Section 508 & WCAG 2.0
2. Skills – tools, Assistive Technology, automation
3. Job posts – asking for more than your average QA job
4. Legal – who is at risk? Who can mitigate risk?

5. Quick, very quick background
• Section 508 – current and refresh
• WCAG 2.0 and how it fits in:
• “Because WCAG 2.0 was written to be technology neutral, the language and
phrasing of the Success Criteria can be applied to any technology found on
the Web.” -- Access Board (Federal Agency which coordinates federal
agencies around issues of people with disabilities) They are the agency which
is guiding Section 508 refresh.
• YouTube video of someone using NVDA screen reader
• CNIB screen reader demo – also NVDA

6. How to test against these standards and
guidelines
• START with a list of expected results (usual QA test process)
• CONTINUE with usability testing for people using Assistive Technology
(AT) (Add this to your test plan)
• FINISH when you have demonstrated and taught accessibility to
stakeholders (Project Management, Product Management, Development)
(education is primary adjunct to testing)

7. Is accessibility a checklist item?
• Yes, if you want to do it incorrectly.
• Bias of employers, business people, recruiters
• Bias of QA professionals
• No, if you understand the purpose of this testing
• Holistic approach encompasses the PWD factor
• Acceptance Criteria will evolve based on continuous demonstrations – inspect and
adapt

8. First keyboard only, then WAVE
• well done accessibility
http://www.apapracticecentral.org/about/accessibility.aspx
• many issues
http://www.petco.com/avoderm-cat-food

9. How does QA fit into this?
Business, Product Management, Business Analyst/ Requirements Analyst
Dev/ QA, Project Management (everyone is involved and needs education)
Some requirements from jobs on job boards, August 8, 2016:
Test Engineer – Dept. of Homeland Security:
“Interface with multiple stakeholders and teams including development, business analysts,
change management, configuration management, QA, client UAT testers, etc.” Software
Test Engineer I at DIT, Inc. – entry level in Johnstown, PA
“S/he will also assist clients with User Acceptance and UI/UX testing, Section
508 and Web Accessibility, and web application security.”

10. More from current job postings
• Software QA Tester (Washington State Dept. of Enterprise)
• “Planning, implementation, and testing of usability for Web sites and Web-
based applications including: Web site effectiveness, efficiency, and
satisfaction; user’s ability and time it takes to find information and complete
services online.
• Experience with user-centered design including: Early focus on user tasks
and needs; ability to observe, measure, and record a user’s behavior; and
implement feedback using an iterative design process.”

11. Risks of inaccessible software
• Lawsuits
• CU Boulder example of universities
• Colorado Bag n’ Baggage (WSJ write-up)
• Department of Justice (DOJ) role (also EEOC, Dept. of Trans., FCC etc.)
• Employment – Dept. of Homeland Security – one employee (attorney) had issues

12. How much do lawsuits cost?
• Doesn’t take many aggrieved individuals to prevail – Seattle School District: one blind
mother
• Seattle School District: “According to the board’s briefing on the issue, the cost to
implement the decree is estimated to be between $665,400 and $815,400 over its three-and-
a-half year term, including $385,000 to hire an accessibility coordinator, and $150,000 for an
audit and corrective action plan. Web accessibility testing has been budgeted at $90,000, and
another $105,000 will be needed to train the staff designated in the agreement.”

13. How to test
• Keyboard Only
• WCAG: “Guideline 2.1: Make all functionality available from a keyboard.”
• WAVE/ Color Contrast Analyzer– extensions, add to certain browsers
• JAWS/ NVDA – screen reader (NVDA is free, but please give a donation!)
• Captioning (videos, for deaf/ hard of hearing)
• Automation (SSB BART) One enterprise level accessibility audit tool

14. Outcomes
• Do not expect perfection. Think of this as continuous improvement.
• Not possible to satisfy all requirements. Be satisfied with 80/20
• Expect:
• Educate all involved
• Prioritize issues by severity of impact on target audience (keyboard trap)
• Learn all you can about accessibility
• Teach, teach, teach!

15. Elianna James
President, ‘I Break Websites LLC’
Almost 20 years in software, including QA engineer, requirements writer, UX design and accessibility
consultant
eliannaj@yahoo.com www.ibreakwebsites.com

16. Sue Uyetake
Sue Uyetake is a Computer Engineer who has installed, coded, supported, trained, written about, and
tested software. Now coding automated tests at DigitalGlobe in Cloud Services, her passion is in the
communication aspects of Quality Assurance.
sue.uyetake@gmail.com https://suecodingblog.wordpress.com

17. Thank you!
• Section 508 US Access Board
• WCAG 2.0 – checklist by Luke McGrath
• WebAim – WAVE toolbar
• Color Contrast Analyzer - The Paciello Group provides free
• NVDA screen reader, free/ low cost,
• JAWS screen reader, wide use in US and especially government
• Introduction tutorial on accessibility (basic concepts for dev/ designers)