How Mobile Accessibility Landscape is Changing

How Mobile Accessibility Landscape is Changing

Mobile Accessibility Landscape

The majority of internet users are now on smartphones. From online shopping and bookings to studies, social media, and entertainment; we have now become dependent on smartphones. Mobile internet has become essential for almost everyone to lead a normal and comfortable life. As per Statista, mobile data consumption per month will go over 75 exabytes. 

Hence, it has become essential for businesses to make their mobile apps and websites accessible to differently-abled users. At 15 percent of the global population being differently-abled, it is also a massive untapped business opportunity for organizations. A lot of global campaigns are also trying to make people aware and sensitize them about the need of accessibility in digital solutions.

While businesses are now working to develop accessible digital assets, there is not a specific focus making mobile apps accessible. Mobile accessibility was majorly dependent on web application accessibility standards. However, things are now changing for good. The revised WCAG 2.1 guidelines have set the primary focus on mobile accessibility as this segment is witnessing brisk growth. Why? Because around 95 percent of Android apps violate accessibility guidelines.

Aside, the majority of the applications come with potential violations and around 66 percent of apps have warnings. Also, most of the apps suffer from normal accessibility issues at the GUI levels or a layer under, at the Symantec level. These issues are most commonly no element description, focus related issues, inappropriate spacing, text to color ratio, and element or font size. However, these issues can be fixed easily and can increase the accessibility score of the application significantly. It is not a big challenge, however, businesses need to be motivated to bring accessibility into their business process.

Latest WCAG 2.1 Guidelines

When you closely monitor WCAG 2.1 for mobile accessibility, you will find out that it is centered around input modalities and screen orientation. Some of the criteria worth mentioning are labels in name, pointer gestures, motion actuation, pointer cancellation, and support for different orientations. WCAG 2.1 has considered all types of disabilities to ensure accessible mobile apps in all scenarios.

For instance, pointer gestures direct that just pinch or swipe should not be the only action to give input to a touchscreen device. Pointer cancellation is meant to cancel the pointers once they are revoked on the screen. You can easily implement the label in name feature to make sure that the visual text label is same as the programmatic level. It makes it easier for screen reader users to perceive exactly what is present on the application.

Mobile apps are equipped with specific motions to add sophistication and flexibility. However, users should get the option to disable these features wherever required while achieving results from the same functionality. In a nutshell, it is the same to what we achieve with desktop applications i.e. making them completely accessible via keyboards. The accessibility criteria also advises the need of making applications accessible and visible in both landscape and portrait modes.

These accessibility criteria are meant to make user experience more efficient and engaging on smartphones for people of all types of disabilities.

Automation in Accessibility

As per the new accessibility criteria, engineering and design teams to keep accessibility in mind from the starting to develop highly accessible applications. And to achieve real accessibility, proper functioning of assistive tools also becomes important. Herein, AI and automation can help. For instance, machine learning (ML) based speech recognition software is enabling mobile accessibility to become more efficient and accurate.

Aside, screen readers are also becoming more sophisticated and capable of figuring out the complex Alt text and giving a human-touch while reading out text from the screen. Test automation in accessibility has also become a reality. It has enabled businesses to roll out accessible apps at a faster pace. With automation in accessibility, you can save the manual resources to work on more business-critical tasks and leave the testing to computers.

In Summary

As the number of differently-abled smartphone users is increasing at a rapid pace and stricter government compliance at a global level is being enforced, it has become crucial for businesses to create highly accessible mobile phone apps. Automation and AI in accessibility will make it easier for developers and test engineers to create a highly intuitive and engaging mobile application for differently-abled.

Embedding accessibility right at the start of the project is cost-efficient and can be implemented easily as well. Also, having an accessible mobile or web app can also help businesses increase their bottom line by attracting differently-abled users as their customers, therein also benefiting on people with disabilities user experiences. 

 

Google Chrome Enhances Focus Visibility to Improve Accessibility 

Google Chrome Enhances Focus Visibility to Improve Accessibility 

Google Chrome Enhancing Focus VisibilityTo ramp up its default styling in the upcoming versions, Google Chrome collaborated with a team from Microsoft Edge to re-theme and enable functional improvements. One such notable improvement was a focus indicator with better visibility. Also known as the “focus ring”, the focus indicator is an accessibility feature. It helps users identify the elements that they are interacting with when using either switch devices or the keyboard.

In the previous versions of Chrome, this was achieved by outlining the element using a light blue colour. But this created a problem because on a similarly colored background, it was difficult to perceive the interacting element. The change which Google Chrome implemented made the focusing parameter change to a thick dark ring outlined by a thin white line. This enabled the interactive element to become clearly visible both on light as well as dark backgrounds. It also improved user experience automatically without the need for developers to write a new code for the same.

But why was this change required?

To start with, users first need to have a thorough understanding of what is focus indicator and how it works. When a particular tab or element is being accessed, a blue outlines show up. This gains prominence when the user is filling forms or requires the selection of a menu option. Browsers use something known as: focus CSS pseudo-class to impart these outlines to the interactive elements. The importance of these outlines lie in their ability to indicate the user’s position on the webpage.

These outlines are the focus indicators. Simply speaking they are visual markers. They refer to or indicate the element that the webpage is currently focusing on. These elements are all interactive and as a rule, if the mouse can interact with it, so should the keyboard. And anything the keyboard interacts with needs to have visible focus.

Who benefits from the use of these focus indicators?

While most people use the mouse for interacting with a web page, there are plenty of people who still use the keyboard like:

  • People using screen readers: Such users have sight impairment; some may be blind while others might have vision problems. Even people with cognitive disabilities like dyslexia use screen readers to interact with the internet. These screen readers can only be accessed using a keyboard and hence visible focus becomes mandatory here.
  • People suffering from limited mobility: Some people have motor disabilities. Hence they are incapable of using the mouse. Thus their only option of interacting with the internet is either a mouth stick or a switch which can simulate the keyboard.
  • Power users: They are people who have to work on the web for very long periods. Examples of power users include people like the web developer who is forever writing codes or the admin guy whose sole work is data entry etc. For such people, using the mouse to fill up the different fields is near to impossible. The keyboard is the only option available for them.

Other than the above requirements, even the accessibility guidelines for web content laid down by WCAG mention the need for “focus visible”. WCAG is a common accessibility standard guide. Thus many countries require websites to meet these standards to operate inside them.

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Also Read: Importance of WCAG Compliance Testing in Accessibility

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What are the focusable elements on the web page?

There are many different focusable elements on the webpage and each of these requires a focus indicator to make them look prominent when they are in use. Some of the focusable elements that users commonly encounter are:

  • Buttons
  • Links
  • Menu items
  • Widgets
  • Form controls and different fields etc.

Every browser has certain default focus indicators. Thus focus indicators of Google Chrome are different from that of Firefox, Internet Explorer etc. For example, while Firefox uses an ink-coloured dotted outline, Google Chrome previously used a light blue coloured outline. Internet Explorer has a dotted grey outline.

Google Chrome very recently ramped up its Focus Visibility as mentioned above. This was done so that it:

  • Could provide good contrast
  • Be complementary to the element’s dimensions and
  • Enable the colour scheme to stand out

Changes in Focus visibility and form controls by Google

The HTML form control is the backbone of web interactivity. They have built in accessibility, are developer-friendly and familiar to the innumerable people who use them daily. Hence when we talk about focus visibility, we also need to talk about form controls.

Now, form controls have a styling inconsistency. While older controls were styled so that they matched the OS being used by the user, recently added form controls match with the style that is currently popular. For Google Chrome, this resulted in mismatched and outdated looking controls. To correct this, developers had to spend valuable time enabling styling changes in the default appearance of the focus controls.

But the latest updates introduced by Google Chrome, solved all problems related to form control. It also made it possible to make these interactive elements and links easy to perceive. Thus changes in focus visibility could be enabled along with enhancing touch support and upgrading other accessibility options.

But even after changes were made to the “focus visible”, there were certain occasions wherein the focus ring was still difficult to perceive. Some instances for the same include:

  • Black button and white background
  • Elements are positioned very close to each other etc.

In both of the above instances, the focus ring becomes almost indistinguishable. Users who have faced such a situation understand how difficult it is to work when the elements are not distinguishable. But there are ways to overcome this lapse too. If the new focus indicator introduced by Google Chrome does not match the website design, it can be easily styled to meet the user’s requirement. This is generally done using the new: focus visible pseudo-class.

What is a pseudo-class?

A pseudo-class is that keyword which when added to any selector signifies a specific state of the element selected. The use of the: hover is an excellent example of pseudo-class.  In this when the ++pointer hovers over a button, its colour changes.

The usefulness of pseudo-class lies in the fact that style applied to an element can be done both:

  • In relation to the document tree content and
  • External factors like navigator history, content status, mouse position etc.

Just like regular classes, multiple pseudo classes can also be clubbed together and chained.

What is :focus-visible?

Also called the “Focus Indicated” pseudo-class, this is a native CSS or Cascading Style Sheet process to impart style to an element that is:

  • Already in focus or
  • Requires a visible indicator to get the desired focus.

This is another change incorporated by Google Chrome to improve focus visibility and improve accessibility. Currently, it is only available and supported by Google Chrome. This new pseudo-class gets applied whenever focus is placed on an element. Chrome uses heuristics to determine whether displaying the focus indicator on that element would benefit the user. 

If the recent interaction with the internet was with the help of a keyboard and no Alt/Option, Meta or Control keys were pressed, then the :focus-visible would definitely match. Generally, when different input modalities are used, the usefulness of this selector increases so that the control can provide different focus indicators based on the same.

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Also Read: Importance of WCAG Compliance Testing in Accessibility

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But the :focus-visible can only be applied in instances wherein there is a need to visibly see the position of the focus using the visual indicator. It cannot hide an outline as can be done using the command : focus. If the user wants the outline to disappear then both of them need to be simultaneously used together.

When does :focus-visible get displayed?

If on clicking a control on a mobile device, the result is a keyboard on display, then it can be safely concluded that the control would always display a focus indicator. This is irrespective of the type of input device used to put focus on it.

The element <input type=”text”> is a good example of the same. Herein the user sends the input to the interactive element regardless of how the focus was originally received by the input element. Thus it is always beneficial to display the focus indicator in this instance.

However, if the result on display is not a keyboard, what does the user do then. The control has a choice. It can selectively display the focus indicator. The <button> element is a good example of the same. If the user completes an action simply by clicking on this interactive element, then the control might choose not to display the focus indicator.

But when a keyboard is used for navigation, the display of the focus indicator becomes a necessity. This will enable the user to decide whether he wants to use the “Space” or “Enter” keys to click on the control.

Simply speaking, the application of the focus visible or display of the :focus-visible takes place when:

  • The user specifically mentions wanting it with the help of a setting,
  • An element needs a keyboard input,
  • The user navigates using a keyboard,
  • A script deliberately moves the focus from an element using the :focus-visible control to a different element.

:focus-visible pseudo-class is not used when a pointing input device is used as the mouse, finger on a touch screen etc. and when a script attempts to move the focus from a non :focus-visible element to a different element.

There were other prominent changes made to Google Chrome recently but the change in focus visibility was the most important one incorporated to improve accessibility options. 

 

What are the Tools for Accessibility Testing for Mobile Application?

What are the Tools for Accessibility Testing for Mobile Application?

Accessibility testing services and tools

Mobile technology has gone beyond the scope of communication and has empowered areas like education, entertainment, finance, and much more. When it comes to app development, it is crucial to cover features and functionalities based on accessibility. 

Today, smartphones and mobile apps, in particular, have changed the way assistive technology is perceived. Advances in Accessibility Testing Services can be observed in many accessibility features for mobile devices. The WHO reports that around 15% of the global population has some form of special ability needs. Hence, accessibility testing is a crucial part of an app development process. 

So what is accessibility testing, what are the different types of accessibility categories, the key limitations and requirements, and the main tools which are used as part of the Accessibility Testing Services? Find out in this guide.

What is Accessibility Testing?

Accessibility Testing Services are conducted to ensure that a mobile app is suitable and usable for everyone including those who are specially-abled. So what does it involve? It is an assessment of the mobile app about how much of the content or services provided are accessible to those with special needs. It can involve evaluation of the simplest of design aspects like color schemes and font sizes to check whether they make it easy or difficult to access the content, features, and/or services. 

Users with different levels of abilities use an app accordingly. So there are different testing tools to ensure that an app is tested for accessibility at its optimal level. Such tools are also referred to as assistive tools.

Importance of Accessibility Testing Tools

Accessibility testing can help in uncovering design issues and bugs that may cause or contribute to poor UX for both general and specially-abled users. Studies show that around 20%  Americans and 17% Europeans have some form of special ability needs. Just 20% of these Americans have a stunning purchasing power of over $490 billion. So when it comes to developing apps, you cannot ignore this market.

There is another important factor at play here. 53% of millennials are serious about supporting companies and brands that invest in morals, values, and ethics. So when you ignore accessibility, you will be making a costly mistake. Both ethical and economic incentives make Accessibility Testing Services important for your app.

Categories of Special Abilities

The different levels of special abilities around which Accessibility Testing Services need to be designed are as follows:

Vision Impairment

All Accessibility Testing Services must use tools to check accessibility for users who are visually impaired. This can include color vision tools, Bluetooth keyboards, Screen Reader and single control keyboards. Some of the different sub-categories covered by such tools include the following:

Complete Blindness

There will be some users who are completely visually impaired. There are tools like Screen readers that can narrate the content on the application. It can narrate not just the content, but also the buttons, links, images, and other elements in the app. It will also narrate word-by-word anything you enter into a text box. 

When an app is poorly designed or developed, a Screen reader cannot narrate the content or elements correctly. This can mean inaccessibility for users who are visually impaired or have inability to see. 

Color Blindness

Accessibility Testing Services also need to test color blindness when testing apps. Color blindness refers to the inability to view certain colors properly. Blue and red are the most common colors that people with color blindness cannot see properly. So when someone with color blindness of red color uses an app that is more than 50% in red, they will not be comfortable using it. 

So an app needs to be designed in a way that even people with color blindness can use it without any accessibility issues. In the above example, if a button is red, it can be outlined with black to make it more accessible. Typically, black and white are treated as universal colors.

Poor Vision

Accessibility testing tools should also be able to cover accessibility by users with poor vision. This refers to users who do not have a clear vision or have a wide range of eyesight issues. Such users can have various problems with the retina. Apps can be designed to overcome poor vision challenge using the following strategies:

  • Avoiding small text. 
  • The content or features should be designed to be zoom-able. The layout should not break when the text or other design elements get zoomed.

Need for Vision Accessibility Tests

Digitalization has improved everyone’s life. Technology continues to play an important role in assisting people with special needs. It also provides them with opportunities to maintain a more independent life.

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Also Read: Understanding the Importance of WCAG Compliance Testing in Accessibility

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Accessibility in apps is essential and there is a growing need for apps that help the visually impaired. Both Android and iOS come with screen readers built-in to the devices supporting them. Screen readers can allow users with severe vision impairment and blindness to interact with mobile apps without even seeing.

Manual Testing Tools for Android

i. TalkBack Screen Reader

TalkBack provides 2 common methods of navigation:

  • Touch: Users can drag their finger on the screen and hear the content or control under their finger. Selection can be made with a double-tap anywhere.
  • Linear: Right or left swipe can help users navigate the screen elements in a sequence. Selection can be made with a double-tap anywhere.

ii. Color Inversion

This tool used by Accessibility Testing Services inverts all the colors to provide the high-contrast look. It is suited for users with low vision and color blindness.

iii. Color Correction

This tool is used for testing accessibility for users with color blindness. It allows different mode settings including the following:

    • Deuteranomaly for Red and Green color blindness
    • Tritanomaly for Blue and Yellow color blindness
    • Protanomaly for Red and Green color blindness

Manual Testing Tools for iOS

i. VoiceOver

This tool works as a screen reader for visually impaired users. It can read buttons, links, icons, and other UI elements. Users can use gestures for selecting or navigating.

ii. Invert Colors

This tool allows users to choose between Smart Invert and Classic Invert options. Smart Invert inverts all colors except those of images and certain media. The Classic Invert option inverts the color of all the elements. This tool is ideal for those with low vision.

iii. Color Filters

This tool allows users with different types of color blindness to access apps more easily. The different color filter options include Grayscale, Green/Red filter, Red/Green filter, and Blue/Yellow filter.

Hearing Impairment

When it comes to Accessibility Testing Services for mobile apps, users with hearing impairment should also be taken into account. There are different levels of special hearing needs, ranging from minor loss of hearing to complete deafness. While more than a million Americans are considered to be functionally hearing impaired, around 50 million suffer from one or the other type of tinnitus. 

There are different levels of hearing disability intensity, so different strategies need to be implemented to make an app accessible. 

So what should the Accessibility Testing Services be looking for when using their tools to test an app.

i. Accurate Captions

  • Captions allow hearing impaired users to follow dialogues or action on the app
  • Captions need to be accurate and have non-speech elements

ii. Transcripts

A transcript helps users with special hearing needs to follow and consume content in a different way. Transcripts should be used along with captions and not replace them.

iii. Multiple Contact Modes

Since hearing impaired users cannot use the general mode of communication using a mobile device, they need alternate methods. These can include email, apps like Skype or other methods.

iv. Clear Audio

  • High-quality audio makes accurate captions easier
  • The tools will check audio for clarity, which can be beneficial for users who having special hearing needs

v. Simple Yet Clear Language

Accessibility Testing Services also use tools that test apps for the use of simple and clear language. Some of the features which are checked in this regard are as follows:

  • The use of jargon or slang
  • Content structuring using headings/sub-headings
  • Use of consistent language
  • Use of active voice

The American Sign Language (ASL) is not the same as English Sign Language. It is important to make the content and elements simple and clear for users that follow either English or ASL.

Learning Disability

Accessibility testing tools should also test apps for users with learning disabilities. It is estimated that around 20% of people in the world have learning disabilities associated with reading, writing, and/or spelling. 

  • Reading/Writing Accessibility: Users with dyslexia can find it difficult to read and write and your app must be designed to accommodate them. 
  • Color/Design Format: The display options play an important role in accessibility of apps. Complex UI and layouts make it even difficult for users with such special needs. 

Accessibility tools will test apps to ensure suitable contrast, darker colored text, and lighting options. The UI is tested for any unnecessary text.

Apple’s guidelines for UI design have contributed to the simplification of mobile app usability concepts. It is important to keep assistive technology in mind when designing mobile apps. This helps in simplifying your users’ learning capabilities.

Restricted Motion

When designing and developing your app, you should keep in mind not just the users who can tap and access its features. You should also design it keeping mind users with limited motion abilities. This can include users who cannot use their hands. Accessibility Testing Services will test apps for voice access or control and other input methods.

The following steps or features are expected to make an app accessible for users with restricted motion or reduced mobility:

  • Users should be able to use alternative input methods
  • If the app uses path-based/multipoint gestures, they should also be usable with a single point or without any complex gestures
  • If intentional movements are required to cause action, there should be the option to disable the motion and use alternative methods to take the action

Some of the different types of accessibility capabilities that an ideal app should have include the following:

  • Voice Recognition: To convert spoken words into text, to be used as input.
  • Screen Reader: To read the text on the screen.
  • Screen Magnification: To enlarge the content and make it easier to read for vision-impaired users.

Special Keyboard: To make it easy for users with motor control difficulties to type.

Accessibility Testing Tools

i. Switch Access

This accessibility testing tool allows users to interact with the device using switches in place of the touchscreen. It is suited for users having dexterity or motor impairments and prevents the need to interact directly with the device. The different types of switches include an external switch, external keyboard, or buttons on the mobile device.

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Also Read: Mobile Accessibility – More Possible Now Than Ever Before

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ii. Voice Access

This tool is designed for users who have significant motor impairments. It allows users to control the device using spoken words. Users can use your voice to navigate, open applications, edit text, and do more without using hands.

iii. Switch Control

This tool allows the use of switches for various UI functions such as selection, tap, dragging, typing, and freehand drawing. The users have to use a switch to select something on the display. The switch can then be used for selecting an action. It is designed for iOS platform and makes accessibility simpler for users with mobility limitations.

iv. Voice Control

This iOS Accessibility Testing Services tool can be sued for navigating and interacting with the device using voice. Voice commands can be used in place of swipe, tap, type, and other actions. It can also be used for locking screen and is suited for users with motor impairment.

More Accessibility Testing Tools

Besides these tools, a wide range of extensions can also be used for accessibility testing. Some of the examples include the following:

  • Axe for Android: This is a comprehensive Accessibility Suite with features like View Hierarchy and Automated Eventing Stream analysis. 
  • UBK Accessibility Kit: It aids with accessibility development/testing. Audit your iOS app and avoid the need for stopping and inspect each element using Xcode.
  • A11y Ally: It allows you to discover accessibility issues in a passive manner.
  • Accessibility Inspector: It shows action methods, information properties, and position related to the object under the pointer.
  • Accessibility Scanner: This Android-based tool makes suggestions for accessibility improvements.

Even when the app development environment is improving, there are still apps that create the void of inaccessibility for users with different levels of hearing impairment and other special needs. The incorporation of multimedia sharing and video call features has benefited such users. But the development environment still has a long way to go to ensure that users with all kinds of special needs get covered. Yet these accessibility testing tools make the task of Accessibility Testing Services much easier and faster.

 

Understanding the Importance of WCAG Compliance Testing in Accessibility

Understanding the Importance of WCAG Compliance Testing in Accessibility

Importance of WCAG Compliance Testing in Accessibility

15% of the world’s population is constrained by some disability (visual, hearing, motor, cognitive), which makes it nearly 1 billion people in sheer numbers. 

Digital accessibility is herein imperative in ensuring this section of the population is able to access digital solutions without any impediments.  A plethora of digital platforms and websites today lack accessibility features, which makes it very difficult or nearly impossible for this special section of the society to access them like a normal user would.

A website built with mobile or web accessibility not only gives benefits to the user base including the people with disabilities, but also delivers an overall improved user experience. 

What is WCAG Compliance?

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) is a set of technical specifications that one needs to adhere to while working on improving or incorporating digital accessibility. The compliance aims to improve the accessibility of mobile applications, web applications, web content and websites on all digital devices. The mission is to provide an equal experience to people with disabilities (neurological, physical, auditory, speech, vision etc.). To achieve this, it thus mandatory to run every product through comprehensive WCAG compliance testing or accessibility testing.

The guidelines for WCAG are constructed by a global community of accessibility experts who form the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium). The objective is to make the internet as inclusive as possible.

The WCAG compliance guidelines are largely meant for WCAG testing engineers, web content developers and all other related professionals. This checklist is a practical resource guide for accessibility professionals. The first part is a primer of industry nomenclature and

accessibility testing approaches. Fillable and printable checklists follow.

Relevance of WCAG 2.1

It has been almost a decade since the inception of WCAG 2.0 (2008). It has a total of 12 guidelines divided under 4 basic principles – P.O.U.R. (Perceivable, Operable, Understandable and Robust). Each of these guidelines has a list of criteria that needs to be satisfied while making content (text, audio, images, code and markup) accessible. The 3 levels of conformity in WCAG are:

  • A (minimum accessibility)
  • AA (solution to common accessibility issues)
  • AAA (maximum or the highest standard of accessibility)

WCAG 2.1 (2018) does not cancel or make WCAG 2.0 obsolete; Both of them are ‘currently existing’ accessibility standards. WCAG 2.1 is backward compatible and includes 17 additional success criteria for mobile accessibility including the existing 61 from WCAG 2.0 as seen below.

LevelWCAG 2.0WCAG 2.1Total
A25530
AA13720
AAA231528
611778

While there isn’t complete visibility into the future, all organizations following WCAG 2.0 / 2.1 and conformance to level AA must continue adherence to the accessibility laws including Section 508 of the Rehabilitation act, Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA).

Additions in WCAG 2.1 compliance for mobile applications

While performing WCAG compliance testing for mobile applications the accessibility engineers need to follow both 2.0 and 2.1 guidelines. These include:

  • Speech input (character key shortcuts & name label)
  • Device settings (Orientation)
  • Pointer (gestures, size of the target, cancellation of the pointer)
  • Input methods (motion actuation, concurrent input mechanism)

Apart from these mentioned above, other standards such as content on hover, reflow, non-text contrast, text spacing and identifying input purpose can also be applied for mobile app accessibility testing.

Automation in accessibility testing

The industry offers a plethora of automation tools for testing specific components of a website, app experience, mobile device experience or any similar document. The accessibility experts leverage various automation tools to effectively test the product and understand how and why people with disabilities might face problems. The best approach suggested is a combination of automated testing and comprehensive manual testing.

Manual and functional testing

Manual and functional testing is an integral part of the overall accessibility testing process. The human testing expertise becomes inevitable while checking the automated tests and having pair testing teams (Combination of sighted and non-sighted engineer) is even more valuable in determining digital nuances. To ensure compliance and usability, QA teams leverage several tools that help with:

  • Code validation
  • Document accessibility
  • Mobile accessibility
  • Web accessibility
  • Colour contrast and colour blindness

Accessibility is evolving to be a very important engineering attribute today in differentiating a product from the rest. Its importance is aligned both with user experiences/needs and legal requirements globally, all of which speak of the growing user base for this solution. Accessibility as an industry is also evolving with newer standards and guidelines. More automation is coming into the forefront, in an area which has traditionally been handled manually. 

At QA InfoTech for example, we have a newly developed automation toolbar for accessibility, WCAT, that enables us determine accessibility compliance with certainty, compared to tools in the market today. Stakeholder buy-in for accessibility, a strong engineering strategy, the right team (preferably a paired team of SMEs and differently abled users), balanced choice of tools, constant connect with the industry to understand evolving guidelines and technologies, together with partnerships with specialized vendors will go a long way in your digital accessibility journey.

Mobile Accessibility – More Possible Now Than Ever Before

Mobile Accessibility – More Possible Now Than Ever Before

Premise to Mobile Accessibility:

Globally today there is a lot of sensitization and awareness for accessibility in the digital solutions that are engineered and physical products and spaces that are built. While this is encouraging and standards and compliances are being accepted globally, there wasn’t a lot of specific focus on mobile accessibility for a long time. Engineering for mobile accessibility largely relied on web application accessibility standards. However, this has changed in the last year, thanks to the revision in WCAG, which is now available as WCAG 2.1, since June 2018. Of the several success criteria that this recent version recommends, one set primarily focuses on mobile accessibility. Why is this important now than ever before?

We have always been aware that close to 15% of the world’s population lives with some form of disability or another. Specific to mobile, a recent study of close to five hundred Android applications, shows us that 95% of them have accessibility violations, 98% have potential violations and 66% have warnings. This is a significant number that cannot be ignored. Also most have issues around the common accessibility issues at the GUI level or one layer beneath at the semantic level. Issues herein largely include, focus related problems, missing element descriptions, text to color ratios, spacing between elements, font and element sizes. These are all easy to fix accessibility issues, which when taken care of, improve the accessibility scores, quite significantly.

The New Success Criteria in WCAG 2.1

Looking at the core success criteria in WCAG 2.1 specific to mobile accessibility, it is largely around screen orientation and input modalities. Criteria around pointer gestures, pointer cancellation, label in name, motion actuation and support for varied orientations have been introduced keeping mobile accessibility in mind. Herein all kinds of impairments have been taken into consideration to ensure the mobile application is accessible in all scenarios.

Pointer gestures for example talks about how just swipe or pinch actions should not be the only ways to perform specific actions. Pointer cancellation deals with how pointers should be cancellable once invoked. Label in name, is a very easy to implement criteria to ensure the visual text label matches the programmatic ARIA label, making it easy for screen reader users to perceive what’s on the application. As much sophistication and flexibility specific motion actions bring in, it is important to engineer them such that users can disable them when needed and the same functionality is achievable even when they are disabled. This is similar to ensuring the entire application is accessibility via keyboard only access. The criteria also talks about the need to ensure the application is equally visible and accessible on both portrait and landscape modes.

Automation in Accessibility Engineering

Clearly as new success criteria evolve, design and engineering teams need to be savvy and up to date to implement them in the apps they develop, even if it means re-engineering them. And to be able to do these, newer assistive tools become important. For example, deep learning based speech recognition tools are helping mobile accessibility engineering efforts significantly. It is a combination of new success criteria and such tools that have together made mobile accessibility a reality today.

More Resources:

Additionally, thanks to evolving technology test automation in accessibility is possible today than in the past. This has been a very human centric space in engineering requiring manual efforts especially on the quality front. We at QA InfoTech have been able to leverage AI, machine learning, open APIs such as openCV to be able to automate complex areas. Services providers will have to continue to build an edge to be able to test for domains that are increasingly leveraging the latest in technology – for example this blog talks about digital accessibility in the travel domain. QA WCAT is a tool that we have developed in-house, to use for our clients, to gauge accessibility implementation maturity, more reliably than current market tools such as Axe and Wave.

We had a good webinar recently covering all of the above with examples and demos – the full recording from the session is available on our webinars page (visit the page for this, other past and upcoming webinars) and also here.

Improve the Customer’s Online Experience with Digital Quality Assurance

Improve the Customer’s Online Experience with Digital Quality Assurance

Let’s understand quality – ‘The benchmark of excellence’, which may be high, low, good or bad, depending upon how we address it with respect to the subject being addressed to. Applying these concepts on the development and testing of a mobile or web app would mean ‘a certain degree of value’ which in this case would mean ‘bug free to a large extent’, ‘do as assigned’ or ‘a degree of stability’ when we talk with reference to the user.

The approximate revenue generated worldwide in 2019 from mobile app amounts to approximately USD$ 462 Bn. The figure clearly indicates that the revenue game is huge and anyone not being an active part of the same is definitely losing out in the game.

So, what could make you a bigger player? The answer is very simple – Trust & Assurance, of the company, of the client, of the consumer, of the brand and more. This means higher the assurance level, greater is the impact and bigger is the revenue generated. That brings us to Quality Assurance.

Comprehensive Quality Assurance Services helps clients get a constant quality product across channels, operations, platforms and businesses. The quality assurance platform effectively uses a combination of several other rigorous testing services such as DevOps practices, Automation Services, Cloud testing and more to help build a digital reputation and an easy digital transformation journey with elevated customer experience. It combines principles of process re-engineering with machine learning, cognitive computing and artificial intelligence, to boost the efficiency of the test authoring process and its execution.

With continuous disruption in the software testing industry and amid the proliferation of the evolving digital technologies, quality assurance testing services must be taken at topmost priority. With new apps and software being launched every minute in the hyper-connected digital industry today, customer experience has been shifted to a challenging position, with respect to the quality and reliability of the app. It demands comprehensive quality and digital assurance services to accelerate and rekindle the same.

The Impact of Digital Assurance Testing in Various Industries

Healthcare

Today, technology is rapidly reshaping the connection between patients, healthcare providers and the healthcare technology system. In this emerging trend the mobile devices have been playing a crucial part being omnipresent. The healthcare system provides access to critical data and enables the healthcare providers to take necessary action by preventing errors and thereby improving the quality. The transformational journey solely relies on the assurance and reliability of the app. Thus empowering the patients to make effective use of digital channels.

The rigorous testing for usability and accessibility has engineered consumer experience and has proved effective quality assurance (QA) plays an equally important part. To summarize the highly critical health sector relies on quality assurance services due to these below mentioned factors:

  • App Security
  • Functionality
  • Big Data Security
  • UI / UX with usability Testing
  • Interpolability

Travel Industry

New age digital technologies are transforming the way in which the travel industry has been operating. From travel apps and hotel owners to flight operators and other business players in the industry, it is critically important for all of the above to keep up with the changes in the digital technologies and quality assurance services. Any player not keeping up with the same may drastically lose on customer experience and can face a negative impact, thus resulting in harming the reputation. We thus arrive at a logical conclusion that sound investment in digital assurance & quality testing services will make the entire process seamlessly smooth.

Banking Sector

The evolution of technology and digitization of the banking sector has elevated it from being a basic necessity to being a trend that delivers value across organizations. In this advanced digital ecosystem multiple banking channels such as IVR, mobile, internet banking and other finance heavy processes need a seamless customer experience across all points. Quality assurance plays a crucial role in delivering a quality experience with security testing, integration testing, validation system and compliance testing across networks. This is done to ensure that irrespective of the device or location, the customer is able to perform the desired operation.

With the ubiquity of smartphones, banking and finance sector has witnessed a huge wave of transformation and have leveraged mobility as a platform for hassle free banking services and benefits. Effective digital assurance services for mobile apps thus ensure loyal customers, seamless access to data and secure B2B transactions which in-turn provides omni-channel experience with emerging mobile technologies.

Recommended: Cross Platform Testing – Changing Times

E-Learning

The global E-Learning market is all set to hit USD$ 325 Bn mark. The figure clearly marks the effective intervention of technology in the field of education. With mobile based applications being omnipresent in the field of education, its use in delivering the teaching and learning material is discreetly known as E-Learning. This form of education is quite prominent in universities and significantly differs from the conventional form of education. With quality assurance and digital accessibility services creating a blended form of E-Learning, it can thus seamlessly mix with technology and traditional learning methods.

With increased level of awareness in the education sector these quality services make sure that the app caters to what it is meant for, i.e monitoring the performance, demonstrating outputs and an efficient workflow. Various researches show that the success of these E-Learning apps depend upon a number of factors such as:

  • Accessibility of the resources
  • Functionality of the app
  • Engagement level
  • Scope and flexibility of learning
  • Scope of community development
  • Nature of learning material and more

As the world converges with digital technology, cloud computing and virtual classrooms are becoming a regular practice and since E-Learning comprises of discrete and distinct learning elements, customer experience is certainly the top most priority here. And with a continuous rise in the demand for responsiveness and usability, the scope for comprehensive testing services is only going to expand.

Understanding the difference between Quality Assurance & Digital Assurance

Industries today solely depend upon the security, accessibility, performance, usability and digital quality assurance in order to achieve complete customer satisfaction and attain the top position in the market. One must understand that digital assurance is not only limited to testing services but also is responsible for a higher ROI, that is expected post implementation of the testing services. On the other hand conventional QA methods must also equally support the aforementioned digital tasks. Below is a sample table explaining the basic variations between QA & DA

 

Quality Assurance

Digital Assurance

Focuses on complete customer experience, therefore should act as the parent processFocuses on satisfying the digital demands of the customer such as usability, UI, performance etc
Must adapt to multi-directional approach to ensure complete digital agilityEnsures agility and leads to a well-organized methodology across business collaterals
Application level process:

  • Functional testing
  • Regression testing
Complete life cycle automation:

  • Cross platform capability
  • Customer experience
  • Network testing
  • Unconventional automation methods (AI)
Simple data plottingNext generation data integration system to check the relevance of the gathered data
Depends on production defectsAdvanced analytics

Actionable intelligence

Must Read: 7 Reasons Why You Should Consider Outsourcing QA

Footnote:

While developing mobile app testing strategies for multichannel apps the main focus should always be the customer’s experience and it can only be achieved when you can adhere to some basic points such as:

  • In-house QA and testing frameworks to be made adept to modern technology
  • Complete workforce transformation with in-house training
  • Focus on omnichannel testing
  • Improved performance and security testing
  • Improving the testing efficiency
  • Automated approach
  • Development of structured and agile testing solutions
  • Leveraging independent QA testing services for effective deployments

It is necessary to add a rich and engaging experience with explicit QA testing services so that your end user becomes the sole reason of success of your digital business. To become a game changer here, simply harness the power of technology to sense and predict the requirement and deliver the need.

Embracing Accessibility in Agile Development

Embracing Accessibility in Agile Development

Accessibility in Agile Development

Inaccessibility in today’s digital world can attract expensive lawsuits and damage your brand exponentially. Several countries have enforced legislation to incorporate digital accessibility in solution engineered therein.

Digital accessibility drives to enable software and website inclusion to the widest range of audiences possible. WCAG 2.1 guidelines have made it imperative for organizations to enforce accessibility effectively in digital products and services, especially in the US. For want of individual standards in several countries, Section 508 and WCAG have almost become global guidelines except in places such as in Europe where DDA is prevalent

Accessibility is often perceived as a unique feature. However, it is more spread around interaction and presentation. Developers are expected to implement WCAG 2.1 guidelines while keeping all the stakeholders in the loop.

For instance, visually impaired people need an alternative for image intensive websites. In short, they need a simple description in plain text which can be easily read by the screen reader.

Accessibility Testing from the Start

The common question that prevails is when to start accessibility testing? While accessibility takes full shape once the HTMLs are implemented, there are several other things that can be started in advance.

For instance, testers can start with checking distinct descriptive page titles and consistency in the hierarchy of headlines. Testing links and form fields can also be started. More importantly, tester’s can get involved upfront in validating the design and implementation considerations including collaborating with developers on what it takes to engineer for accessibility. This helps in a product of much better quality released to test.

Leveraging Automation

Several accessibility features can be tested in an automated manner during agile development including APIs, UI and code units among others. Just like grammar scanners and syntax in document editors, you can also check the syntax of HTML and JavaScript to ensure accessibility patterns are present as per the requirement. Free versions and paid versions of these checkers are available online. You can incorporate some of them into your continuous integration model as well.

However, it comes with a caution. Syntax checker might report that the presence or absence of an alt txt but not whether it is right or not. This is where QA InfoTech brings in an automated advantage using Artificial Intelligence, where we have automated the checks and engineering for alt text using image recognition and natural language processing capabilities. While this is still evolving, the importance of manual verification here by real users on the team cannot be underestimated.

Manual Testing

After efficient implementation of the UI; capable manual testing can only enforce the right evaluation from the end-user’s perspective. The process includes thorough checking for contrast and colours, assistive tool usage, text implementations amongst others.
Testers can also conduct this process during the prototyping phase to determine invisible spots after the final inspection. One can also leverage text analyzers to calculate the readability and complexity index of the content on the web page. Testers can get the use perspectives by using screen reading tools. All these should be considered during accessibility testing in agile development.

Tracking

Identified barriers during accessibility testing should be documented with all other defects, in a similar manner as functional defects giving all the required details.

While any kind of bug can hamper the user experience the same is not true for people with disabilities. An issue which may be ok to live with for regular users, may be a tough one for the differently-abled. Hence, it is essential to keep the specific user group in mind while testing the features.

While testing it is also important to consider the level of severity to identify whether something can be rectified with a simple workaround or would require users to guess, restart, retry, look for assistance, go through several steps etc. Testers need to identify whether the issue is permanently hampering the user experience. It is also crucial to identify whether the issue is acting as a blocking element disabling the user from further using the application.

Accessibility Testing Checklist

It is an efficient practice to collate the checklist of every minute accessibility aspect to evaluate the web page easily. Here are a few points which should be considered during accessibility testing in agile development. VPAT and the guidelines defined in WCAG are also a good starting point herein:

  • Keyboard Operations
  • Assistive Tools’ Functioning
  • Visual Testing through Screen Reader
  • Font and Foreground: Background Colour Testing
  • Image Testing
  • Text Magnification Testing
  • Visual ARI Testing
  • CSS Testing
  • Automated Testing

Accessible Reading

Ensuring that the content of the page is readable through screen reader is an important part of accessibility testing. “Accessible reading” testing involves checking the page’s readability score and ensuring that the screen reader is able to pronounce everything visible on the page with the right context.

Accessible Navigation

User-friendly navigation is the backbone of any successful application. A user-friendly navigation will allow users to easily move from one UI element to another, click buttons, links or input data efficiently.

Testers should analyze each and every UI control through keyboard only option to evaluate for accessibility. Access the content while keeping in mind that accessible reading and workflow should be linear and traceable from left to right throughout the lines.

Herein check for visibility levels as well to ensure all application’s features are visible and readable.

Paired Testing Approach

Adopting paired testing approach can help testers in achieving better results. Testers should sit with a differently abled person while testing the software or website. The differently-abled person can give a real picture about how difficult or accessible the software is to use.

Paired testing approach can also help in faster identification and fixing of accessibility challenges. It also leads to better understanding of how differently abled people function and react to the software.

While accessibility is still not a global mandate, adding the goodness of inclusion to products and services can reap immense benefits. Today’s user base has become diverse due to easy access to smartphones. Smartphone users are easily able to use web from anywhere and at anytime. Besides, it should become the moral responsibility for organizations to provide highly accessible applications to differently abled people.
Accessible apps are also a boon for senior people who suffer from common health issues including hearing, vision, perception and motor abilities. With a growing ageing population that is digitally savvy, accessibility will soon become an inevitable engineering consideration.

It will become a win-win for everyone if engineered well

Accessibility testing can help in achieving faster time-to-market with better market reach and user coverage. QA InfoTech has been helping several product organizations roll out highly accessible software and websites including testing and fixing defects found. Come talk to us to understand more on how we can help you.

Mobile Accessibility – More Important Than Ever Before

Mobile Accessibility – More Important Than Ever Before

Mobile Accessibility – More Important Than Ever Before

Globally, standards such as WCAG and Sec 508, govern what principles to account for, in accessibility. This includes accessibility engineering in the digital world as well as accessibility in physical premises. These standards are maintained by the Web Accessibility Initiative as part of the World Wide Web consortium and undergo periodic updates to ensure the latest that the industry requires has been accommodated, also keeping in the mind the needs of end users. WCAG specifically focusses on web accessibility. Read more »

What Is And Why Paired Testing In Accessibility

What Is And Why Paired Testing In Accessibility

Real user centric testing goes a long way in ensuring a quality rich product on release. Today, end users are willing to actively partake right from the early stages of product development in providing valuable inputs to product teams. While this is a nice to have aspect that goes a long way in smart engineering from early stages, it is not really a mandate that all teams take on. There are however certain quality attributes where real user testing almost becomes inevitable. Accessibility testing, specifically web accessibility testing is one such quality attribute that is not fool proof without real users. As we know real users here are differently abled users, who may have issues with vision, hearing, speech, cognition, motor activities, as some of the core ones. Read more »