advancebytes

Why Should You Automate Web Accessibility Testing?

Simply because manual testing takes time and is costly. Automation saves you time, effort and money. Leveraging automated tools and software is a great way to offload that workload. By automating your web accessibility tests, you will have more time to focus on what matters the most for your business. 

5 Great Benefits Of Automated Web Accessibility:

What Is Axe-Core?

Axe-core is the world’s leading automated accessibility testing engine, it’s simple to use, lightweight and highly configurable.

It is used for checking accessibility violations on websites and HTML-based user interfaces. Axe-core can find 57% of WCAG issues automatically. It will also return elements as ‘incomplete’ where Axe-core is not certain, for further manual review. Axe-core needs a browser to run, which is why it’s often used with automation tools like Selenium.

The Benefits Of Using Axe-Core: 

Axe-core supports the following web browsers:

It supports the following accessibility standards:

What Is Selenium?

Selenium is an open-source user interface automation testing suite for web applications. Selenium can automate all modern web browsers and it runs on all major operating systems. Selenium scripts can be written in Python, Java, C# and more.

Three Main components for the Selenium suite:

Selenium WebDriver

The Selenium WebDriver is a tool that allows developers to automate web browsers. It’s mainly used for automating testing of web applications. You can create scripts that automate tasks in a web browser, such as clicking buttons and links, filling forms and verifying that certain elements are present on a page. It allows you to quickly and easily test the functionality of a website. Selenium also gives you the option of either running a web browser headless or non-headless. The key difference being that a headless browser runs in the background without a graphical user interface (GUI) and is usually faster. And a non-headless browser runs as a real browser with a graphical user interface.

Selenium IDE

The Selenium IDE is a browser extension for Google Chrome and Firefox. It’s beginner friendly and works out of the box. With its simple UI, you can easily automate website testing in a couple of clicks. It has extensive control flow commands like if, while and times. It can also be extended with plugins for more commands and integration with third-party services. 

Selenium Grid

The Selenium Grid is used to run multiple instances of WebDriver scripts on remote machines. This is useful if you need more processing power, it’s also a great way to test on different browser and platform versions.

Setting Up Environment to run an Automated Web Accessibility Audit

Let’s see how you can set up your environment to run an automated web accessibility test using Axe-core, Selenium and Chrome Driver in Java:

1. You should already have Java JDK installed and downloaded ChromeDriver, as we will be using Chrome as our web browser to test web accessibility.

2. We will be using Maven as our project manager, so you should already have created a Maven project.

3. Now let’s open the pom.xml file inside the Maven project you’ve just created and add the following dependencies:

<dependency>
  <groupId>org.webdriver</groupId>
  <artifactId>selenium-java</artifactId>
  <version>3.141.59</version>
</dependency>

<dependency>
  <groupId>com.deque.axe-selenium</groupId>
  <artifactId>axe-selenium-java</artifactId>
  <version>4.0.0</version>
</dependency>

4. Now run nvm install inside your Maven project directory to install the dependencies.

5. Now you should be able to run Axe-core and Selenium inside your Maven project. 

Let’s run a test script! 

Running A Basic Test In Java

Here’s a simple script written in Java that uses Axe core, Selenium and Chrome Driver.

import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver;

import com.deque.axe.AXE;
import org.json.JSONArray;
import org.json.JSONObject;

public class AccessibilityTest {
public static void main(String[] args) {
    // Set up Chrome driver
    System.setProperty("webdriver.chrome.driver", "/path/to/chromedriver");
    WebDriver driver = new ChromeDriver();

    // Open the page to test
    driver.get("http://www.example.com");

    // Run Axe-Core
    JSONObject response = new AXE.Builder(driver, "axe.min.js").analyze();

    // Print the results
    JSONArray violations = response.getJSONArray("violations");
    if (violations.length() > 0) {
        System.out.println("Accessibility issues found:");
        for (int i = 0; i < violations.length(); i++) {
            JSONObject violation = violations.getJSONObject(i);
            System.out.println(violation.getString("help"));
        }
    } else {
        System.out.println("No accessibility issues found.");
    }

    // Close the driver
    driver.quit();
}
}

This is how the script works:

1. This script launches a Chrome Driver instance.

2. It loads the website we want to test.

3. It then runs Axe-core and injects axe.min.js into the webpage.

4. Finally, it outputs the results to the console.

Conclusion

Running automated web accessibility tests is easier than ever with Axe core and Selenium. Manual testing takes time, effort and money. Implementing an automated solution is the best thing you do for the future of your business.

Overall, automating web accessibility tests will improve the accessibility of your website and make it more inclusive for users with disabilities.

ARIA stands for Accessible Rich Internet Application. ARIA is a collection of attributes and roles that act as add-ons to complement HTML for complex web applications, particularly those built using Javascript. 

It helps make the applications accessible for assistive technology that is otherwise not possible with the use of native HTML alone. Some examples are dynamic content and user controls like error messages, tool tips, live regions. 

Becoming ever so popular with web developers looking to make applications accessible, ARIA if misused can cause an inaccessible experience for a user. Which is the case today, as we see code stuffed with ARIA. It helps understanding the WAI-ARIA rules, which are not easy to decipher so we have tried to explain it in simple language. 

Let’s take a look at the 5 rules of ARIA below with some examples. 

ARIA rule # 1: Don’t use ARIA!

If you can use a native HTML element or attribute instead, then do so.

If you shouldn’t use ARIA, then when can you use it?

If it’s not possible use a native HTML element or attribute because:

Here is one common example of incorrect ARIA usage, I’ve seen:

(I had to mediate an argument between a dev and a tester just last week 🙂)

𝗛𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗱𝗲:

<a href=”/example.com/about/” role=”button”> Read more </a>

𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗼𝗿𝗿𝗲𝗰𝘁?

Role = button tells a screen reader it is a button element,

But it doesn’t provide the functionality of a button.

So they tried to “fake” it as a button by using an <a> tag.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗿𝗿𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝘄𝗮𝘆:

<button type=”button”>Read more about ARIA </button>

𝗪𝗵𝘆?

<button> is a native HTML element and is perfectly accessible.

Here is a Link to ARIA cheat sheet. One of the best I’ve seen in the industry and I’d highly advise you to refer to it when in doubt. 

ARIA rule # 2 : Do not change native semantics, unless you really, really, truly have to.

For example: A developer wants to build a heading that’s a tab.

Do not do this:

<𝗵𝟮 𝗿𝗼𝗹𝗲=𝘁𝗮𝗯>heading tab</𝗵𝟮>

Do this:

<div 𝗿𝗼𝗹𝗲=𝘁𝗮𝗯><𝗵𝟮>heading tab</𝗵𝟮></div>

The Role feature: Defines what an element does.

Some roles duplicate the semantic value of HTML5 elements : nav, aside

Others describe the page structure : banner, search, tablist, tab

ARIA attributes don’t affect the web page itself.

They only provide information to screen readers.

Use ARIA wisely.

ARIA rule # 3 : All interactive ARIA controls must be usable with a keyboard.

Native HTML interactive elements are keyboard accessible.

A custom control, needs to receive focus and the user be able to activate it with:

Enter (Windows) or Return (Mac) keys, and Space key

What this means in simple terms is:

A custom control like a button for example, must work with the keyboard as a native button element would.

𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗼𝗻 𝗺𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲 1

Buttons created using <span> or <div>

𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗶𝘅:

Create button using <button> or <input>

Common mistake 2:

Links created using <span> or <div>

How to fix:

Create links using <a>

Common mistake 3:

tabindex = “-1”

How to fix:

tabindex = “0”

𝗤𝘂𝗶𝗰𝗸 𝗻𝗼𝘁𝗲 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗻𝗱𝗲𝘅:

If you create an interactive element yourself, use tabindex to make it focusable

tabindex = “0” adds focus

tabindex = “-1” removes it from the tab order

screenshot of code using div with tabindex=0 to make an element focusable

ARIA rule # 4: Don’t use role = “presentation” or aria-hidden = “true” on a focusable element.

Let’s understand the attributes first.

role=”presentation ” or role =”none” removes the ARIA semantics from the accessibility tree.

When is it used?

When an element is used for presentation only and does not have accessibility purposes.

aria-hidden is also used to hide non-interactive content from a screen reader.

When is it used?

When you want to hide elements like:

Decorative items like icons or images that have no meaning/context

Collapsed items such as menus

Duplicate content

When are the attributes used?

aria-hidden =”true” will remove the entire element from the accessibility tree.

role=”presentation ” and role=”none” will remove the meaning of the element but still expose its content to a screen reader.

ARIA Rule # 5: All interactive elements must have an accessible name.

Accessible names help assistive technology users understand how to interact with an element.

Let’s look at what interactive elements are. 

Interactive elements are:

An accessible name can be generated from a native HTML element’s content:

<button> uses the content between the opening and closing tags as its accessible name </button>

The <label> in a form will pull the content associated with its input as its accessible name.

If none of these options are available, use aria-label to define the accessible name of the element:

aria-label – text that labels the element is not visible.

aria-labelledby – visible text that labels the element.

aria-describedby – additional instructions for the input to users.

Conclusion

Now we understand what ARIA is and how it is used. We’ve also seen the benefits of using native HTML to make applications accessible out-of-the-box. 

My key takeaway to prevent “excessive” ARIA use is by remembering one thing:

You don’t always need to provide instructions to screen readers only.

If the instructions are important enough, provide them to every user.

That’s what makes the best user experience.

Accessible products don’t just happen. They start well before development, at the planning and design stages. It’s essential to start thinking about accessibility early and ensure you’re testing for it at all stages of the design and development lifecycle, including wireframes.

In this post, we’re focusing on steps to ensure that wireframe designs for new websites or apps are created with accessibility in mind. Make sure your team is trained to review wireframes thoroughly and that developers understand

How to translate clear wireframe designs into accessible HTML CSS content.

Cost-effective design

A good incentive when reminding designers to incorporate and check for accessible features is understanding the cost benefits. “Shifting left” to review and address accessibility issues early reduces the number of changes and fixes required down the road.

Annotations and explanations

Include annotations to explain the intent of design details. These can be provided as textual notes or as graphical flow charts or images. Be sure to explain the design intent so developers can decide how to create features in a way that is accessible for all users. For example, use annotations to describe the preferred appearance of the hover and focus states for buttons, so keyboard users will have a visual indication of the currently focused control.

Clear labels

When creating label names in the wireframe, think about the purpose and function of controls and links for the user, not the developer. Ensure that label names are logical and intuitive. Make sure they’re also unique on each form, for both usability and easier searches.

Labels should use plain language, avoid uncommon slang, acronyms, or terminology, and be simple and easy to understand for all users. For example, if an assistive technology user hears a screen reader describe a label or control as “previous” or “current,” this is not as helpful as clarifying “Previous Employer” or “Current Employer.” Similarly, links should describe briefly what the link will lead to or open, rather than just indicating, “Click here.”

Heading structure

Assistive devices like screen readers use tagged headings and subheadings to navigate web pages and sections of digital content. This helps individuals with low vision or those using assistive devices to search or scan content, by choosing to hear all the headings on the page.

Nested heading structure is an essential feature for content accessibility and organization. The wireframe designer should include a clear list and description of all headings and subheadings. Without documentation, a developer likely will not be able to determine the structure. Take time to double-check that the heading structure is consistent and logical, with subheadings nested in the appropriate order. 

Focus order

Focus order – clarifying the order that elements on a page receive keyboard focus – is essential information for keyboard accessibility. Wireframes should indicate the focus order information clearly and specify the visible focus state.

Document hidden wayfinding cues

Users of screen readers benefit from wayfinding cues that can help them navigate a webpage. For example, including instructions for when to include “Bypass block links” allows screen reader users to skip over repetitive and unnecessary blocks of content rather than tabbing through unnecessary information. Refer to WCAG 2.4.1 for more information.

Describe these repetitive blocks in the wireframe so that developers can include these wayfinding cues. This helps ensure that users can tab once into a content area, but then skip to the next content area if they choose.

Testing wireframes

It’s challenging to do usability testing on a non-existing system, particularly with people with different types of disabilities (for example, dexterity, visual, hearing, cognitive). If it’s early in the design stage, try to find a similar tool or task on a functioning system and test its accessibility with users with disabilities.

If issues arise that are identified as “accessibility” bugs, ensure that these are prioritized and included with the rest of the workload and not as lower priorities that can be addressed after “core” features.

Taking the time to design clear wireframes and consider the accessibility for all design elements helps ensure that the wireframe is complete and usable for developers. Ideally, tested and approved wireframe designs can then be used as templates to help create accessible products with similar branding.

How AdvancedBytez can help

Beginning design review and testing as early as possible can solve or prevent up to 67% of potential bugs. This number is frequently referenced in the accessibility industry, and refers to a Deque case study. 

The typical steps to review wireframe designs include (1) a site map design review, (2) a review of the layout with no color, followed by (3) a review of the layout with color. 

1. Site map design review 

Following a Shift-Left approach, AdvancedBytez encourages our clients to begin their accessibility design review at the site map stage. 

Technically, the site map is a hierarchical listing of a website’s pages. Practically, it should act as an ongoing guide for developers for each project, providing details about each page’s purpose, content, functionality, and flow.

AdvancedBytez can review your sitemap design and help ensure that it includes all items needed for clear and accessible utility navigation, main page and secondary pages, and footer navigation. We can provide recommendations for clear guidelines, logical page content, and suggestions for combining or eliminating pages. 

A sitemap design review will help ensure a clear, concise, and accessible flow to help your developers create a user-friendly, accessible website.

2. Review of wireframe layout with no color

Also referred to as a low-fidelity wireframe review, AdvancedBytez tests low-fidelity wireframes (the foundation of visual designs but without colors or images) by focusing on accessible placement of assets and content for each template. 

screenshots of Low fidelity wireframe without color indicating displaying page layout and elements.

Working with designers and design teams, elements such as buttons and interface widgets are tested with a screen reader.   

3. Review of wireframe layout with color

High-fidelity wireframe testing involves reviewing a more complete representation of the end product. 

After any design changes are made based on earlier site maps and low-fidelity review feedback, we then test color contrast, font usage, and complex interactions. In this third stage, we review usability and provide results of user interaction testing with the graphics, spacing, and user interface (UI).

screenshot of hi fidelity wireframe with colors for all the elements including background and font.

Sitemaps and wireframes take time to create because they’re essential tools in helping developers create usable and accessible websites and apps. 

Make sure your team is trained to review wireframes thoroughly and create clear and complete guidelines for your developers. Consider having AdvancedBytez test these tools–we can help ensure developers have everything they need to translate design wireframes into accessible HTML CSS and user-friendly content.

If you are a small business owner, you may or may not have the skillset to build an accessible website from scratch. If learned, this simple skill can save you a whole lot of money that you can invest elsewhere. 

WordPress is one of the most popular platforms to build websites, and 43% of websites are built on this platform globally. With WordPress’ visual components, anyone can build a website on this platform. And, there are many tutorials that can help you in each step of this process. 

But what about accessibility? 

Building accessibility into the web development process right from the design phase is essential to avoid future rework. This includes starting from the branding and progressing to sketching out the navigation and page structure even before starting on the development. It would increase your site’s outreach as everyone, including people with disabilities, can also access your website’s information. 

In this guide, we’ll discuss all the steps that you should consider for building an accessible WordPress website. So, let’s get started. 

Things to Consider while building an accessible WordPress website

Part 1: Accessible WordPress Themes

There are many free accessibility ready themes available and even some paid ones on Theme Forest. 

First, what is a Theme? 

A WordPress theme is a set of files compiled together that include page templates written in PHP, CSS, and some Javascript. It is a ready to use tool that defines the layout and design of your website. Themes set the appearance of the site that includes the page layout, color palette, typography, and other design elements like buttons and menus. 

When you first install WordPress there is a default theme that comes with it. You can change the theme to meet your needs. 

Themes and Accessibility

Choosing the right theme will make your website easier to navigate, look good and provide a good user experience for your visitors. 

It’s that much more important when it comes to Accessibility to choose the right theme. We know that a theme outlines markup, navigation, layout and design elements. An accessibility ready theme is responsible for making these accessible already so you don’t have to hand code it. 

Some items to look out for when selecting an accessibility theme-

You can test this by hitting the tab key on your keyboard. 

A link should appear at the top left hand corner of the webpage right under the address toolbar that says “Skip to main navigation” or something similar. 

You should also be able to access links, buttons, and form fields with a keyboard only. 

How to find Accessible Themes?

We would suggest that you do your due diligence and research each of the themes by visiting the theme homepage and check for the features mentioned above. 

You could always stress test them by installing the themes and trying to navigate with a keyboard or a screen reader to see if they are actually accessible. A little bit of research will go a long way. 

We are big fans of WebMan Design by Oliver Juhas who makes EU compliant Accessible themes. 

Some of his popular themes are:

Part 2 : Create an accessible WordPress theme 

WordPress gives you the option of building an accessible theme on your own. 

If you are a little more confident about your technical skills, you can go on to build an accessible theme. 

For most of our clients who require custom builds, we use Underscores as a starter theme and build upon it to have more control over the page templates. 

Some other good themes to customize are Astra, Genesis and GeneratePress.

Once you select your base theme to modify you can follow the following steps to build upon it:

Here is a non-exhaustive checklist to look out for when building your accessible wordpress site:

Adding alternative text for media files 

Most websites these days are filled with media-rich, non-textual content. While we understand that this is a great way to engage your website visitors, this could be a reason why people with disabilities are unable to access the information on your site. 

People with disabilities use a screen reader to access the information on websites. A screen reader can only depict text content and it cannot describe the images to the visitors. Similarly, if you are starting a podcast, someone with hearing disabilities cannot access it. 

One of the best accessibility practices that can simplify this situation is adding text alternatives, wherever you use images or other media files. It will work as a descriptive text to the image you are using and guide people with disabilities regarding the information underneath. 

Source 

Adding alt text to a WordPress site is pretty easy, as you can see in the above image, there is a specific place for adding alt text, for each image you upload. So, there should be no difficulties in doing this right. 

Similarly, if you are planning to start a podcast, it is ideal that you add transcripts so that a user who is unable to access the audio can still consume the information you are sharing. 

Add link descriptions 

Assistive technologies like screen readers jump from one link to another to navigate across your website. So, to make sure that the users are reaching the right web pages, it is recommended to add appropriate link text and descriptions. 

When using a Call-to-action, don’t use generic link texts like “Add link descriptions ” or “Find out more”. Replace these CTAs with “Click here to read about…” or something that conveys the purpose of the CTA to people with disabilities. 

Source 

Typography 

Size 16px is the recommended font size for the body text, also ensuring that the text can be zoomed to 200% without being distorted. 

Fonts that belong to the Sans Serif family are recommended for readability, and here are some of the fonts that we recommend:

FONT NAMECOMMENTS
VerdanaCommonly found font designed by Microsoft
Lucida SansLarge x-height making it readable at all sizes
TahomaAnother Microsoft font
HelveticaTraditionally a print font, it is available on most Operating Systems by default 
Arial Similar to Helvetica 
CalibriCommonly found font in Windows with good distinct characters 

Pro tip: When using CSS, set the font size in relative terms (%, em). This will allow fonts to be displayed relative to a particular device that it is being displayed on. 

Semantic Headings

A structured heading order benefits screen readers, visual users and Google. Google? Yes, it helps in SEO when you have a semantic heading structure. Read this article on SEO and Accessibility to learn more about the relationship between the two. 

Heading best practices:

Follow a logical heading order without skipping heading levels. 

A good heading structure would look like the following

<H1>

<H2>

<H3>

<H3>

<H4>

Skip Links

As we mentioned in the features to look out for when selecting WordPress themes, skip links are necessary for screen readers to bypass long chunks of navigation and go straight to the main content on the page. 

They are usually controlled by CSS and can either be hidden or made permanently visible above the header. In most cases, they are hidden by CSS. 

This is how the HTML would look like –

<header>

<a href=”#main” class=”skip”>Skip to main content</a>

</header>

<main id=”main”>

A main ID is needed to link it with an anchor. 

Because we had a skip class in the HTML, we will be able to hide it with CSS. 

.skip {
  position: absolute;
  left: -10000px;
  top: auto;
  width: 1px;
  height: 1px;
  overflow: hidden;
}

The link needs to be focused when it is visible, and this is controlled by CSS as well

.skip:focus {
    position: static;
    width: auto;
    height: auto;
}

Use of Native HTML elements

If you use native HTML elements the way they are meant to be used, you will have a perfectly accessible website and won’t even need to use ARIA. 

This is because native HTML elements are accessible by default especially <button>

Keyboard Accessible Navigation

A user should be able to navigate through a page by using Tab to move forward and Shift + Tab to go backward. 

Enter and Space keys should activate the element. 

All interactive elements should be navigable and activated with the keyboard. Some interactive elements are:

Visible Focus

Not all users use screen readers, but use a keyboard only to navigate a page. When they do, there needs to be a visible focus indicator around an interactive element.

You can use the syntax :focus-visible to apply a focus outline. 

Tabindex 

Tabindex is very useful in setting the order of the focus as a user traverses through the page using the tab key. 

When and How to use Tabindex values

tabindex = “-1” 

This value doesn’t put the element on the tab order of the page. 

tabindex = “0”

Will make an element focusable. 

Tabindex > “0” 

Any value greater than 0 is not recommended as it makes it difficult for users of assistive technology to navigate and interact with the page content. 

For example, tabindex = “3” means that the element will be focused in the order defined by the number value. So tabindex = “1” and tabindex = “2” will have to be focused in order before arriving at tabindex =”3”. 

These are only scratching the surface of WordPress accessibility, but it’s a good place to begin. The use of HTML and CSS best practices will help solidify a base for good user experience and an accessible website. 

Part 3: Accessibility testing and reporting 

Accessibility testing should be performed at every stage of building a website and before moving onto the next process. Use a free, automated Chrome extension called LERA to : 

Final Thoughts 

Building an accessible website on WordPress is not difficult at all as you don’t need excessive technical skills to use this platform. If you select a good accessible theme and use it as intended out of the box without modifying it too much, you will be set up with a good accessible website. 

If you require custom accessibility compliant websites in WordPress you can reach out to us at info@advancedbytez.com.

Happy Coding.

Understanding the need for accessibility

Why aren’t all new digital products accessible?

A major reason is that not everyone views accessibility as a mandatory requirement. Accessibility is too often seen as optional and only prioritized if time or resources are available. But access for everyone is becoming a requirement throughout the web development lifecycle and not just an extra feature.

A common misconception is that minimal compliance with accessibility legislation results in accessible products and services. But it takes more than that. To produce a truly accessible product, responsibility needs to be shared across product teams. Specific responsibilities need to be assigned to and carried out by individual team members.

How successful someone is in carrying out their role is based partly on their understanding of how to use tools and technology. But another big part of success is their awareness of the importance of accessibility.

Everyone has a role

Everyone involved in developing digital technology has a role. Before assigning responsibility (or blame) to different IT roles or departments, begin by making sure that each of your team members understands the importance of accessibility. Ask this question to each team member, starting at the top of the organization and at each project launch: “Is accessibility viewed as a priority by everyone and do you know how to create an accessible product?”

Understanding the objectives of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) standards might mean that designers and developers need to look at the web development lifecycle differently. To create an environment where everyone feels responsible for creating accessible products can mean that planning, hiring, training, design, content development, and testing practices of an organization might need to change. And change is never easy, even when it’s needed.

Who’s responsible for creating accessible digital products?

Ultimately, everyone is responsible for accessible digital design. Whether you’re involved in the planning and design stages, development, or content creation and testing, all teams need to consider accessibility and to work together.

In its Inclusive Design Toolkit, the Ontario government describes the following roles as being responsible for the accessibility of digital design.

Source: https://www.ontario.ca/page/inclusive-design-toolkit

Some readers might be thinking that it’s unrealistic – particularly for smaller developers and businesses – to have all of these team members available for all development projects. Keep in mind that having this many designated team members represents an ideal but all too rare scenario. There are options available for smaller organizations that are committed to accessibility but who don’t have the resources available to create a range of dedicated accessibility roles.

For example, having or assigning an in-house Accessibility Coordinator or accessibility champion can help ensure there’s one point of contact for the rest of the development team to consult. That individual can stay up-to-date on best practices, provide guidance and troubleshooting support at various stages of design and development, and collaborate with external groups when needed.

That said, if your organization has the resources to build a broad digital accessibility team, here’s a breakdown of the ideal accessibility team members.

1. Policy and Research team

Policy and Research teams research and explains user needs to those funding and developing the product, making sure that the needs of people with disabilities are included. The Product Manager prioritizes tasks of the digital product being developed, including accessibility activities. An Accessibility Advisor or “guru”, preferably with lived experience as a person facing barriers to accessibility, provides training and advice throughout the project, as needed.

2. Project Manager

The Project Manager has an essential ongoing role, responsible for considering accessibility at each step of the web development lifecycle. They assemble the product development and testing team, ensuring communication of the requirement for accessible web & software development, and with support for accessibility training where needed. They allocate responsibilities and resources as needed to support a commitment to accessibility. And they review accessibility at each milestone, ensuring that they are aware of any accessibility limitations and assigning resources to resolve issues or plan for workarounds.

3. UI and UX Designers

The UI and UX Designers understand accessible design requirements. They work together to design a product look and feel with accessible design elements. This includes an appropriately high level of contrast, accessible fonts and layout, and an intuitive design of required accessibility and product features. They then ensure that usability and accessibility of the design are tested and involve both commonly used assistive devices and people with various types of disabilities.

4. Developer

The Developer is responsible for implementing accessible code. How developers use programming languages creates a presentation layer. Since web or app developers are responsible for coding interfaces, they are responsible for translating needs, tasks, and design goals into technical applications. Their work determines how the user interacts with the digital product and how the product responds to input.

The front-end development function covers tasks and quality control associated with HTML and CSS integration, as well as the programming of proposed scripts and applications. There’s a way to guide screen reader software, and even some of the hardware inputs, by using effective HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

5. Content Writer

The Writer creates and edits written content with accessibility in mind, including use of plain language and testing of reading level. They are responsible for writing clear labels and structuring content with a logical, clear flow. Content needs to be structured in a user-friendly and intuitive way for navigation. Anyone using the page should be able to understand what the main sections of the site are and be able to navigate through the content.

6. Quality Analyst

QA then follows a test plan that ideally incorporates testing for accessibility. When QA checks for problems and tests for accessibility, preferably working with users with disabilities. Assessing an interface and product design and functionality in terms of accessibility helps uncover issues that generally have impact on all users. Ideally, testers should have standard scripts they can run related to accessibility requirements and features. QA testers are often the “last line of defense” in identifying accessibility issues. These should be returned as bugs and be fixed as priorities before a digital product is released.

Create an inclusive team

Creating an inclusive team is a big part of creating an inclusive work environment and inclusive products. When designing and developing digital products, be sure to include people with disabilities and from other underrepresented groups on your team.

Ensuring diversity in your product management, design, research, development, and test teams will lead to digital products that are accessible to a broader audience and, ultimately, to more success for your organization.

How can AdvancedBytez help?

Whether you’re a small or large organization, AdvancedBytez can help support your accessibility team. Contact us for information on our services, including:

·      A free consultation – Discuss your needs with an AdvancedBytez digital accessibility expert. 

·      An accessibility audit – We can assess your application and provide a detailed manual audit against various WCAG conformance levels. 

·      Remediation support – We’ll recommend solutions for identified issues and help fix your code to create a more accessible application.

·      Accessibility tools – AdvancedBytez offers a free automated accessibility reporting tool, LERA. Available as a Chrome browser extension for Windows, LERA scans for automated issues and creates a report available for download as a pre-formatted Excel sheet.

Why Digital Accessibility Matters?

Diversity, equity, and inclusion are mentioned as business priorities more and more in the past few years. Ensuring your business and its products and services are more accessible to all creates a more inclusive society.

Digital accessibility is a big part of creating an inclusive environment. When leadership and team members understand the importance of inclusion and why digital accessibility matters, it’s much easier to implement policies and practices that your team will adhere to.

At least 20 percent of the population * self-identify as living with one or more disabilities that affect their day-to-day lifestyle. And this number is growing, due to an aging population, due to COVID-19 and the related increase in long-term and chronic health issues, and due to reduced stigma in self-identifying as a person living with a disability.

Businesses already need to comply with accessibility and human rights legislation. They also don’t want to exclude approximately one-quarter of the population as potential customers.

Accessible design is not just for the “disability market.” Curb cuts at intersections were originally designed to assist people using wheelchairs and walkers cross the street safely. Most people would agree that these “accessibility features” work better for everyone. Accessibility features in technology work the same way – they create more options and better experiences for all users.

As a project manager or software developer, It’s important to ensure that digital accessibility is built into your team’s product development lifecycle. The key is to start at the beginning of the process and make sure you consider accessibility at each step along the way.

Here are some hints and tips to help ensure you’re creating more accessible and inclusive products.

Accessible Product Development Starts with Shift Left

With a traditional create, break, then fix approach, developer resources often go towards fixing or redesigning issues late in the process or after software is released. This can be an inefficient and costly use of resources, keeping businesses in a reactive cycle of addressing problems and complaints.

When product development stages are viewed as a left-to-right linear process, incorporating testing earlier in the process is a “shift left” from the traditional development cycle. Shift Left has become more common for developer teams because it can deliver better quality code and lower the cost of creating digital products.

For developers to avoid creating accessibility barriers, you need to build digital accessibility into the entire product development lifecycle. Start early, with research and planning, product design and development, user testing and QA, marketing, training, and customer support. This creates a more efficient, user-friendly, and budget-friendly process.

Why Accessibility Matters at Every Stage?

Even before a project is confirmed, it’s important to consider how accessibility for all users can be addressed in establishing a project’s goals and objectives. Before a commitment is made to launch a new project, take time to research current accessibility requirements and best practices.

1. Start at the planning stage

The project manager sets the tone of the project. Their attitude and communication, their decisions and actions, guide the rest of the team. They need to understand both legal requirements and organizational goals and priorities related to accessibility. And they need to communicate these goals and priorities clearly to team members.

Is the project manager familiar with WCAG standards, AODA (or ADA or other legislative) requirements, current technology used by people with disabilities, team members with training and/or lived experience with dealing with accessibility barriers, and how and when to test for accessibility during design and development?

Developers, testers, and team leads assigned to a project must be familiar with accessible product design. If no experienced or trained resources are available, it should be a requirement that new hires are sought or that the time and resources will be available for project members to receive adequate training prior to project launch.

Nothing communicates a priority as much as where time and money are invested. Leadership (and money) comes from the top.

2. Build an inclusive team

Do your HR team and hiring managers understand how to build an inclusive team with members who understand the need for digital accessibility as a priority? Do they include “knowledge of WCAG” or “an understanding of accessibility best practices” in job postings, interview questions, training and performance management goals, and evaluation processes?

Make sure your organization is building a diverse and inclusive team and that you don’t stop growing because you’ve identified one or two “accessibility people” on hand for short-term use.

Every team member should be aware of accessibility barriers they might be contributing to and what they need to do to remove or prevent those barriers.

3. Know your audience

How will your customers use the product? It’s important to understand different input and interaction styles, and different settings of various assistive devices. Which browsers, operating systems, and devices are you designing for and supporting? Are these compatible with current and common assistive devices and accessibility tools? What software will be used to design, development, and test the product?

How many of your developers have actual experience working with people with disabilities as they test a product? How many have seen how various assistive devices or tools work (or don’t work) with the software they’re developing? Direct contact with end users helps create better products.

4. Include accessibility as a success criteria

What does success look like, for your organization, your project, your product, and your users?

Who is involved in determining acceptance criteria for accessibility? It takes more than just adding a Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) checklist or style guide to the testing process to create truly accessible and inclusive products. But a few more steps are needed to ensure user-friendly, engaging, intuitive, and effective online products.

WCAG 2.1 AA is considered a minimum requirement by most legislation, but higher standards are becoming more common and expected when adopting best practices. Is your team including accessibility features such as creating style tags with CSS rather than HTML elements; ensuring videos have captions and, ideally, transcripts available; or providing accessibility troubleshooting information to customer support teams?

5. Accessibility is an ongoing goal

After the product is developed and is being used by customers, it’s important to continue monitoring its success. Does the product work for its users? How do you know? Is the process for users to provide feedback and complaints accessible and easy to use? How are complaints tracked, monitored, and resolved?

Do your customer support and software maintenance teams understand potential accessibility issues or barriers with the final product? Have they been trained on how to communicate with people with various types of disabilities? Are they aware of how to assist users facing barriers with problem solving or workarounds?

6. Ensure that accessibility is part of every product development process

Following a project, project reviews or post-mortems are often held. Feedback and learnings from mistakes are not always applied to create improvements in future projects.

When it comes to identifying accessibility mistakes or barriers that have been created during product development, it’s important to acknowledge them and work to prevent them from happening again.

Accessibility issues can be identified during product testing, through user accessibility complaints, or from costs arising from discrimination lawsuits. The important thing is to make the changes needed to improve the next product development process.

This could mean that accessibility features move from the “should have” to the “must have” column in product checklists during design, budgeting, training, development, and testing stages. It could mean that more time and resources are provided to ensure developers are trained, that appropriate software or hardware is purchased, or that adequate testing from accessibility professionals and those with lived experience becomes a priority.

Building digital accessibility into your team’s product development lifecycle does not happen overnight. Recognizing that accessibility is a priority and taking steps to make changes throughout an organization takes leadership, knowledge, and resources.

If you want to remove barriers and create inclusive products for all, Shift Left, start early, and consider how accessible your product is for all possible users, at all stages of the product development lifecycle.

* Footnote: The source is indicative of Canada, but similar percentages (20% or more) apply internationally.

A lot of time and effort goes into the website redesign process. Redesigning your website isn’t a one-time effort; it’s an ongoing process that will continue to shape your web presence for years to come. A well-planned website redesign strategy that considers all aspects of the process is crucial to the success of your redesign and longevity. Many agencies might want to dive right into it, but strategic planning and goal setting is paramount.  

This table of contents provides an overview of all the important aspects you should consider to make your redesign a success. 

1. Planning and Goal Setting 

Define the goals and objectives of the site and create a project plan as if embarking on a client project. Emphasize the call for a plan beyond the launch for further maintenance and content creation. 

During a website redesign, time spent planning is rewarding. These checklist points will help you evaluate the purpose for a redesign, and ensure that the activity prepares you for long-term digital success. 

Develop a business case for the new website. Is it really needed? What do you need to change? How many features do you need? Will the new design help you meet your organization’s goals, objectives, and more? 

Use Google Analytics data to gauge the current website. The data that is collected on how visitors interact with your website will show you why and how they behave the way they do, providing insight on how to manipulate the site to provide a better experience. 

Analyze competitors’ websites for functionality, features, and content completing a competitive analysis allows your organization to understand your strengths and weaknesses and identify industry trends. 

Understanding how your current website performs in terms of views, conversion rates, bounce rates, etc. can help you make decisions to improve the new site. 

Don’t engage a vendor until you determine the functional and technical requirements of the website. These two criteria are important for selecting the right vendor for the project and will help guide the goals and strategy of your new website. 

Knowing your keywords and why people visit your site helps ensure that your SEO strategy is aligned with your website redesign strategy from inception.

Having a clear understanding of your goals, objectives, and desires will help you to plan your strategy in a better way and how your new website needs to address them.

Identifying your USP will help you to leverage the purpose of your new site and maintain a strong brand that will still attract your target audience(s).

2. Selection of a content  management system (CMS) 

A new CMS might be your wingman as you move through the redesign process as it provides better support for your new website’s needs and structure. 

Here are a few things to consider before zeroing in on the new CMS.

  1. Why do you need it?
  2. What are your pressing concerns and will this CMS solve them?
  3. Are the Additional features in the new CMS beneficial to you?

Usage scenarios will help you to understand the CMS and test whether it can be adapted to your daily workflow.

Most open-source software needs to be customized and may require additional support. List out the pros and cons of each CMS and compare them to make an informed decision to suit your organizational needs.

Check out how the CMS performs outside its demo environment with varied conditions and users.  Make sure that it is user-friendly and performs all the tasks that your organization needs without jumping through hoops.

Every software has a downtime but it’s important to know how the vendors respond to it. Find out more about support and technical resources available at your disposal during downtime. 

Always check out references, testimonials, and reviews before jumping the gun.

3. Site structure  

Analyzing your current site and deciding on a new site structure is a complex process. Here is a list of processes that will help you to organize your site’s structure. 

Set up a site structure for organizing content which includes labeling systems, navigation systems, and search functions. 

Consistent organization and URLs ensure a minimum amount of 301 redirects when the new site is launched. 

Documentation always helps, documenting blueprints and wireframes will help both freshers and experienced developers to easily manage the website during downtime or maintenance.

4. Visual design 

Visual design is an essential part of redesigning however, it doesn’t need to be too stressful. Here are some steps for you to create a site that looks great and achieves all your redesign goals. 

An attractive and user-friendly website design is ideal. Make your design unique, but make sure it doesn’t interfere with the user’s experience.

Research and decide on the elements that can be avoided on your website. Here are some things to consider before deciding on design requirements:

  1. Does your site require any specific colors or logos?
  2. Format of each page 
  3. Navigation menu

Once you’ve done that, relax and let the designers get to work. 

Every website should have some level of accessibility! Spending time and money on accessibility now will save you time, money, and the danger of litigation later.

It is difficult to visualize a functioning website. Hence, create page mock-ups in Photoshop or HTML prototypes to give a clear idea of the finished project. Prototypes will help to avoid any ideas that looked good on paper but did not look appealing on screen. 

Before modifying your design for desktop and laptop computers, create and optimize it for mobile devices. Keep in mind that the structure and style of your site should work on all devices, including PCs, tablets, and smartphones. 

Just decreasing your loading time by one second can work wonders, loading time impacts your conversion rates. Optimize your site elements for better SEO and greater user experience.

Create web standards so that the elements of the page such as colors, fonts, page layouts, logo usage, etc. remain consistent throughout the website.

5. Content review

Here are some steps to help you evaluate and optimize your content according to your target audience.

Before deciding on the new content take a look at your content inventory or current content available on your website. Evaluate them and add new content accordingly to build a quality content library.

The next step is to eliminate redundant and outdated content which is not required for your website. This will help you to identify and fill the content gaps in your website.

Assign at least one member of the team to handle only the content development of your organization and ensure it is on track with your redesign timeline.

Get your content approved by the subject matter expert before it goes live on the website. This small check will help you to eliminate any unnecessary content on the website easily.

Ensure that all your content follows the same consistent style on your website. Make sure to document the style guide so it is easy for authors and editors to adhere to these changes seamlessly. 

6. Site development

The next phase of website redesign is the technical part which may be a little challenging for some organizations. Here are some steps to help you in site development.

Templates offer structure to your pages, while style sheets allow you to create a structure with a consistent appearance and feel.

The use of optimized graphics, CSS, and HTML enables for a faster and more enjoyable web experience. To optimize code, use a minifier to remove comments, white space, and other irrelevant characters. Also, make sure that all photos are of the right size for the web (no more than they need to be) and in the right file format.

On-page SEO should be optimized for each page, and all material should have a compelling title and be updated with new information. Check to see if your site is using the proper keywords to draw in your intended audience. You’ll be much easier to find through organic search if you follow this process.

If you want your hard work to pay off at launch, make sure your material is right, relevant, and free of errors. While the content audit is addressed in a previous stage, this step is critical in ensuring that new and migrated content is free of misspellings, broken links, and other problems.

Once your editorial guidelines are in place, double-check that all content follows them. As new content is introduced, set expectations for your team to follow these rules.

Your templates should ideally be ready to use so that content contributors may quickly make modifications or add new content once the site is live. This phase allows you to correct any template mistakes and ensure that your team can properly upload and edit content using them.

Content is king, focus on quality content and take the help of content contributors to add more content to the site.

7. Testing 

The penultimate step of website redesign may seem easy, Step 6 does, however, come with a caveat: testing should occur throughout the whole redesign process, not just at the conclusion. You’ll be able to easily complete the testing process if you perform continuous quality checks during each step of your website’s overhaul.

Put the keyboard down! All site redesign work should be completed before final testing, and the content should be finalized.

Determine the most effective method for test users to submit feedback and report website faults. 

Here are some questions to ask before deciding the process.

  1. Should they email problems as they arise? 
  2. Do you want to complete an assessment at the end? 
  3. Is it possible to have a face-to-face discussion on their findings? 
  4. Choose the method that is most effective for your group.

With a fine-tooth comb, go over every aspect of the site. Examine text thoroughly for correctness, grammar, and spelling, as well as for SEO, accessibility, and overall compliance with editorial style rules and online standards.

Sometimes, what you can’t see has a huge impact on accessibility and SEO. Examine your code for appropriate tags and accessibility attributes, including meta descriptions, titles, alt text, labels, etc. 

Invite visitors with disabilities to test your site’s accessibility while you’re looking at the code. Technical staff should test server performance, security, valid code, and cross-browser and cross-platform compatibility at the same time.

Before going public, give your internal audience a quick glimpse at the progress. This is a great way to get feedback from someone who isn’t involved in the redesign process. The more people who are willing to participate in testing, the better!

Create a list of outstanding items for the redesign team to address after the testing is completed and feedback has been analyzed. You’re ready to go once the changes are finished.

8. Launch and post-launch  analysis 

While the final stage may appear straightforward, there is a lot that goes into launching a website. When it comes to post-launch analysis, this checklist outlines some of the most important tasks to complete in order to preserve the quality of your new site.

Be Careful while adding links and double-check to ensure that all links lead visitors exactly as intended not to the development site.

‘Lorem ipsum’ text is the placeholder content that is used in templates that website developers forget to remove and add original content. Next check for spelling, grammar, and more.

Create an editorial calendar to keep your website updated, new, and on track to accomplish your goals. Maintaining a content publishing schedule is critical, whether it’s updating content on pages or producing a blog post once a week.

As more content is posted to the site, review it for quality regularly. You want to contribute new or updated content, but you also want to make sure it’s accurate and free of errors.

The digital world is a continually changing environment. Meeting with your web staff frequently allows you to discuss current trends and how to develop your site to suit corporate goals and visitor needs.

You should constantly check your site during the redesign process to see if it meets accessibility requirements. Post the launch, don’t allow images that need alt text to be published without it! 

Meet on a regular basis to discuss keyword strategy and analyze analytics to determine what organic search phrases people use to find your site.

Send out surveys, emails, or anything else you can think of to get qualitative feedback from your website users. Learn what customers enjoy and don’t like, as well as what needs to be updated to fit their needs.

Online shopping is becoming more and more popular each day. Did you know that 76% of Americans are online shoppers? 

However, the process of buying any product is different for each online shopper. To be more specific, there will be a significant percentage of buyers with disabilities, navigating through your online store can be a challenge for them. 

With an accessible eCommerce store design, you can easily resolve these differences and offer a unique user experience to everyone. This article will explain why your eCommerce store requires an accessible design. 

So, let’s dive in! 

What does Accessibility mean for an eCommerce website? 

Accessibility for eCommerce websites is all about creating an inclusive experience by ensuring that all customers have barrier-free access to your online store. This means, not limiting the eCommerce user experience for people with physical, cognitive, and situational disabilities. 

If you are planning to build an accessible eCommerce website, include these three-pointers within your checklist ASAP: 

Why should your eCommerce store be accessible? – Different types of Shoppers and Solutions to Help them 

The primary reason behind building an accessible eCommerce website is to provide widespread access for all online shoppers. There are different types of online shoppers, struggling with a wide range of disabilities. You can only call your eCommerce store interactive only if it creates an inclusive user experience for everyone. 

Here are the different types of online shoppers that you can come across and the solutions to make your online store a better place for them: 

1. Shoppers with visual impairments

Who highlights that 1 billion people globally have severe blindness. This explains why eCommerce stores should invest in an accessible website design to assist shoppers with partial or complete impairment. 

Here are some solutions: 

2. Shoppers with colorblindness 

Colorblindness is another major disability across the globe. 1 in 12 men and 1 in 200 women are colorblind worldwide. With a few simple changes, you can easily address this concern and build an effective online shopping experience for users. 

Here are some simple solutions: 

To address this, designers can refer to the color wheels and use the colors residing in the opposite ends of the wheel. These will be complementary colors and can create better UX. 

A circular color palette featuring a primary color and its complimentary, the color combinations are yellow-purple, blue-orange, and red-green

Source  

3. Shoppers with hearing disabilities 

Considering people with hearing disabilities should also be on your agenda when working on accessible design for your eCommerce store. People born with hearing disabilities face different kinds of challenges, which can reflect in their shopping experience. These include difficulty in listening to audio-only content, or accessing videos.

Here are some solutions to assist these shoppers: 

4. Shoppers with Cognitive Disabilities 

There are many shoppers with cognitive disabilities and they face challenges when it comes to communication, understanding new tasks and performing them independently, and suffer from reduced memory and attention. Globally, 7% of online shoppers are aged above 65 and they face age-related challenges like terminal memory loss. Users with cognitive differences like Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) also get distracted by too many pop-up ads on the websites. 

Here are some ways to assist these shoppers: 

Final Words 

We hope that the significance of accessibility for your eCommerce store is now clear. But the question is how would you know that your website is accessible and what are the areas you need to work on? 

The answer to this question is – LERA. 

LERA is a free accessibility reporting Chrome extension that can scan your eCommerce store for accessibility violations and suggest fixes for those issues. On LERA’s advanced dashboard, you can track all these accessibility violations and download the reports for free. 

When developing a website, developers must keep in mind that user experience matters for everyone. Everybody doesn’t access websites in the same manner. Many such users are having different types of disabilities and impairments that restrict their user experience. 

To ensure a positive experience for all users, it is a must that a website is accessible. An accessible website is equally attainable for everyone, with or without any disabilities. 

AODA or Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act takes into account accessibility for the disabled citizens of Ontario. This Canadian law was passed in 2005 and it has established an accessibility standard for both public and private organizations based in the province of Ontario. AODA is largely based on the latest version of Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.

This blog will discuss more AODA compliance and how it can help your website in the long run. 

What is AODA? 

AODA, passed in 2005, is primarily based on the Ontarians Disabilities Act 2001. This compliance establishes certain accessibility standards for organizations (public and private) to ensure that Ontarians who are living with disabilities experience proper access to websites and the information within them. 

It is essential to mention here that AODA compliance doesn’t replace the Ontario Human Rights Code, which forbids discrimination against people with disabilities. This compliance sets clear expectations and processes for enterprises to help them become AODA compliant. 

Why should your website be AODA compliant? 

Over 15% of Ontario’s population are living with some kind of disability. As an entrepreneur or developer, it is your responsibility to ensure that the information within your website is fully accessible to these people. 

Here are some reasons why your website must be AODA compliant: 

1. Being empathetic 

The very first reason to develop an AODA compliant website is empathy. We know that more than 15% of the population of Ontario is living with disabilities. In that case, it should be a moral responsibility of companies and business owners to ensure that their websites create an inclusive experience for the users and ensure equal access to information. Websites should try to be empathetic toward them and ensure that they don’t face any barriers while navigating across your website. 

2. To avoid penalties 

Another major reason for being AODA compliant is to avoid the penalties. An individual guilty of AODA non-compliance can be fined up to $50000 each day while an organization guilty of the same violation will be fined $100000 per day. 

3. Building a credible brand image 

If you abide by the guidelines of AODA compliance, it would be the first step toward building a credible brand image. It can help you establish a reputation as an equal opportunity employer that allows everyone (with or without disabilities) to access information seamlessly. 

4. To improve SEO 

Proper implementation of accessibility guidelines to the website design can improve the organic presence of your site. In case you missed it, this article discusses in detail how having an accessible website makes it easier for search engines to evaluate and crawl your website. As a result, you can expect prompt improvement in search engine ranking. 

5. For better outreach 

A non-compliant website limits its target visitors. Only people without any disabilities can access information on those websites. Alternatively, by being AODA compliant, you can target a broad group of audiences and experience more leads getting converted into paid customers. 

Who should comply with AODA? 

Here are some pointers you must know about AODA compliance: 

How do you know if your website is AODA compliant? 

The best way to evaluate the accessibility status of your website is by conducting an accessibility audit. A combination of automated and manual audit methods are recommended. If you are starting out, here are our top 3 tools that we believe can help you out. To get the complete list please check out this article.

  1. LERA 

LERA is one of the best accessibility reporting Chrome extensions that perform an automated accessibility audit of your website and create a downloadable report highlighting all accessibility issues and potential fixes. LERA evaluates your website against WCAG 2.1, Level A, and AA success criteria to guide you in the accessibility design journey. 

  1. Wave 

The next best web accessibility testing tool on our list is – Wave. It evaluates your website’s content with respect to different accessibility guidelines like WCAG. It can further conduct manual accessibility website testing to identify and fix the accessibility loopholes in your website.  

  1. Dynomapper 

Another web accessibility testing tool that you must try is Dynomapper. It allows developers to test the status of accessibility for any website within the browser. Additionally, you can generate comprehensive accessibility audit reports with Dynomapper to understand the accessibility issues and fixes better. 

Final words 

We hope you have a clear idea of AODA compliance and its significance for your website. The ultimate aim of founders is to make their websites accessible for everyone to add value to the target audiences. By complying with AODA, you can build an inclusive experience and welcome all your target visitors without any barriers.

Google Chrome holds 62.78% of the global market share when it comes to internet browsers. If you are a developer or website owner, you probably already have a stack full of Chrome extensions that expedite the web development process. 

We recently reviewed a bunch of Chrome extensions that could come in handy for the developers. In this blog, we are listing those down along with our extensive feedback on each extension. 

We are sure that using the right set of Chrome extensions can speed up your web development process. So, let’s dive in! 

Best Chrome Extensions for Web Developers

1. Hiver 

Hiver is a popular Google Chrome extension that assists internal teams in managing common inboxes from Gmail. Organizations can use Hiver to support internal teams and faster respond to complaints and support tickets. Hiver further helps developers monitor each issue assigned to them in real-time, until it has been resolved. 

Key Features 

Get it here 

2. WhatFont 

WhatFont helps developers and website owners to identify the fonts within a website within seconds. Additionally, you can also identify details like color, size, and font weight with this Chrome extension. So, next time you are trying to collect some of the best web page examples, WhatFont can be the best tool to rely on.  

Key Features 

Get it here 

3. LERA 

LERA is automated accessibility reporting Chrome extension. Developers often struggle to cover all the accessibility guidelines. With an accessibility auditing and reporting tool like LERA, they can uncover automated accessibility issues within the website and download the results in an Excel file. As a result, developers can speed up the process and ensure 100% access to information for everyone. 

Key features 

Get it here 

4. CSS Viewer 

The next name on our list of developer-friendly Chrome extensions is CSS viewer. It shows the CSS properties, as you hover at any place within the web page. As soon as you hover on a webpage, you will see a pop-up window appearing that can show you the CSS codes implemented there. 

Key Features 

Get it here 

5. Full Stack Optimization Live Test

Developers most frequently use Full Stack Optimization Live Test to stay updated about the SEO performance of each web page. This Chrome extension tool helps you evaluate a website’s SEO performance based on some of the pre-defined SEO best practices. 

Key Features 

Get it here 

6. Githunt 

Developers who spend a long time on Github, should explore Githunt Chrome extension earliest. Githunt highlights all the trending Github projects within a new tab of your Chrome browser to save your time. You can search for different projects in this extension and select anyone to inspect the project further. 

Key Features 

Get it here 

7. BrowserStack 

BrowserStack is a valuable Chrome extension that helps developers test a website’s responsiveness. Developers having a BrowserStack account can install this extension with a few simple steps and start exploring the responsiveness of websites across different browsers. 

Key Features 

Get it here 

8. ColorPick Eyedropper 

The next name on our list of top Chrome Extensions for developers is ColorPick Eyedropper. This tool helps you pick up colors from any webpage to simplify and expedite your web development process. 

Key Features 

Get it here 

9. Lorem Ipsum Generator 

Lorem Ipsum Generator is a handy website development tool that helps you to generate filler texts while developing demo websites. This extension is very easy to install and it does what it promises. All you have to do is instruct the number of Lorem Ipsum copies you want and paste them in the placeholder as soon as the content is generated. 

Key Features 

Get it here 

10. Clear Cache

Too much cache can affect your site’s loading speed. Clear Cache is one Chrome extension that developers use frequently to clear browser cache. As a result, it can improve site performance and increase the speed of any development process. 

Key Features 

Get it here 

11. Awesome screenshot and screen recorder 

Are you looking for a Chrome extension that lets you capture and record screens at the same time? Well, you should try Awesome screenshot and screen recorder tool that simplifies product demos for developers by capturing images and videos at the fastest speed. 

Key Features 

Get it here 

12. ColorZilla 

Selecting colors has never been easier. Developers can use ColorZilla and its advanced features like CSS gradient analyzer, color history tool, page analyzer, etc. to streamline the development process. 

Key Features 

Get it here 

Final Words 

We hope these Chrome extensions will help developers integrate web development into their process better. While you may not need all the extensions, pick the ones that align with your workflow.

Including such extensions to your tech stack is always a good idea to help reduce development efforts. 

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