Introduction
The power of the Web is in its universality. Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect.
Principles (POUR)
The four guiding principles of web accessibility are known by the acronym POUR.
- Perceivable
- Users must be able to perceive all information and interface components (sight, hearing).
- Operable
- Users must be able to operate a product with any means available to them (mouse, keyboard, touch screen, etc.).
- Understandable
- Users must understand the information as well as how to operate the interface (easy, precise and predictable).
- Robust
- Users can operate the product in any possible environment (web browsers, apps, etc.) and can make use of assistive technologies.
Types of impairments
Visual impairments are usually the main focus when we talk about accessibility, but they are not the only concern. There are many conditions that we have to take into consideration when designing and developing.
| Type | Permanent conditions | Temporary impairments |
|---|---|---|
| Visual |
|
|
| Hearing |
|
|
| Cognitive or technical |
|
|
| Motoric |
|
|
Testing for accessibility
Here is a small list of useful tools to help you test your applications:
- Google Lighthouse
- axe DevTools
- Automatically scan websites and receive a report of violations.
- jest-axe
- Custom Jest matcher for automating tests for accessibility using axe.
- Level Access Platform
- Partner for Flix to perform automated and manual tests and evaluations to be compliant with lawmakers.
Notice that automated tools do not guarantee that your application is fully accessible. These tools work like code linters (eslint, stylelint, etc), and will only be able to give you an overview of basic accessibility issues.
You still need to create a strong accessibility testing culture, by incorporating real assistive technologies to test your applications and include disabled people in your user research to guarantee a good quality of current and new features.