Accessibility User Testing
We have conducted many dozens of accessibility user testing projects since 2004. These have involved a wide range of participant profiles including:
- Blind users with screen readers
- Low vision users with and without screen magnification
- Voice recognition software users (some fully able, some not)
- Deaf users
- Users for whom English is not their first language
- Users with learning disabilities
- Sighted users who use keyboard only navigation (i.e. no mouse)
User testing provides an assessment of the level of accessibility the website actually does achieve. WCAG testing is a necessary foundation, but there are many other factors that affect accessibility, particularly the comprehensibility of the content. User testing is conducted in the same way as our usability user testing, in one-to-one moderated sessions in our specialist lab with client observation facilities.
In addition to lab based testing with a typical sample of 4-5 user profiles (which provides valuable client observation capability) we often recommend running (3-4) unobserved testing sessions in the user’s home, still facilitated by our moderators.
We believe the mix of lab based and home based testing delivers a number of benefits:
- Lab based testing tends to produce the richest set of insights and findings and enables viewing by the client team. This can be extremely beneficial in deepening stakeholder and developer understanding of special access needs
Home testing enables a very realistic view of use of access technologies – some users spend a long time customising the set-up of their hardware and software and this cannot always be accurately replicated in the lab. It also allows for testing with users who may find it difficult to travel to the testing facility. Home testing cannot be viewed.
