This content is out of date. (2013-02-05)

This page collects and categorizes some of the types of web accessibility testing procedures and test files. It is produced as part of the W3C-wide testing framework.

Accessibility Conformance Testing

This section captures the types of web accessibility conformance testing, and how well they are currently addressed in the W3C-wide testing framework. More specific scenarios of accessibility testing is described in section Accessibility Testing Scenarios.

Web Content

Addressed (indirectly) in Testing/Requirements:

how web content is supported by user agents and assistive technologies

Data gathered from the above is used to assess the level of support in web technologies for specific WCAG 2.0 Techniques. These Techniques are then used in an evaluation methdology to determine conformance of websites to WCAG 2.0.

User Agents

For more detail on scenarios, see the Overview of User Agent testing document in User Agent Accessibility Guidelines Working Group.

Addressed in Testing/Requirements:

how web content is rendered in the browser
browser notifications, alerts, and dialog windows
how DOM events and notifications are processed
how DOM events and notifications are relayed to the APIs

Not addressed in Testing/Requirements:

software tool functionality, menus, and features

Authoring Tools

Addressed (indirectly) in Testing/Requirements:

how web content is generated by the tool (see Web Content above)

Not addressed in Testing/Requirements:

software tool functionality, menus, and features
web tool functionality, menus, and features

Evaluation Tools

Not addressed in Testing/Requirements:

how web content is identified as erroneous or compliant
software tool functionality, menus, and features
web tool functionality, menus, and features

Assistive Technologies

Addressed in Testing/Requirements:

how web content is rendered by the tool
how DOM events and notifications are processed
how API events and notifications are processed

Not addressed in Testing/Requirements:

software tool functionality, menus, and features
web tool functionality, menus, and features

Accessibility Testing Scenarios

The following are some accessibility testing scenarios, to illustrate the types of testing needed. Currently they only include "in-browser" testing that is mostly covered in Testing/Requirements, but they should be completed to include all accessibility testing scenarios.

Manual ("self-describing") Tests

The following types of tests are executed manually:

web content (which could include images and multimedia with or without alternatives, or structures such as tables, lists, headings, forms, etc) are presented to the user, and the user is asked to verify that what is presented matches a pre-defined (reference) description
web content (which could include embedded objects or other elements) is presented to the user, and the user is asked if they can navigate through the content using keyboard only
web content is presented to the user, and the user is asked to verify that the browser chrome provides certain functionality, information, or follows certain behavior

Semi-Automated Tests

The following types of tests are executed manually but with some automation support:

font size or zoom level are changed automatically to pre-defined values by the test harness, and the user is asked to verify that the content is still readable and operable
default styles are automatically overridden by the test harness (to animate user style sheets), and the user is asked to verify that the content is still readable and operable
scripting events are triggered by the test harness, and the user is asked to verify that the browser chrome provides certain functionality, information, or follows certain behavior
scripting events are triggered by the test harness, and the user is asked to verify that the corresponding API events are triggered on the operating system (using an additional API tool)
the user does an action such as typing, clicking, or submitting a form, and the events triggered are automatically checked through the test harness scripts

Fully-Automated Tests

The following types of tests could be executed automatically:

scripting events are triggered by the test harness, and the resulting DOM, text, or screen shots (?) are automatically compared against a pre-defined reference