This guide covers the basic steps of accessibility testing for software engineers — enough to make sure your feature or page meets WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) 2.2 standards (AA Level) in most scenarios. More advanced topics like Voice Control and mobile testing will be covered in a separate guide.

Why accessibility testing matters

Accessibility is not just a compliance checkbox. It improves the experience for everyone — people using keyboards, people on slow connections, people with temporary injuries, and people using assistive technologies every day.

WCAG 2.2 AA is the standard most organizations should aim for. It is a legal requirement in many jurisdictions (EAA (European Accessibility Act) in the EU, ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) in the US, etc.).

How to do basic accessibility testing

1. Validate your HTML
2. Run automated tools
3. Test keyboard navigation
4. Test with assistive technologies

Each step builds on the previous one.

Tools cannot check all accessibility aspects automatically. Human judgement is required.

Sometimes evaluation tools can produce false or misleading results. Web accessibility evaluation tools can not determine accessibility, they can only assist in doing so.

— W3C WAI: Selecting Web Accessibility Evaluation Tools

Screen readers used in this guide

• macOS — VoiceOver (built-in)
• Windows — NVDA (free, JAWS is also widely used but requires a paid license)
• Android — TalkBack

See also: Video accessibility requirements