Does Accessibility Testing Belong in QA?

Since I ended yesterday's post with such a cogent question, I'll give some thoughts about it.

Quality Assurance is a critical component of an enterprise-wide accessibility plan. The ability to write a bug is a powerful tool for motivation. When developers get bugs assigned to them for accessibility features that are missing, they start to pay attention. QA provides the safety net that helps prevent blatant accessibility omissions from slipping onto the website during updates and changes.

QA, however, should not be the driving force (or the only force) behind an Accessibility plan. Accessibility is NOT just another browser to test against. Accessibility has to be built into the entire development cycle, otherwise much time and resources are wasted trying to put accessibility into a mostly completed product. Writing bugs at the end of the development cycle to add in the accessibility features leads to bad code, late projects, or endlessly postponed accessibility bugs.

Accessibility requires specialized knowledge that needs to be brought to bear early in the Development cycle to insure that designs are well constructed, speech-only text is written and approved, and special accessibility concerns are specified and constructed. Some sophistication in using screen readers is required to really test a page in JAWS. JAWS has a steep learning curve, and the novice user cannot test whether a script or applet is accessible - or even that the table headings are correctly done.

The accessibility testing done in QA can be done with a good tool and basic training in the general things to look for. Certainly, QA can look for ALT tags, labels on form elements and table headings with a basic testing tool. This insures that each page is being looked at and routine maintenance doesn't overwrite accessibility work already done. Accessibility Subject Matter Experts are needed to test complex scripts and applets and to insure that designs are well constructed. What department the SME is in can vary, but the SME must be involved early in the project process to be more efficient and effective.

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