Accessibility Testing Requirements – Operable – Enough Time
In the series of reviews I’m looking at WCAG level A / AA (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) requirements from testing perspective.
Common Definitions
Human Testing
- Brief – “You know as you see it” – quick scanning is sufficient to check and make a judgment. This does not include effort of logging defects.
- Detailed – Either interaction (execution of tests) with the functionality is necessary or detailed review/analysis must be done in order to verify a requirement.
Tool-Assisted Checking
- Not Available – Tools cannot help in checking for the specified requirement or they help very insignificantly.
- Partial – Tools provide significant help in checking for the specified requirement, either by saving time in parsing content source or through visualization. Human does the verification and judgment.
- Full – Tools capable of locating and verifying the specified requirement. Brief review of checking results is sufficient to make a judgment.
Operable – Enough Time
Provide users enough time to read and use content.
Tools provide little help here.
“Enough time” is a subjective criterion.
Any “pause/stop” functionalities and their configuration should be tested.
Timing – Adjustable
If a page or application has a time limit, the user is given options to turn off, adjust, or extend that time limit. This is not a requirement for real-time events (e.g., an auction), where the time limit is absolutely required, or if the time limit is longer than 20 hours.
Human Testing – Brief/Detailed
Tool-Assisted Checking – Not Available
Testers to verify and explore the functionalities for controlling of time limit. Should requirement for this is not specified, testers to raise issues about pages where this may pose a problem.
Lookout for conflicts between business requirements and accessible timing requirements.
Auto moving
Automatically moving, blinking, or scrolling content that lasts longer than 5 seconds can be paused, stopped, or hidden by the user. Moving, blinking, or scrolling can be used to draw attention to or highlight content as long as it lasts less than 5 seconds.
Human Testing – Special
Tool-Assisted Checking – Not Available
Testing depends on the implementation.
Auto refreshing content
Automatically updating content (e.g., automatically redirecting or refreshing a page, a news ticker, AJAX updated field, a notification alert, etc.) can be paused, stopped, or hidden by the user or the user can manually control the timing of the updates.
Human Testing – Detailed
Tool-Assisted Checking – Not Available
Testing depends on the implementation.
External feeds are also subject for accessibility testing.
Operable – Seizures
Do not design content in a way that is known to cause seizures.
Content flashes
No page content flashes more than 3 times per second unless that flashing content is sufficiently small and the flashes are of low contrast and do not contain too much red.
Human Testing – Special
Tool-Assisted Checking – Partial
Tools may detect certain coding patterns that cause content to flash.
Special tools for color picking and analysis should be employed for verification of contrast levels of flashing content.