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Manual Testing - A Checklist

Back in October, October 9-12 to be exact, Little Rock, Arkansas hosted  #HEWeb22  - HighEdWeb’s Annual Conference. DubBot’s own Penny Kronz was a conference speaker, sharing her expertise in her session titled Introduction to accessibility testing — the automated, the manual and the in-between.

In case you were not able to attend #HEWeb22 or you were there and missed Penny’s session, here are the primary takeaways you will want to keep in mind when preparing to test your website for accessibility.

Before we dive in, remember this. It is not "automated vs. manual" testing. It's "automated AND manual" testing. Both forms of testing are required to ensure your website meets the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1.

What is Automated Testing?

According to vocabulary.com - "Something that's automated is controlled by a machine rather than a person." Automated testing can check for things like broken links, missing ALT text, SEO concerns, and insufficient contrast, just to name a few.

There are two types of automated testing. Enterprise, such as DubBot, and browser extensions such as WAVE and axe Dev Tools. Enterprise software can be scheduled to scan - "set it and forget it." Browser extensions need to be "turned on" but then automatically scan, test, and create reports once invoked.

What is Manual Testing?

The word "manual" has several different meanings. For our purposes, according to dictionary.com, the word manual means "involving or using human effort, skill, power, energy, etc.;"

It is testing that is conducted by a human being for keyboard-only navigation, proper zoom function, screen reader access, and proper captioning for videos and audio. Manual testing is necessary as it can detect accessibility issues that automated testing can not.

To assist you in your testing efforts, Penny has created a checklist that lists each WCAG 2.1 success criteria along with the corresponding content that you should be testing. Make sure you add this to your testing toolkit! I guarantee you will thank Penny for it!

Request access to the Beginner's Guide for Manual and Automated Accessibility Testing

Maggie Vaughan, CPACC
Content Marketing Practitioner
DubBot