How to Incorporate Accessibility in Software Development

Introduction

Accessibility is not just a buzzword; it has become a necessity nowadays. Technologies are evolving rapidly, and it has become crucial for every business to ensure that all customers can easily access and use digital content, regardless of their ability. An effective way to ensure that is by integrating accessibility in software development process.

Incorporating accessibility is vital for developing inclusive products that can serve a wide range of customers, including people with disabilities. There are even certain laws and policies by the USA government regarding accessibility in software.

Besides, this doesn’t just boost user experience but also triggers innovations as developers follow universal design principles. However, to enjoy its maximum benefits, you need to ensure proper incorporation of accessibility in the development process. Wondering how to do that? Read on to find the answer.

Importance of Accessibility in A Software Development Process

To understand the importance of Accessibility in the software development process, we need to first understand what does accessibility means in the software world.

Accessibility is the availability of products. It expands the user reach, uplift usability, and supports compliance with legal standards. Also, it fosters innovation leading to customer satisfaction at each stage of software development. Here are some benefits that businesses can enjoy by incorporating accessibility in software development.

Enhanced Usability

Accessibility in software ensures that it can be used easily by all and can benefit every user, including disabled users. It makes utility possible by offering better contrast, clearer navigation, along straightforward interfaces.

Ethical Considerations

Integrating accessibility features is also a matter of human rights and ethical responsibility. This way, businesses can ensure users have equal access to digital products. It also shows an organization’s commitment to social responsibility.

Regulatory and Legal Compliance

Different countries have regulations and guidelines that mandate proper accessibility for software or other digital products, such as ADA- Americans with Disabilities Act, EEA- European Accessibility Act, and WCAG- Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. By complying with all these requirements, organizations can avoid legal penalties.

Scalability and Future-Proofing of Software

By integrating accessibility features in software development, you can make sure that it will be scalable and adaptable. You don’t have to worry about technology changes, future updates, or the latest accessibility regulations.

To experience these benefits, it is crucial to understand the right approach to integrate accessibility. We will understand the same in the following section.

Tips to Incorporate Accessibility

• User Research

  Before engaging with the software development process, it is important to conduct comprehensive user research to understand their preferences and needs. Engage with your potential customers and ask for their feedback to detect any particular accessibility requirements.

  Let’s understand this with banking software accessibility examples. Here, developers can engage with disabled or visually impaired users, and based on their preference, developers can add features like readability, voice commands, high-contrast options, etc. While focusing on a specific group of users, you also need to understand how such features can help all potential users.

• Set Accessibility Guidelines and Design Systems

  Prefer to incorporate inclusive accessibility guidelines and design systems from the beginning of software development. The systems must outline important accessibility design patterns, font sizes, color contrast, and other important information. When there is a clear set of accessibility guidelines, the development team can ensure better consistency across multiple projects. Some common WCAG guidelines that developers can follow while incorporating accessibility are:

  • Options to change the page’s language
  • Set the right reading order
  • Offering an alternative to CAPTCHA verification
  • Structuring the website’s information
  • Allowing users to change text size and more.

• Planning and Designing

  During this stage, developers need to establish accessibility goals, ensuring the goals are well aligned with the required standards. This process may include clearly defining accessibility and creating effective user stories. It will be great if you consider PwD- Person with Disability use cases. This way, you can ensure that the requirements of all users are considered during the development process.

  Based on the information, developers should come up with an inclusive software design mock-up. While designing, they should consider various design elements like visible indicators, touch or keyboard interactions, high color contrast, etc. If possible, hire an accessibility expert and validate the design against the necessary guidelines.

• Opt For Accessibility Testing

  While creating accessible software, it is crucial to integrate the right accessibility testing procedures into the software development process. This will help developers to identify and fix accessibility bugs. Developers should consider both manual and automated testing with a wide range of user groups. Automated testing methods can detect common issues like WCAG failure, etc. On the other hand, manual user testing focuses on user experiences and can offer important insights into the usability of the software in the real world. After all, certain issues are not machine-detectable.

• Deployment

  Ensuring a proper accessible deployment includes monitoring as well as maintenance of software and accessibility standards after the launch. Businesses should set feedback loops. This way, they can obtain important input from potential users about the usability of the software. The collected data can help in making necessary enhancements in subsequent sprints.

• Continuous Learning and Improvement

  Remember that accessibility is evolving rapidly, with new guidelines, methods, and technologies being introduced frequently. So, developers or businesses must stay updated about the latest changes through conferences, webinars, online resources, etc. A continuous learning approach will help increase developers’ accessibility knowledge and they will get to know about the new best practices. All such factors will lead to a productive collaboration while making the design process easier and faster.

Accessibility Checklist for Development Team

An accessibility checklist offers a set of measures or criteria that developers can use to evaluate and verify the software’s accessibility. To ensure the software you are creating is accessible, here is a comprehensive checklist that your development team can follow.

• Use of automated accessibility tester for error detection
• Carry out multiple manual tests to find out common pitfalls
• Integration of alternative text to videos, images, or audio (As per WCAG guidelines)
• Develop content that works on different platforms
• Check usability with the help of assistive tools like speech recognition, screen magnifiers, or screen readers
• Create clear texts and allow users to change the text size
• Ensure the visibility of all indicators
• Availability of in-page navigation and within-page navigation

By considering these points, you can make sure that your products are usable for all users, including users with disabilities.

Various Technologies and Tools to Test Accessibility

Before launching the product or software, it is advisable to check it for errors using different tools. Some common and useful tools developers can use are:

• Keyboard Navigation Testers

  Testing keyboard navigation is important for users with motor disabilities or who can’t use a mouse. By using a keyboard navigation tester, you can ensure that all functionalities and features can be easily accessed through keyboard navigation. These tools simulate inputs from a keyboard and enable developers to detect and fix navigation-related errors.

• Screen Readers

  Screen readers are important for users with visual impairities. When enabled, these tools read aloud text present on the page, allowing users to interact with the product. Developers should use different screen readers to ensure the software is compatible with all tools and make changes to enhance the user experience.

• Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool

  Another effective tool to test accessibility is the WAVE web accessibility evaluation tool. Created by WebAIM, this tool offers visual feedback on the web content’s accessibility and can detect WCAG errors. It also helps in the human evaluation of the software.

• Axe

  Created by Deque, Axe tools are quite popular among Google and Microsoft development teams. You can use Axe Auditor, DevTools, and Monitor tools to ensure proper accessibility of the software. These are also available as a Chrome extension. As they generate detailed reports, identifying issues will be much easier.

• Color Contrast Testers

  Color contrast is essential for people with color blindness and visual impairments. You can use color contrast testers to ensure the deployed color combinations meet the contrast requirements for better readability. Besides, these tools help to check the visual design is perfect for all users.

• Automated Accessibility Analyzers

  Many automated tools for accessibility testing can effectively scan code used in software and detect potential issues. For example, BrowserStack, Accessibility Insights, Guidepup, Pa11y, etc. They check JavaScript, CSS, and HTML code and help you ensure every code is compliant with the required standards. Besides, these tools can quickly check large websites and create detailed reports.

Conclusion

Accessibility in software development has become a new standard for the software development process. The success of a new software or digital product depends on its usability, and by considering accessibility, you can achieve that goal. On the other hand, it also increases the customer base, promotes inclusivity, helps to avoid legal issues, and creates a smooth user experience. It is a major investment in happier users and better or future-proof products. Don’t forget to consider the accessibility checklist to avoid any confusion related to accessibility integration and make sure that the product is WCAG conformant.