Manual testing
Manual accessibility testing is essential to make sure your website is accessible.
You can’t rely on automated testing. A GDS audit of automated tools found that out of 142 known accessibility issues, the best tools only found around 30 to 40 percent.
DWP WCAG 2.2 manual checks sheet
The DWP WCAG 2.2 manual checks sheet can be used to create a WCAG 2.2 test record. It is just a spreadsheet with suggested steps to follow for each WCAG 2.2 criterion you need to test.
How to use the template
There is an instructions sheet in the document that you can follow. The basic steps are as follows:
- Add your details on the test information sheet.
- List the pages of your product/service in the screen columns
- For each page, complete each of the tests. Mark whether the test passed, failed or was relevant content was not present.
- If any test failed, write a brief description of why.
- You can use the “action plan” sheet to help you put together a remediation plan for any issues found.
- Once you’ve completed the sheet, save it with a meaningful name.
Accessibility Insights
Accessibility Insights assessment extension is a Microsoft tool which is available as a Chrome extension. It will guide you through a manual accessibility assessment.
The manual accessibility assessment feature of Accessibility Insights really sets it apart from other browser extensions.
The guided manual assessment will give you a better understanding of how accessible your website is, and it provides a HTML report which can be downloaded and kept as evidence.
We have published guidance on how to use Accessibility Insights.
Colour contrast
Large text needs a ratio of 3:1 and normal text needs a ratio of 4.5:1. The minimum size to be considered ‘large text’ is 14 point if bold and 18 point if not.
Don’t get confused between point and pixels, they are not the same. A point is physical unit of length, and a pixel is a single dot on a screen. 1 point does not equal 1 pixel. 14 point is usually 19px and 18 point is usually 24px.
Colour contrast tools
You can use tools to measure your contrast ratios.
WebAim WCAG 2.2 checklist
The WebAim WCAG 2.2 checklist is their recommendations for implementing accessibility principles and techniques. It is not a replacement for WCAG 2.2, but it might help you understand some of the criteria in a simpler format.
The list covers all the criteria from A to AAA, and the ones which are highlighted represent the criteria which are new to 2.2 and weren’t in older versions of WCAG.