Skip to main content

Accessibility Quick Checks

Walk through these accessibility quick checks to uncover the accessibility barriers automated testing tools may miss

Introduction

Access to websites and electronic content is integral to the university's academic, research, and engagement activities. Electronic content - including websites, web-applications, mobile apps, media, and documents - must conform to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0, Level A and AA standards at a minimum per Stanford's Digital Accessibility policy.

These initial "quick checks" provide a straightforward method to determine if your content meets basic accessibility requirements. Please contact the Office of Digital Accessibility if you have questions about your results or to request a comprehensive accessibility evaluation.

To begin, review the Testing Scope and Test Criteria sections below. Then, follow the Accessibility Evaluation Quick Checks guide [Google Doc] to manually assess your web pages or other electronic content.

Testing every page of a site is not realistic. Use a representative sampling technique to find pages that will provide the best idea of the accessibility of the site. When considering which pages to test:

  1. High Traffic Pages: Some pages will have more traffic than others. For example, the homepage or landing page will be visited by everyone and is, therefore, a critical page to test.
  2. Critical Paths: If the website has a specific function, then test the entire user path. For example, for a purchasing process, test all the pages involved in adding something to the shopping cart and checking out.
  3. Interactive Pages: Pages that have user interaction, such as forms with multiple steps are necessary to test.
  4. Combined Features: Select pages that have a combination of features. For example, if one page has a news feed and another page has a search form, but a third page has both, test the page with both features.

Pages and features that should not be tested include:

  1. Dev/Test Environment Features: When working on a pre-production or test environment, do not test anything that will be replaced or removed when moved to the production environment. For example, if a login to access the site will be removed or replaced by single sign-on, do not test those features.
  2. Similar Pages or Components: Many pages on a website will be very similar, or even identical from a structural point of view. Do not spend time testing basic content pages with similar content.

While many issues can be evaluated on a simple pass/fail basis, others require subjective judgment. For instance, while the presence of an ALT attribute on an image is a pass/fail check, assessing the appropriateness of the ALT text—or its intentional omission for decorative images—is a matter of interpretation.

To guide these judgments, approach each element from the perspective of the person impacted by the accessibility issue. For example, if an image is not visible, consider what information is necessary to communicate the purpose and/or function of the image. Similarly, if assessing interactive components, to what extent is the user able to interact with the element without using the mouse.

For each test, assign one of the following scores, which can be summarized as:

  • Pass: This met the criteria.
  • Partial Fail: This mostly meets the criteria, but there were aspects that would create barriers.
  • Fail: This mostly or completely did not meet the criteria.
  • Not Applicable: The criteria doesn't apply to the pages tested.
  • Unknown: This was untestable on the pages tested.

Review these accessibility requirements for your website.

1. Automated Test:The website/electronic content does not show significant errors from a browser-based automated accessibility testing tool.
2. Page Title:A page title is present in the browser tab that is unique and appropriate to the page content and/or task.
3.Browser Zoom:When the web page is zoomed to 200%, all content and interactive elements are still visible and functional.
4. Headings and Structure:Headings are properly marked using appropriate HTML H1-H6 elements and are correctly used to group and organize page content. Structural relationships, such as tabular data and lists, use appropriate markup.
5. Skip Nav:A “Skip Navigation” solution is present for pages with repeated navigation.​
6. Visible Focus and Logical Order:The browser focus indicator is visible and distinguishable when navigating all interactive elements with the keyboard. The focus moves in a logical sequence through interactive elements.
7. Keyboard:All interactive elements (links, buttons, accordions, etc.) are operable from the keyboard.
8. Dialogs:Modal dialogs correctly retain keyboard focus when open and can be closed via the keyboard.
9. Images:Alternative text is provided for all informative images and appropriately describes the content and/or purpose of the image.
10. Text Contrast:Text has good contrast with the background colors.
11. Captions:Videos have accurate captions (no auto-generated captions).
12. Transcripts:Audio files have accurate transcripts (no auto-generated transcripts).
13. Animation:Any moving, flashing, or blinking content, such as carousels, notifications, or auto-play videos lasting for more than five seconds, have a mechanism to pause, stop, or hide that animation or movement.
14. Session Timeout:​Time-out notifications allow at least 20 seconds for the user to modify or extend the interaction time period using a simple keypress.
15. Labels:Form fields have persistent visible labels (i.e., not just placeholder text that disappears when the user starts typing) that are accurate and properly associated with the fields.
16. Errors:​If a form displays any input errors, those errors are clearly identified, and focus is directed back to the invalid field.
17. Meaningful Links and Buttons:​Hyperlinks and buttons have unique or descriptive text. The purpose of the link or button can be determined from its text.