How do you test accessibility with users when you only have prototypes?

Question

I want to do some accessibility user testing, but don't have the built product yet. Much like usability testing i want to test as early as possible and as frequently as possible.

Will a prototype, if high fidelity, work for accessibility testing in a lab with users?

I am kinda assuming that it will work for a lot of things but not others.

I'll likely be building it in Axure or Proto.io (please feel free to suggest another tool if better for testing for accessibility) so am assuming that i won't be able to test for the use of screen readers and keyboard driven navigation with these prototyping tools.

What are peoples experiences advice?

Answer 1

Accessibility is about what hits the final browser, so full testing isn't possible until the application/site is finished.

That said, certain things can be checked for ahead of that:

1) Colour contrast (text on background colour, text over images)

2) Heading levels

3) Language (ease of reading, etc)

4) Link text out of context (show the user a list of all the links on the page in alphabetical order and ask how they'd get somewhere)

5) Video transcripts/captions

6) Size of clickable areas

etc.

It's never going to beat a full audit from a web accessibility professional, but if you have finished content and the designs you'd be surprised just how much can still be tested with the right approach and tools.

In the lab scenario, language, links in and out of context, readability through colour, colour as only indication of something ("Click the blue box"), etc., are all things a user can suggest. I'd still recommend getting someone with an understanding of web accessibility to look over the designs before that to see if there's anything they spot that isn't WCAG compliant, but a user will still be very good at finding some of those things.

Answer 2

It can work till a certain point. I used Adobe Xd Click-Prototypes before for our web applications, i try to make them as high fidelity as possible by adding a lot of options for the users and try to mimic every step the user would usually take.

I confront the user with a set task, for example: "A customer is calling you and wants to know about his current payment status".

Then i watch/record how the user is using the click-protoytpe and try to find stuff that can be improved.

Of course this will only work till a certain point, since inputs cant be done by the user and a lot of stuff like loading times etc. aren't there it will never be a 100% solution, but it is enough to find flaws and improve enough so the first development result will be far better then without that testing.