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Re: Browser &Screen reader combination for common UI component testing

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From: Tim Harshbarger
Date: May 5, 2017 1:50PM

Jeevon,

I am not sure I can answer this question for you since I expect it comes down to available resources.

Given infinite resources to test and fix accessibility defects, I would test with every possible combination of browser, AT, and platform. That way no matter what At, browser, and platform someone is using, I would feel fully confident they were getting a good experience. But we never have access to infinite resources.

One way I might try to figure out an answer is imagine testing is complete and I found defects unique to all combinations. Given that all the defects have the same level of impact on the user, how would I prioritize fixing them with the resources on hand? Which defects would we be able to fix in a reasonable amount of time? Which fixes would likely benefit the users most? Most?

Typically, at this point with most other types of defects, people would be trying to figure out which defects impacted the most people to the greatest degree. Those would be first to be fixed. But we really don't have hard data that tells us how many people are using which combinations. The best we can do is extrapolate a guess based on whatever information we can gather.

There is also the question about how much accessibility support a user agent or platform needs to provide before it becomes a viable addition to the testing environment. So there is always some guess work (at least for me) on when the accessibility support is good enough.

Unfortunately, no answer, but hopefully some thoughts that might help you figure what you want to do.

Thanks,
Tim