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Re: How long between accessibility test/audits?

for

From: James A.
Date: May 30, 2019 12:52AM

Hi everyone

Thanks for the comments so far. I completely agree with the need to test regularly and embed accessibility within the development process.

However, my question was slightly different. This relates to regulations coming in Europe that are similar to 508 requirements. In some cases the accessibility requirement comes in after "substantial revisions" to the site. Hence I am after examples of what changes would be considered substantial enough to have significantly changed the accessibility of the site. Is there any regulations or best practice that has a similar trigger for accessibility to be checked?

I have come across organisations that claim they are meeting accessibility standards but are basing this on audits that are 4+ years old which would clearly be out of data.

Best wishes

Abi

Sent from my iPhone

> On 30 May 2019, at 00:55, Guy Hickling < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
>
> To emphasise what Scott has just said, test every release. Even if it's
> just a one liner, the test team should automatically test its accessibility
> at the same time as they test its functionality. Most large websites are
> being updated constantly, so need testing each time, not leaving it to some
> (probably quite mythical) annual audit by which time the important pages
> have become unusable by many people anyway.
>
> But even more importantly, have your developers learn how to produce
> accessible markup, including ARIA, in the first place. They should not
> simply correct what the testers throw back at them. Developers can learn it
> easily. They are quite used to learning new skills - they do it all the
> time. They learn HTML, CSS, JavaScript, React, Angular, WordPress,
> whatever. Accessibility and ARIA are a lot easier to learn than some of
> them! (and will be an extra skill on their CV as well).
>
> Automated test tools can provide some help for the developers as well, of
> course, but never forget automated tools can only ever pick up about 25% of
> accessibility defects. You need human testing for every release.
>
> Regards,
> Guy Hickling
> > > >