10 Real-World Benefits of Web Accessibility User Testing
In an online environment where access by all is no longer a luxury, web accessibility user testing is not only the most effective way to make your site usable, inclusive and legally compliant. At Inclusive Web, we think that there is no alternative to the audits and automatic checks other than seeing real people who use assistive technologies when using your digital product. The following are ten practical, actual real-life benefits of web accessibility testing of users, its purpose, the benefits of such accessibility testing, and how the benefits represent the food of accessible analysis.
1. Exposes Hidden Usability Barriers
Purpose of Testing: To locate problems, which may be overlooked by automated tools and expert audits.
Accessibility Benefit: Accessibility users (disabled people and assistive technology users) will demonstrate which areas of your interface are confusing, broken, or unintuitive (i.e. keyboard traps, vague focus order, no ARIA roles).
Accessibility Analysis: The results provide you with qualitative data on what actual users are struggling with, which can be useful in prioritisation in case you need to rectify errors.
2. Enhances Real-User Satisfaction & Trust
Purpose of Testing: To know how the users feel, where they feel frustrated and how much they feel satisfied.
Accessibility Benefit: Once your site is accessible to the assistive technologies community, individuals are felt heard and respected. It creates loyalty, frustration alleviation, and positive interaction (length of stay, increased conversions).
Accessibility Analysis: Feedback by actual users can be used to quantify or characterize satisfaction (e.g. I could not use the dropdown vs I could not complete checkout because the keyboard navigation was broken) that can be used to contribute to shaping user stories and fixes.
3. Improves Legal & WCAG Compliance
Purpose of Testing: To make sure that you comply with accessibility standards, like Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), ADA, European Accessibility Act (EAA), etc.
Accessibility Benefit: User testing can give you an idea of what you may not have found out with code checks alone: your site will be more defensible in case of a legal dispute.
Accessibility Analysis: The results of the real-user tests might be used as the evidence of the due diligence, and as the documentation of the remediation actions. User-centric data supports compliance reports making them stronger.
4. Boosts SEO, Reach & Market Inclusion
Purpose of Testing: To accommodate more individuals, such as, disabled individuals, non-native, older individuals, or individuals with limited bandwidth.
Accessibility Benefit: Easier to follow (alt text, headings, etc) accessible content is generally easier to search in the search engine, it also increases the speed of a webpage and facilitates ease of navigation. Your site can be used by more people including customers who were not initially able to use it.
Accessibility Analysis: During testing, you can see what cannot be accessed (images without alt, unlabeled forms etc.), thus being able to fix it and benefit not only users but also search engines.
5. Reduces Support Costs and Helpdesk Load
Purpose of Testing: To identify early the areas that result in confusion or mistakes.
Accessibility Benefit: When users have to call or write to seek assistance on a regular basis, it is a point of pain that you can work on. Lessening them makes it more efficient, and cheaper, in addition to making the end user happier.
Accessibility Analysis: You will find recurring problems (e.g. form validation problems, navigation problems) that, upon being resolved will decrease the number of user complaints or support tickets.
6. Enhances Conversion Rates & Business Metrics
Rationale behind Testing: To learn about the role of accessible usability on important metrics (sign-ups, purchases, engagement).
Accessibility Benefit: Making navigation tools, composite forms, checkout process, etc available would eliminate friction among disabled users, boosting conversions and sales. Moreover, easily accessible designs are more often than not cleaner to all which contributes to the overall conversion rate.
Accessibility Analysis: Compare the performance before and after improvements. Measures of impact, in particular, track metrics of disabled users.
7. Fosters Inclusive Design Culture
Purpose of Testing: To instill accessibility awareness to design, dev, content and QA teams.
Accessibility Benefit: When the teams see the experience of real users, empathy increases. More contrast is considered by designers and more keyboard navigation and screen reader behaviour are considered by developers.
Case Study: The results of testing sessions become case studies, training materials. They assist in the internalization of best practices.
8. Validates Automated Testing & Audit Findings
Purpose of Testing: To ensure that the problems identified by automated tools are in actual use.
Accessibility Benefit: Not all of the errors that tools identify are serious, or even need to affect the user experience; on the other hand, most of the errors that tools overlook are false alarms (missed by tools). Real-user testing allows you to make the difference between high and low priority.
Accessibility Analysis: You can compare automated to manual or user testing results so as to create a more coherent view of the health of your site in terms of accessibility.
9. Supports Ongoing Maintenance & Risk Mitigation
Purpose of Testing: To find regressions (accessibility breaks) in case of content or UI or code changes.
Accessibility Benefit: Does not resort to bad usability - In case you redesign, roll out new functionality, or switch templates, test to make sure that nothing vital was broken in front of people with disabilities.
Accessibility Analysis: Evaluation Trending: (through repeated user testing) shows the points of breakdown. Plans maintenance budget, fixes priorities.
10. Drives Innovation & Better UX for Everyone
Purpose of Testing: To uncover creative design or interaction solutions based on the need of accessibility.
The Accessibility Benefit: A lot of accessibility enhancements are beneficial to everyone-improved navigation of the keyboards, improved labels, easier user interfaces and alternate ways to input. These usually result in quicker, more hygienic, and user-friendly UX even among non-disabled people.
Analysis of Accessibility: Obtaining user feedback can often reveal some unexplained suggestions that can be used to make larger product changes. The analysis of those suggestions can inform the feature roadmap of innovation.
How Inclusive Web Helps with Accessibility Analysis & User Testing
Inclusive Web does not just check the box. Our user test is performed on real persons using assistive technologies, going through real conditions. We use those qualitative findings along with audits, automated scans, and continuous monitoring to provide:
Emphasis on issue reporting: We inform you what to fix the following so that you have the most significant impact.
Evidence that is user-centred: Assists in persuading stakeholders, budgetary planning and record making improvements.
Recommendations to take: Every finding is accompanied by explicit remediation steps (code-level, design level, content level).
Continuous improvement: Since accessibility is not a single event, we will assist in keeping it up, measuring it and revising.
Conclusion
The purpose of web accessibility user testing is not to simply do the regulatory checkbox, but to provide actual business value, improve UX, reduce risk, and become more inclusive. Offering it together with strong accessibility analysis, auditing, automated tools, accessibility monitoring, and empathy-driven approach, you not only ensure that your digital product is usable by people with disabilities, but design a more resilient, strong and more ethical digital presence.
When you are willing to discover how user testing and constant accessibility monitoring can reveal latent problems and improve your accessibility as well as your UX, then get in touch with us here at Inclusive Web. It is time to make the web inclusive.
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We Are Inclusive Web
We work with our clients to simplify digital accessibility to ensure your web and digital applications are ADA compliant and accessible to all your users. If you’d like to talk about your digital accessibility, you can email us at matthew@inclusiveweb.co, leave us a note here, or schedule a call here to discuss. Let’s make the web inclusive to all!