Manual Accessibility Testing

After you have completed testing with automated tools, follow up with manual testing to make sure your digital content is inclusive and accessible.

Review your content

Headings and body text

  • Confirm that your page titles are unique and descriptive.
  • Confirm that you only have one <h1> heading on each page.
  • Make sure your headings are descriptive, use semantic heading levels and are in hierarchical order. Ensure you haven't skipped any heading levels.
  • Confirm that your link text is descriptive and doesn't use generic link text like "click here" or "learn more."
  • Confirm that plain language is used rather than jargon.

Images

  • Confirm that alt text conveys the content and/or function of the images. Make sure it's succinct and accurate.
  • Make sure you're not using any images of text.

Color

  • Confirm that the text and background color has a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1.
  • Make sure you're not using color to convey meaning.

Tables

  • Confirm that you're not using tables for layout.
  • Ensure that tables have a caption and correct row and column headers and scopes.

Zoom in to 200%

Using Control + on PC or Command + on Mac, zoom in to 200% and confirm that:

  • All of the content on the page is still present.
  • None of the content overlaps
  • Navigation bars are changed to mobile menus and you can navigate to and open/close the menus.
  • You do not have to scroll horizontally to read any content.

Forms

  • Confirm that form controls have descriptive labels.

Test with a keyboard

The goal of keyboard testing is to ensure that all interactive elements can be selected and activated using the keyboard alone.

How to test with a keyboard

The goal of keyboard testing is to ensure that all interactive elements can be selected and activated using the keyboard alone.

  • Tab: Navigate to links and form controls.
  • Shift + Tab: Navigate backwards.
  • Spacebar: Activate checkboxes and buttons.
  • Enter: Activate links and buttons.
  • Arrow keys: Radio buttons, select/drop-down menus, sliders, tab panels, auto-complete, tree menus, etc.
  • Escape: Dismisses browser dialog or menu.

What to look for

  • Is anything mouse-only, such as rollover menus?
  • Is a "skip navigation" link available and working correctly?
  • Is the navigation order logical and intuitive?
  • Is a visible keyboard focus indicator present?
  • Test dialogs that pop open. Can you navigate and close the dialog? Does focus return to a logical place?
  • Esc should close all dialogs.

Test with a screen reader

Testing with a screen reader helps you identify issues with reading order, dynamic content and interactive elements. Use these guides from Harvard University to help you get started.

Free screen readers:

  • Mac users: 
  • PC users: 

Other screen readers:

  • PC users: 

The information on this page has been adapted from Harvard University's Manual Testing for Accessibility.