24.5 · Auditing and testing accessibility, and making it a bar, not a backlog

Accessibility that depends on one person remembering is accessibility that regresses. The mature version is a definition of done, automated checks, components that are accessible by default, and users in the loop.

Mental model. Make the accessible way the easy way and the checked way: components, tests and a release gate, not a late audit.

Checking

The Accessibility Inspector, automated audits and manual testing.

1. How do you test accessibility: the Accessibility Inspector, automated audits in XCUITest, identifiers versus labels, and manual testing? 24.5.1 · L3
   Test at three levels. Inspect: Xcode’s Accessibility Inspector (Xcode ▸ Open Developer Tool) points at any element in the simulator or on a connected device…

The standard

A definition of done, design systems, legal context and ownership.

1. How do you ship accessibility as a bar, not a backlog: a definition of done, accessible-by-default components, release gates, ownership and legal context? 24.5.2 · L8
   The failure mode is the “accessibility sprint”: a late audit produces hundreds of issues, a few are fixed, and the next release regresses them. The fix is to…

More in Accessibility & localization

• 24.1 · VoiceOver, accessibility elements and the other ways people use an app
• 24.2 · Dynamic Type, display settings, contrast and touch targets
• 24.3 · Right-to-left layout, bidirectional text and number systems
• 24.4 · Testing localisation, and sorting, calendars and names by locale
• 24.6 · Building and testing accessible components
• 24.7 · Adaptive colour, font fallback and mirrored drawing
• 24.8 · Language matching, plural rules, string catalogs and Info.plist strings
• 24.9 · Unicode equivalence, word boundaries and regional defaults