Is accessibility UX testing a must-have?

User experience testing, or “UX testing,” provides incredible benefits for understanding your users and refining your website or web application. It's also important to note that if your UX testing is missing people with disabilities, you’re missing big pieces of the overall usability picture.

UX testing with users with disabilities will reveal the effectiveness of your design and content, the variety of approaches that users take when exploring and interacting with your product, and how your product works on different types of assistive technology. If your user flows are illogical, your user instructions are unclear, or your accessible names aren’t descriptive enough, UX testing will pinpoint these issues and more. User testing with people with disabilities is a critical part of building effective web products.

UX testing is also a critical component for achieving accessibility. Conformance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines is a valuable goal, but there are many aspects of the user experience that WCAG doesn’t address. UX testing is a must have if you want a complete analysis of your product’s accessibility. Combining WCAG conformance with dedicated UX testing can mean the difference between a web product that technically works, and a product that works easily and well.

To learn more or watch a recorded UX testing demonstration, explore Web Accessibility Usability & UX Testing at Accessible Web.