Teams must conduct their own accessibility testing before scheduling a OCTO-DE Platform Collaboration Cycle Staging Review. OCTO-DE Platform accessibility specialists will verify teams have completed foundational accessibility testing before the staging review can start.

Teams are required to complete the foundational accessibility tests and are encouraged to complete as many of the advanced accessibility tests as time and technical proficiency allow. If teams have not completed their foundational testing, OCTO-DE Platform will escalate to OCTO-DE leadership.

Staging reviews test the happy path through the application or content page(s). This may not catch all accessibility issues, but will ensure basic functionality is accessible. (Accessibility specialists conduct a post-launch audit when an application is relatively code-stable in production.)

Foundational accessibility tests (required)

Intro video to foundational accessibility testing

 Color tests for proper contrast and colorblindness

 Axe scans in daily development

 Axe scans included in end-to-end (e2e) tests

 Content zoomed to 200%, 300%, 400%

 Keyboard navigation

Advanced accessibility tests (recommended)

Future accessibility tests

What to expect from accessibility specialists during staging review

After you request a staging review, the accessibility specialist will review your foundational tests. When the foundational tests have been verified, the specialist will review your product using several browser and screen reader combinations:

  • Windows 10 + IE11/Chrome + JAWS

  • Windows 10 + Firefox + NVDA

  • MacOS + Safari + VoiceOver

  • iOS + Safari + Mobile VoiceOver (as time permits)

VFS teams that have an accessibility specialist

  • VFS product teams will create accessibility tickets for any known issues that could not be resolved in foundational testing

  • VFS specialists will start the staging review after product teams have completed the foundational testing checklist. VFS specialists have the right to stop a staging review if foundational testing was not completed.

  • VFS specialists will gather known issues and enter any new tickets into a ZenHub epic

  • OCTO-DE Platform will review the feedback tickets and discuss any questions with the VFS product team

  • OCTO-DE Platform will deliver findings in the staging review meeting, and notify the product team of any launch-blocking issues

  • VFS accessibility specialists are encouraged to attend the staging review meeting

  • VFS specialists will answer questions and help the product team resolve issues

VFS teams that don’t have an accessibility specialist

VFS product teams that don’t have an accessibility specialist will work directly with the OCTO-DE Platform to complete their Collaboration Cycle accessibility requirements.

  • VFS product teams will create accessibility tickets for any known issues that could not be resolved in foundational testing

  • OCTO-DE Platform will start the staging review after product teams have completed the foundational testing checklist. OCTO-DE Platform the right to stop a staging review if foundational testing was not completed.

  • OCTO-DE Platform will gather known issues and enter any new tickets into a ZenHub epic

  • OCTO-DE Platform will deliver findings in the staging review meeting, and notify the product team of any launch blocking issues

  • OCTO-DE Platform will answer questions and help the product team resolve issues

How to document that your team has completed the checklist

  1. Choose one of these 2 options:

    • (Preferred) Use the TestRail foundational accessibility testing checklist. The accessibility test cases template is available in TestRail for you to copy into your test plan and includes all the required accessibility checks.
      OR

    • Copy the required and recommended checklists from this doc into a doc in your product folder. Note that this artifact can be used for the Collaboration Cycle staging review.

  2. Link to any open accessibility issues in your staging review request ticket. These issues should be recorded using the 508 accessibility issue template.

How to request help

  • If your team discovers an accessibility issue before the staging review:

    • Use the 508 Accessibility Issue template to create a GitHub/ZenHub ticket.

    • If an issue is not resolved before the staging review, include a link to it in the staging review ticket.

  • For general accessibility questions, post a question in the #accessibility-help channel.

  • For general questions about the Collaboration Cycle, post a question in the #vfs-platform-support channel.

Accessibility issues should be fixed according to the following schedule:

  • Issues with a 508 defect rating of “0” or “1” are launch blockers. These issues must be fixed before your product launches.

  • 508-defect-2 issues should be fixed in 1-2 sprints post-launch

  • 508-defect-3 issues should be fixed in 1-3 sprints

  • 508-defect-4 issues should be considered for fixes or exploration in 2-4 sprints

All defect severities can be reviewed in detail in the defect severity rubric.

Tips to avoid accessibility-related project delays in staging review

Consider accessibility early and often

If you built a house and waited until it was completely built to see if the house’s design violated any housing code regulations, you might have to tear down parts of the house and rebuild to get everything up to code. Waiting until your user flow is designed and built to consider accessibility often requires similar “tear down and rebuild” that can be avoided if you start thinking about how to make sure your design is inclusive of all users from the beginning.

Keep track of your accessibility checks as you work

We require that you verify all required checks were completed using TestRail or the GitHub template before requesting a staging review. However, we suggest that you coordinate with your team throughout your project to determine how you want to keep track of your progress.

Foundational Testing for WCAG2.1

Mobile

Design must account for a minimum width of at least 320px and a minimum height of at least 256px

Finger gestures must able to be used with 1 finger when able. Gestures can still be used with multiple fingers. Gestures that cannot be used with 1 finger will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.

Actions must trigger on touch/mouse up. Actions must be cancellable on touch/mouse down.

Cognitive

Inputs with an HTML label must have a HTML attribute name that matches the label

Status messages (modals, alerts, error messages, etc) should be programmably identifiable for assistive technologies determined through the "role" property

The purpose of each input field collecting information about the user can be programmatically determined when used for the purposes noted in the "Input Purposes for User Interface Components" section of the WCAG 2.1 standards: https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG21/#x7-input-purposes-for-user-interface-components

Color

Color contrast ratio must be a minimum of 3:1 for things like UI components, graphic objects, and focus haloes.

Foundational testing tips

Axe scans in daily development

When: As part of daily development

Who: Frontend engineer

Steps to test

  1. Install the browser plugin for Chrome, Firefox or Edge Chromium.

  2. Right click on the page you want to test and select Inspect.

  3. Select the Axe tab. (see screenshot)

  4. Select Analyze to run the scan, one page at a time.

  5. Verify the issues (if any).

Expected result

Stable code with no violations reported in axe checks.

Definition of done

No violations indicated in axe scan results.

OR

Axe scan results in violations, but those violations are documented in issue ticket(s). Issue tickets are listed as known issues in your staging review request ticket.

Axe scans in end-to-end tests

When: Before requesting a staging review.

Who: Frontend engineers

Note: Having automated accessibility checks in place is a launch requirement for section 508 compliance. Learn more about automated and integrated 508 compliance.

All pages and applications must have axe checks that run on every continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) build. React applications require these tests to be added as part of the end-to-end test suite. Tests should open modal windows, accordions, hidden content, and re-run the axe check for high test coverage.

Steps to test

  1. Read the basic end-to-end test setup document

  2. Add axe checks to all of your end-to-end tests

  3. Run tests on localhost to confirm proper functionality

Expected result

Stable code with no violations reported in end-to-end tests.

Note: hecAxe checks that result in 1 or more violations will break branch builds and prevent merging into the main branch until they are resolved.

Definition of done

No violations indicated in end-to-end tests.

OR

End-to-end tests result in violations, but those violations are documented in issue ticket(s). Issue tickets are listed as known issues in your staging review request ticket.

Color tests

Who: Design, any team member with time to review

When: At a minimum, before staging review. We recommend that you consider color accessibility best practices throughout design and development, particularly if you introduce new colors into the design.

Color contrast

Use Who Can Use to preview your text for contrast and readability.

  • Check color pairings for proper color contrast.

    • Text of 20px or smaller must have a 4.5:1 contrast ratio to its background.

    • Text 20px or larger must have a 3:1 contrast ratio to its background.

  • Pay particular attention to

  • White text on yellow, orange, or red

  • Black text on darker blues or purples

  • Gray text on white or textured backgrounds

Colorblindness

We recommend that you use the Chrome Colorblindly plugin to check for colorblindness issues.

  • Ensure color is not the only means to distinguish links from standard text.

    • Consider underlining links, especially in paragraph blocks.

    • Check that links maintain a 3:1 color contrast ratio if not underlined

    • Consider typefaces, font weight, and iconography as third options. Icons will need semantic guides for screen reader users. Example: a download icon is added to links for downloading documents. The accessible title will need to announce this information.

  • Charts, maps, and tables should convey information without relying on color

  • Do not use descriptions such as "Click the green button" for calls to action

Definition of done

  • Text meets color contrast ratio requirements relative to its background.

  • All links, buttons, icons, and other elements retain their meaning when color blindness filters are enabled.

OR

Unresolved color test issues are documented in issue tickets and listed as known issues in your staging review request ticket.

Related resources

Content resize check

Who: Design or any team member with time to review

When: At a minimum, before staging review. We recommend that you consider content resizing best practices throughout design and development.

Steps to test

  • Set browser width to 1280px

    • In Chrome you can right click on any webpage, and select Inspect from the menu. This will open the Developer Tools console. Drag your browser window narrower or wider until the number in the top right corner of your browser window reads "1280"

    • In Firefox you must turn on rulers before you can accurately resize your browser window. When rulers are enabled, right click on a page and select Inspect Element from the menu. When the Firefox Developer tools are open, click the ruler icon. The ruler is the third icon from the top right of the Developer tools panel.

  • Zoom your browser to 400%, 300% and then 200%

    • Windows: hold down Ctrl and select + until you reach your desired zoom level

    • Mac: hold down Cmd and select + until you reach your desired zoom level

Definition of done

Layouts do not scroll sideways or have content to the edges. (Horizontal scrolling is permitted for content like images, maps, diagrams, presentations, and data tables.)

OR

Unresolved content resize issues are documented in issue tickets and listed as known issues in your staging review request ticket.

Related resources

Pointer Gestures

Who: Frontend engineer

When: As part of daily development

Steps to test

  • Using a mobile device, make sure you can use the full functionality of a feature with only 1 finger to gesture (tapping, swiping, etc.)

Definition of done

All functionality is available when limited to 1 finger to gesture

Related resources

Pointer Cancellation

Who: Frontend engineer

When: As part of daily development

Steps to test

  • Touch/click down on a button/link/feature. The button/link/feature should not trigger.

  • Untouch/click up on a button/link/feature. The button/link/feature should trigger.

Definition of done

Buttons/links/features should only trigger when touch up/click up.

AND

User should be able to cancel triggering a button/link/feature by moving finger/mouse away after touch/click down performing touch/click up

Related resources

Input label and name label check

Who: Frontend engineer

When: As part of daily development

Steps to test

  • Confirm that for any input with an HTML label, the input label and input HTML attribute name match.

Definition of done

Input HTML label and input HTML attribute name are matching

Related resources

Status messages

Who: Frontend engineer

When: As part of daily development

Steps to test

  • Review status message HTML and check if it has the appropriate role for screen reader announcement

Definition of done

The status message will have the correct role attribute

Related resources

Keyboard navigation check

Who: Any team member with time to review

When: At a minimum, prior to your staging review. However, there are a lot of factors to consider when optimizing designs and code for keyboard navigation. We recommend that you learn about developing for keyboard navigation best practices early on to prevent issues.

Keyboard testing instructions

All pages and user flows (forms, data entry, navigation, user interface, etc.) must be navigable using a keyboard.

To test keyboard navigation, TAB to move focus to the next element that can receive keyboard focus. SHIFT+TAB to move focus to the previous element.

  • Confirm that each link, button, form input, checkbox, radio button, select menu, and custom element can receive keyboard focus

  • Confirm that that checkboxes can be checked and unchecked by pressing SPACE when under keyboard focus

  • Confirm that radio buttons can be selected by pressing ARROW_DIRECTION when a radio group is under keyboard focus

  • Confirm that select menus can be opened by pressing SPACE, and an option selected with arrow keys. Select menus should close when user presses ENTER.

  • Confirm that users shouldn't have to press TAB a large number of times to reach elements, or get back to their previous focus. This usually happens when UI is changed like a text block switched to an edit form and back again.

  • Evaluate that the element under focus has a yellow halo around it

Definition of done

There are no keyboard navigation issues navigating pages and user flows.

OR

Unresolved keyboard navigation issues are documented in issue tickets and listed as known issues in your staging review request ticket.

Related resources

Screen reader tests

Who: Any team member with time to review

When: Recommended before your staging review. There is a bit of a learning curve to screen reader testing that comes with experience. If you are new to screen reader testing, don’t hesitate to ask for help early and often.

All happy path user flows or pages must be possible to complete on VA.gov supported browsers with at least 1 screen reader tool to catch difficult or incomplete user actions. This is meant to be a quick pass to catch difficult or incomplete user interactions.

Screen reader testing tool options

Common screen reader errors

  • Buttons or links that do not provide clear understanding of their function.
    Example: An Edit button that doesn’t make it clear to a non-sighted user what will be edited

  • Dynamic content added or removed from a page without announcing a change. Example: Alert boxes, forms with hidden questions, and continue links

  • Overly long explanations

  • Content that is too far removed from an explanation, or with no explanation at all.

  • Heading mistakes:

    • at top of page, then next heading is an <h4>

    • Headings that are nested improperly (Example: <h3> inside an <h4>, for instance)

    • Content that looks like a heading, but is marked up as a <div> or <p>

  • Missing [landmark HTML](https://www.w3.org/TR/wai-aria-practices/examples/landmarks/HTML5.html  or some similar resource? If we are saying that any resource with time to test can do screen reader testing, non-engineer people might not be familiar with this.). This includes banner, navigation, main, aside, footer elements, or divs with role attributes. These help screen reader users navigate through pages.

Definition of done

No issues navigating pages and user flows.

OR

Unresolved screen reader testing issues are documented in issue tickets and listed as known issues in your staging review request ticket.

Related resources

Help and feedback