Conduct Accessibility and Usability Testing

Best Practices for Usability and Accessibility Testing

When conducting accessibility and usability testing of digital content (such as websites, Google Suites, and PDFs), it’s important to ensure the involvement of visual considerations and structural considerations. The Office of Information Technology (OIT) has a Digital Accessibility Training, which is a great resource that covers foundational digital accessibility concepts for most content authoring platforms. Having a strong understanding of digital accessibility eases the validation process during the testing phase.

The following are resources that would best support accessible practices in different types of digital mediums with the inclusion of testing resources.

Websites

Accessible Digital Design Concepts contain help articles for creating and maintaining more accessible public-facing digital resources at PSU.

Google Suites

In addition to reviewing the checkpoints in Google’s overarching Help article for Making Your Document or Presentation More Accessible, you can review our article on Accessibility for Google Workspace which details accessibility checkpoints for each Google Workspace.

PDFs

Non-HTML content—such as documents, presentations, or forms—is often created and then published as portable document files (PDFs) without accessibility in mind. When reviewing PDF accessibility, please consider the following resources:

Accessibility for Non-HTML Content

• Creating Accessible Documents and Forms

• Validating PDF Accessibility in Adobe Acrobat Pro

• Remediating Inaccessible Documents and Forms

• Repairing Inaccessible PDFs in Adobe Acrobat Pro

• Reporting External PDF Accessibility Issues

Usability and Accessibility Testing Resources

• NVDA Keyboard Shortcuts by Deque details the following:

  • The basics of NVDA’s keyboard shortcuts

  • Reading text shortcuts

  • Table shortcuts

  • Form shortcuts

  • Other commands

• Digital Accessibility Validation by OIT details the following:

  • Digital Accessibility Checklists

  • Automated Accessibility Evaluation Tools

  • Manual Testing With Adaptive Technology

  • Color Contrast Evaluation Tools

If you have any additional questions regarding digital accessibility for public-facing digital resources at PSU, please email help-accessibility@pdx.edu or submit a Digital Accessibility Support ticket.