An Accessibility Evaluation is a review of a piece of software, a website, or a body of content against a set of accessibility guidelines, documenting potential barriers to access and providing guidance on how to correct them.

Pearson’s Accessibility Quality Assurance Team follows the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Website Accessibility Conformance Evaluation Methodology to conduct semi-automated and manual testing for conformance to the W3C’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) .

• Our semi-automated testing process uses a range of free automated Testing Tools that efficiently scan pages to find code level issues that impact accessibility.
• Assistive Technology Applications certification, obtained through California State University-Northridge
• Most automated and semi-automated scanning software covers only 20%-30% of WCAG Success Criteria.
• The WCAG 2.1 update has increased the importance of conducting manual accessibility reviews and testing with assistive technology to ensure full conformance.
• Our testing process includes manual test cases conducted in a paired review testing model. This model pairs native users of blindness technologies with a review partner.

Conducting internal testing during initial development cycles is highly recommended. Addressing accessibility early reduces the overall time and cost of building accessible products and content.

Accessibility Evaluations also include an accessible design review. This review is conducted by a team of accessibility professionals, some of whom are native users of assistive technology. This review focuses on ways to make it easier for people with disabilities to efficiently use a product. Due to the complexity of many user interface designs, it may take people with disabilities longer to interact with digital content. This is largely due to the fact that complex designs require users to expend significant effort in navigation, scrolling, panning and cognitive processing, all of which may negatively impact the usability for all users. The accessible design review provides suggestions on how to streamline the presentation of content, menu systems, icons, and other product elements so that all users, including users with disabilities, can expend less cognitive and physical effort to use the product.

In the software development lifecycle, conducting Accessibility Quality Assurance Testing falls under non-functional testing. Other examples of non-functional testing are Performance or Security testing.

Accessibility Testing should be added to the Test Plan and considered to be a base requirement prior to release of web site content, software applications, and other products used by our clients.

The Accessibility Quality Assurance Team is in place to offer different levels of support that can meet each team where they are with respect to knowledge of creating accessible digital content.

Full Accessibility Evaluations

For teams that are new to accessibility, the Accessibility Quality Assurance Team can support full accessibility conformance testing against international accessibility guidelines. This testing will be conducted based on a Test Plan developed in partnership with each Assessment Solutions Team. The outcome of the testing will include a comprehensive Accessibility Issues Report (AIR). The AIR will document each specific failure to meet an accessibility guideline, provide a recommended solution for fixing the issue, as well as a summary of the overall accessibility of the product or component evaluated.

Our team will meet with stakeholders to review the completed AIR and discuss how to prioritize the resolution of accessibility issues. We will also work with stakeholders on a test plan for retesting accessibility fixes in a patch or future release.

Partial Accessibility Evaluations

For teams that have more experience with accessibility, the Accessibility Quality Assurance Team can supplement the automated and manual accessibility testing completed by the Assessment Solutions Team with additional manual testing or native user testing with a wider set of assistive technology.

Ad Hoc Accessibility Testing

Looking for the most accessible media player or calendar widget? Need to test a specific modal, control, or interface with assistive technology? We can help. The Accessibility Quality Assurance Team can support ad hoc testing needs and accessibility technical discovery.

Accessibility Evaluations of Content

Native User Test Form Reviews

Accessible education and assessment materials are only possible if the content displayed within a web page or piece of software is also encoded to take advantage of all available accessibility features. The Accessibility Quality Assurance Team can review test forms that are designed to be accessed by users who are blind. Our Native User Form Review process pairs a native user of screen reading and refreshable braille technology with a sighted user. The review is designed to identify any potential access barriers within the assessment content and recommend how to fix them.

Content Accessibility Reviews

Authoring accessible content requires a knowledge of accessibility guidelines and how to apply them. The Accessibility Quality Assurance Team can help content authors better understand how to create accessible digital content by reviewing style guides, item libraries, review checklists, and item writer training resources to verify that accessible content design is supported through all stages of the process.

Our team can conduct a review of a subset of items within the assessment delivery system in advance of creating full test forms and provide feedback on how to globally address identified barriers to access.