Introduction

The goal of this tutorial is to guide beginners on how to use popular accessibility testing tools to identify and fix issues on their website.

By the end of this tutorial, you will be able to:

• Understand what accessibility testing is and why it's important
• Use popular accessibility testing tools like WAVE, aXe, and Google Lighthouse
• Identify and fix accessibility issues on your website

Prerequisites: Basic knowledge of HTML/CSS and understanding of web accessibility.

Step-by-Step Guide

Understanding Accessibility Testing

Accessibility testing ensures that your website can be used by all individuals, including those with disabilities. By implementing accessibility, you make your website usable for everyone and also improve your site's SEO.

Using WAVE

WAVE is a free and popular web accessibility evaluation tool developed by WebAIM.

1. Visit the WAVE website (https://wave.webaim.org/).
2. Enter the URL of the website you want to test in the input field and press Enter.
3. WAVE will provide a report showing errors, alerts, and features of the page.

Using aXe

aXe is an open-source accessibility testing tool that works right in your web browser.

1. Install the aXe extension for your browser.
2. Open the website you want to test.
3. Open Developer Tools -> aXe tab -> Click "Analyze".
4. aXe will provide a report of accessibility violations found on the page.

Using Google Lighthouse

Google Lighthouse is an open-source tool for improving the quality of web pages.

1. Open the website you want to test.
2. Open Developer Tools -> Lighthouse tab.
3. Click "Generate report".
4. Lighthouse will provide a report including an accessibility score.

Code Examples

Let's see an example of how to fix a common accessibility issue: missing alt text for images.

<!-- Before -->
<img src="image.jpg">

<!-- After -->
<img src="image.jpg" alt="Description of the image">

The alt attribute provides alternative information for an image if a user for some reason cannot view it.

Summary

In this tutorial, you learned about accessibility testing and how to use popular tools like WAVE, aXe, and Google Lighthouse to identify and fix accessibility issues on your website.

For further learning, you can explore more about WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) and ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications).

Practice Exercises

1. Test your website using WAVE and fix at least one issue.
2. Test your website using aXe and fix at least one issue.
3. Generate a Lighthouse report for your website and try to improve your accessibility score.

Remember, practice makes perfect. Keep testing and improving the accessibility of your website.