Check that the page has a title

Good page titles are particularly important for orientation — to help people know where they are and move between pages open in their browser. The first thing screen readers say when the user goes to a different web page is the page title.

1. Hover your mouse over the browser tab to display the entire page title.
2. Check that there is a title that adequately and briefly describes the content of the page.
3. Check that the title is different from other pages on the website, and adequately distinguishes the page from other web pages.

Check for Captions or Transcripts

If you have media (video, audio, animated GIF, et cetera) on your site, check for captions, transcripts, and other possible alternatives. Wherever you have media:

1. Are there captions on the video directly or is there a control in the player that turns on/ off captions?
2. Is there an alternative version with audio description or a control in the player that turns on/ off audio description?
3. For videos with a lot of dialog, is there a text transcript on the page or link close to the video player that goes to a transcript?
4. Does media blink or flash three times or more in any one second period?
5. For any animation or video that autoplays and exceeds 5 seconds in length, is there a mechanism to pause it?

Check Form Field Labels

Form field should have a visual label that is programically associated with it.

1. When you click on the label next to a text input or textarea, does the cursor go into the field?
2. When you click on the label next to a radio button or checkbox does that select the adjacent option?
3. When you click on the label next to a SELECT element, does that place focus on the SELECT?
4. In rare cases, a visual label may be ommitted (e.g. on a search form). Inspect the field; does it have a hidden associated label (sr-only), aria-label, or aria-labelledby?

Unplug your mouse and/or turn off your trackpad

Unplug your mouse and/ or turn off your track pad. This would require, naturally, that you use only your keyboard to interact with the site. The test process is simple: Interact with the site using only the keyboard. The ‘Tab’ key will allow you to traverse forward in the tab order. Activating the ‘Shift’ and ‘Tab’ keys at the same time will traverse backwards in the tab order. Pressing ‘Enter’ will follow links, and so on.

1. Can you interact with all controls, links, and menus using only the keyboard?
2. Can you see what item has focus at all times?
3. Does the visual focus order match the intended interaction order?

Zoom Text Only to 200%

Ensure that visually rendered text, including text-based controls (text characters that have been displayed so that they can be seen can be scaled successfully so that it can be read directly by people with mild visual disabilities, without requiring the use of assistive technology such as a screen magnifier. Users may benefit from scaling all content on the Web page, but text is most critical.

1. Press the Alt key to temporarily bring up the traditional Firefox menus.
2. On the menu at the top, click View, then go to Zoom.
3. Select Zoom Text Only.
4. Zoom to 200%.
5. Is everything still available and functional?

Turn on High Contrast Mode

How to enable and disable High-Contrast Mode (opens in new tab)

In the Windows operating system, High Contrast Mode allows Low Vision users, users with light sensitivity, and sometimes users with Dyslexia a convenient means of improving their ability to successfully use the computer. Windows High Contrast Mode changes the foreground and background colors to create higher contrast. Colors on the site are essentially removed entirely and replaced with user specified settings. Typically, this means all background is black and all foreground text is a significantly brighter color such as white or yellow (users can customize this).

With High Contrast Mode turned on, interact with the site.

1. Background images will disappear. Did important content disappear or did any controls, icons, or other actionable elements disappear?
2. Is it now difficult to understand things like error messages or other previously-visual cues?
3. Is content still displayed in a reasonable, easy to understand order?
4. Does any color, including background color, remain?