Welcome to our series on the ICT Symposium’s Mobile Site and Native App Accessibility Testing. For the next couple of months we will be posting a couple of times a week! We will be posting a series of articles to help testers and developers determine and improve the accessibility of their mobile websites and apps. All this information is already online in Word format, so if you can’t wait check out our page on Mobile testing. You can check out our page with links to all the published Mobile Site and Native App Methodology articles.
Introduction
The Mobile Site and Native App Testing Methodology was developed by the ICT Accessibility Testing Symposium to create a standard for evaluating the accessibility of mobile websites and apps. The methodology is an amalgamation of accepted mobile accessibility testing standards from around the world, including additional developments from the ICT Accessibility Testing Symposium’s Mobile Sub-Committees. We have developed one methodology for Native Apps and another for Mobile Sites.
WCAG2 success criteria are applicable to mobile sites and native apps, however, not all aspects of mobile site or native apps accessibility are specifically covered by WCAG2. It is the opinion of this committee that merely conforming WCAG2 (or WCAG 2.1) does not provide for a fully accessible experience for users with disabilities.
Please note that this methodology does not include those issues already included in WCAG2, however does include issues identified in WCAG2.1. This guide was written with the intent to clarify the unique needs of users with disabilities who use mobile websites and native apps and to raise the bar for the web development community. This is a work-in-progress, and, as such, we do not make a claim that conforming to these requirements will ensure that your mobile site is fully accessible to all users.
A note on WCAG2.1
The Committee decided that it was important to also include issues added in WCAG2.1 so that testers who were testing against WCAG2 would also benefit from the mobile-related errors published in WCAG2.1. This methodology is more stringent than WCAG2 and WCAG2.1 in some areas, and these are detailed in the Test Cases documents.
A note on WCAG2.2
As WCAG2.2 has only just been released, it is not yet represented in our mobile guidelines, but will definitely be included in our next iteration.
Mobile sites versus native apps
There is a great difference between mobile sites and native apps – native apps utilize a completely different codebase. Therefore, the ICT Accessibility Testing Symposium has decided to separate the native app methodology from the mobile site testing methodology.
A note on hybrid native apps
Hybrid mobile apps consist of both HTML and native code. The HTML may be included as a specific page within an application, or within a specific container. When testing a hybrid app, you will need to use both methodologies.
Testing Methods
The Mobile Site and Native App Testing Methodology tests with real devices.
Testing Methods – Mobile sites
There are four main testing methods in mobile site testing:
- devices (testing on mobile and tablet devices);
- devices with assistive technology (testing on mobile and tablet devices with assistive technologies);
- responsive window (testing on responsively sized window on desktop); and
- desktop.
Testing methods – Native Apps
There are two main testing methods for native app testing:
- devices; and
- devices with assistive technology.
Methodology
Mobile Site Methodology Steps
- Identify devices: we recommend testing with iPhone (Safari), iPad (Safari) and Android (Chrome), but also consider alternative devices such as an Android tablet, especially if this is indicated in analytics or expected usage
- Identify site type and variations: identify whether the site is a desktop site (one view whether on a desktop or mobile device), responsive site (resize as the screen size changes) or m.dot site (a completely separate site for mobile devices). Where the site is a responsive site, identify all the different variations of a page
- Test critical issues: test for any traps in the web site (exit trap, swipe / scroll trap and layer trap)
- Test mobile-specific issues: test cases are broken into the following categories: Alternatives, Display, Actionable items, Navigational aids, Audio and video, Forms and Mobile / desktop interaction
- Test mobile assistive technology and feature support: assistive technology / mobile features.
Native App Methodology Steps
- Identify devices: we recommend testing with iPhone (Safari), iPad (Safari) and Android (Chrome), but also consider alternative devices such as an Android tablet, especially if this is indicated in analytics or expected usage
- Define application functionality: identify the purpose of the native app and detail the required user journeys and test for common elements
- Test critical issues: test for any traps in the native app (exit trap, swipe / scroll trap and layer trap, text-to-speech trap, headset trap)
- Test mobile-specific issues: test cases are broken into the following categories: Alternatives, Display, Actionable items, Navigational aids, Audio and video and Forms
- Test mobile assistive technology and feature support: assistive technology / mobile features
More detailed information on these testing methods and methodology steps will be posted over the next few days.
Up next
Up next for Mobile Site and Native App Accessibility Testing is Step 1: Identifying devices.
Contributors
This document was developed by the ICT Accessibility Testing Symposium Mobile Sub-Committee. Members include: Gian Wild (Co-Chair), Peter McNally (Co-Chair), Brent Davis, Corbb O’Connor, Karen Herr, Kathryn Weber-Hottleman, Kathy Eng, Laura Renfro, Megha Rajopadhye, Mona Rekhi, Morgan Lee Kestner, Rafal Charlampowicz, Ryan Pugh, Steve Sawczyn, Sunish Gupta, Tom Lawton and Chris Law This document was developed by the ICT Accessibility Testing Symposium Native App Sub-Committee. Members include: Gian Wild (Co-Chair), Jennifer Chadwick (Co-Chair), Kathy Eng, Ryan Pugh, Kathryn Weber-Hottleman, Brent Davis, Laura Renfro, Peter McNally, Karen Herr, Steve Sawczyn, Sunish Gupta, Tom Lawton, Sam Bouchat, Rafal Charlampowicz, Damon Wandke, Morgan Lee Kester, Mona Rekhi, Corbb O’Connor and Chris Law.