Google Lighthouse offers great auditing tools right in the Chrome web browser. These audits use automated testing to surface issues related to performance, SEO, and accessibility. Each audit provides a score for the page and a list of issues found during the testing.
While Lighthouse scores are a great start when it comes to accessibility testing, they fall short as a comprehensive solution for the same reason as similar testing tools. Automated testing only accounts for about 30-40% of WCAG issues and it can’t completely test any criteria.
Here are a few critical accessibility issues Lighthouse can’t accurately check for:
- Meaningful alt text on images
- Use of color to convey meaning
- Keyboard navigation traps
- Proper usage of ARIA attributes (e.g. aria-hidden=”true”)
- Accurate media captions for video
Automated testing can save a lot of time when testing for accessibility, but it’s not a replacement for manual testing based on the WCAG standards. Manual testing is the only way to ensure a website is fully compliant with WCAG. The issues listed above are not difficult to test for with a little guidance, but they do require human reason to identify and resolve.
If you need a little help getting started with manual testing, my Rapid Accessibility Audit may be a good fit. It includes a manual assessment of a webpage, summary report of findings, and a screen recording to explain specific issues in detail.
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