Page Accessibility Labs Employs Visually Impaired Users to Test Website Accessibility

Page Accessibility Labs (PAL) have begun to offer website accessibility testing services to blind and visually impaired test specialists. The experience and expertise of the visually impaired test specialists in using assistive technologies will ensure a convenient website for visually impaired users.

Assistive technologies (special hardware and/or software) are a must for visually impaired users to access the Internet. The screen readers or Braille output devices are the most common. In both cases, the experience is quite different from that of a sighted user.

The advantage of using visually impaired testers over sighted testers is that the former are more experienced in using assistive technologies in their daily Web usage, since they totally depend on it. Sighted testers, however, may not be able to recognize or recommend appropriate design elements and techniques that make a website usable and even convenient for impaired users. 

The checklist created by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is normally accepted as the minimum requirement for website accessibility and offers legal protection against litigation.

The partially or totally visually impaired test specialists that PAL employs have expertise in Web design or assistive technologies design. The accessibility testing firms, on the other hand, primarily rely on automated software and sighted accessibility specialists to ensure clients’ websites are “W3C Compliant.”

In general, website accessibility is intended to help visually impaired users as well as people with various disabilities such a hearing impairment, motor control problems and cognitive disorders. PAL’s accessibility testing currently includes the full range of issues covered by the W3C guidelines.