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Web Accessibility Testing with QF-Test

By June 28, 2025, business websites within the EU must be accessible. But what does accessibility mean in a web context? Who is affected and what do website operators need to be aware of? And above all: How can QF-Test support you in meeting the legal requirements?

In this webinar, we will give a brief introduction to web accessibility and present the new accessibility testing features of QF-Test.

Material: Presentation « Accessibility testing »

Abridged Transcript

Welcome to this special webinar about accessibility testing with QF-Test. My name is Daniel Rieth, a junior software developer at Quality First Software, and my co-moderator, Sofya Leventhal – a fellow software developer – will be keeping an eye on the chat during this event. We are both involved in the accessibility testing project at Quality First Software. Today, I will present the accessibility testing features we’ve implemented.

Agenda

  • Basics of accessibility and accessibility laws
  • Overview of QF-Test and its accessibility testing features
  • Live demo of accessibility testing
  • Notes and frequently asked questions

What Is Accessibility?

Accessibility is about removing barriers for people with disabilities. Originally discussed in contexts such as public transportation, the focus has shifted to the digital world as more of our activities move online.

Web Accessibility

The W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) defines web accessibility as ensuring that, despite a disability, everyone can perceive, understand, navigate, and interact with the web. There are multiple kinds of disabilities that can affect web interactions:

  • Visual disabilities: Includes color blindness, low vision, and blindness. Screen readers (integrated into iOS, Windows, Android, or available as third-party programs like Jaws and NVDA) help users interact with digital content.
  • Hearing disabilities: Users who are hard of hearing or deaf may require subtitles or sign language interpretation for multimedia.
  • Cognitive disabilities: Poor content structure or unintuitive controls can hinder understanding and navigation.
  • Physical disabilities: Issues with control movements (e.g., drag-and-drop, pinch-to-zoom) may require simplified interactions.

It is essential for developers to offer text alternatives for graphics and images, provide accessible multimedia content, and ensure that controls are easy to use.

Why Make Websites Accessible?

There are several motivations, including:

  • Humanistic: Enabling everyone to participate fully.
  • Economic: Increasing your reach and customer base.
  • User experience: Accessible websites tend to be more user-friendly and better structured.
  • Legal compliance: In Europe (and other regions), laws require websites to be accessible to avoid penalties.

Accessibility Laws and Regulations

European Accessibility Act (EAA)

The EAA implements the resolutions of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. It mandates that products and services (including online and digital offerings) be accessible. As an EU directive, it is transposed into national laws. For example:

  • German implementation – BFSG: A law to strengthen accessibility that goes into effect at the end of June. It affects most B2C websites and digital communication tools. Similar laws or guidelines exist in other regions, like the American with Disabilities Act (ADA) in the United States, though the specific requirements may vary.

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)

WCAG provides a set of guidelines to make web content accessible. They are structured around four principles:

  • Perceivable: Content must be presentable to users in ways they can perceive.
  • Operable: User interface components and navigation must be operable.
  • Understandable: Information and operation of the user interface must be understandable.
  • Robust: Content must be robust enough to be interpreted reliably by various user agents, including assistive technologies.

Each guideline also comes with levels of conformance:

  • Level A: Minimum accessibility features; without these, some users may find the site unusable.
  • Level AA: Addresses the biggest and most common barriers.
  • Level AAA: The highest level, exceeding legal requirements.

Overview of QF-Test

QF-Test provides an automated UI testing solution with multiple ways to simulate user interactions, record sessions, and run extensive test suites. It supports different technologies with a special focus on web applications.

Accessibility Testing Features

To test accessibility using QF-Test, there are two primary approaches:

  1. Integration with an existing accessibility library: We integrated the open-source library axe core, which is developed by experts in web content accessibility guidelines. We enhanced its logging and reporting capabilities to make its results more user-friendly.
  2. QF-Test’s native accessibility checks: We implemented additional procedures for testing aspects like color contrast for graphics—not just text. This allows us to check images (JPEG, PNG, SVG) for proper contrast and verify that alternative texts are provided.

QF-Test version 9.0 (or higher) is required to use these features. You can try these features with a free trial license before committing to a full purchase.

Live Demo Walkthrough

Starting with the Quick Start Wizard

  • Click the wand icon in QF-Test to open the Quick Start Wizard.
  • Select the accessibility testing module.
  • Define the URL of the website to test (in our demo, we use a demo website intentionally filled with accessibility errors).
  • Choose which accessibility tests to run—either the comprehensive axe tests or specific tests like the color contrast check.

Running an Accessibility Test

1. Setup and execution

The test setup includes a procedure that checks the entire website (or a defined scope) for errors based on selected rules, such as color contrast checks for text.

2. Logging and screenshots

During the test run, QF-Test logs details, takes screenshots of problematic elements, and highlights errors (e.g., elements with a red border indicating contrast issues).

3. Error details

Each error message includes:

  • The rule ID (e.g., for color contrast or missing alternative text)
  • An impact rating (ranging from critical to minor)
  • The faulty element’s identification details (XPath or CSS selector)
  • A descriptive error message with tips for remediation

4. Remedial actions

For example, one error might indicate that light green text on a white background doesn’t meet contrast requirements (minimum 4.5:1 ratio). Changing the text color from light green to black can resolve the error.

Reporting

  • QF-Test can generate detailed reports that include screenshots, logs, and all error messages.
  • These reports provide a quick overview for developers and non-certified QF-Test users, summarizing successful and failed checks.

Advanced Configuration

QF-Test offers extensive configuration options:

  • Rule exclusions: Skip checks for certain rules if you are confident they are not an issue.
  • Scope definition: Limit checks to specific parts of a page using a QF-Test ID or a smart selector.
  • Logging options: Customize how many screenshots are taken and how errors are grouped or reported.

For example, you can configure checks to focus on specific elements (such as icons represented by IMG tags) by defining custom generic classes and adjusting the scope within the test parameters.

Presentation Notes and Closing Remarks

During the live demo, we observed that even if all automatic tests run successfully, it does not guarantee full accessibility compliance. Some guidelines—such as ensuring meaningful titles or alternative texts—require human judgment. While automation can catch up to roughly 75% of issues, manual review remains essential.

Future improvements planned for QF-Test include:

  • Additional checks for focus visibility when elements are activated.
  • Extending accessibility testing support beyond web applications to desktop software.

Q&A and Final Thoughts

Thank you for joining this webinar on accessibility testing with QF-Test. We hope that the demonstration and walkthrough have provided valuable insights into how to implement and benefit from these accessibility features.

Happy testing, and let’s make the web accessible for everyone!