- We should be mindful of accessibility at all times; an accessible website is better for everyone.
- External accessibility checks are infrequent, and come with a cost.
- As developers, we interact with and consume the projects we build from the point of view of our own abilities. It's not always easy to consider how a web page might be experienced by users with different abilities.
- If the setup instructions are simplified enough, we could run tests with everyone on the team, or even the company, and at regular intervals.
- Persona testing is not a substitute for real world user testing.
- Differently abled users will use a plethora of assistive technology that Chrome and the various extensions mentioned here simply are not a substitute for.
Each persona uses a different set of Chrome extensions to simulate certain conditions, this is what each of them do:
| Extension | Description |
|---|---|
| Chrome Sound Effects | Adds distracting sounds to actions performed in the browser |
| ClaroRead | Allows highlighted speech to be read aloud |
| Clever Mute | Disables all website audio |
| Hands Free for Web | Allows you to control your browser with your voice |
| High Contrast | Applies a high contrast filter to all websites |
| Midnight Lizard | Applies a dark colour scheme to all websites |
| OpenDyslexicFont | Applies a dyslexia friendly font to all websites |
| Screen Reader | A browser based screen reader |
| Stylus | Allows custom stylesheets to be applied to all websites |
| Tampermonkey | Allows custom JS scripts to be applied to all websites |
You just need Chrome. Chromium on Ubuntu seems to not be packaged with the voices required for the screen reader extension, so go for the full fat Chrome if you don't have it already.
- For each persona you'll be working with, create a new profile in Chrome.
- Follow the setup instructions for the persona you'll be working with:
This repo and the documentation within is a condensed version of information the GOV.UK accessibility team has put out on their blog, all relating to accessibility persona testing: