Assistive Technology Testing
Assistive technology testing verifies a product works correctly with the actual tools people with disabilities use to interact with software — screen readers, switch devices, voice control software, screen magnifiers — going beyond automated scanning to real, hands-on testing with those tools.
Each assistive technology has its own quirks and common usage patterns worth testing explicitly: a screen reader user navigates primarily by headings and landmarks rather than reading top to bottom; a switch device user relies entirely on sequential, predictable focus order since they can't jump directly to an element; a voice control user needs visible, speakable labels matching the actual accessible name of each control.
This kind of testing genuinely can't be fully automated — it requires either someone experienced with the specific assistive technology being tested, or ideally, feedback directly from actual users of that technology, since simulating the real experience convincingly without hands-on practice is genuinely difficult.
