Platform and testing basics

The platform lets you test for accessibility, review results, and manage your remediation all in one place. Below, we outline the basics you need to know to get started.

Overview of the platform

• The platform contains your organization, which holds one or more workspaces.
• Inside workspaces, there are websites/apps and projects.
• Websites/apps are the assets you want to make accessible, like websites, apps, or different environments.
• Projects are custom remediation buckets that you create.
• We test websites/apps against accessibility criteria called rules. Potential rule violations are called findings.
• Scans organize findings under the rule they violate, whereas manual evaluations present each finding individually.
• Findings are converted into tasks for your team. Tasks are organized by project.

Platform basics

Workspaces

Workspaces hold all accessibility testing and remediation data. If you belong to more than one workspace, you can switch between them using the dropdown in the top-level navigation. For a high-level view of your workspace, go to the Portfolio page.

Organization administrators, Workspace users, and Workspace administrators have access to data and functionality at the workspace level. This includes all the websites/apps and projects within a workspace, but only Organization and Workspace administrators can do administrative tasks like adding users. Learn more about user groups. 

Websites/apps

Websites/apps are the assets you want to make accessible, like websites, apps, or different environments. You can have multiple websites/apps in a workspace.

If your team member doesn’t need access to an entire work space, you can add them as Website/app users. Website/app users have testing functionalities and can only access the websites/apps they’re added to. Learn more about user groups.

To run a scan or see info for a specific website/app, select that property from the Portfolio page. You can find the most recent accessibility stats for a digital property on the Overview page.

Projects and tasks

Projects are buckets for remediation tasks. Once you’ve collected data from testing, you can create a project, convert findings into tasks, and start fixing issues across your workspace. Follow the progress of your projects from the Projects page.

Accessibility testing basics

Scanning

Scanning is accessibility testing done by computer automation. The automation checks a website’s code and produces a list of potential accessibility issues that need to be reviewed.

Scanning is quick and thorough, but it has some limitations. It only works on web-based digital properties, so it can’t scan apps or other non-web assets. It can also only capture code-level accessibility issues–you’ll need manual testing to capture the rest.

In the platform, go to Scans to run a new scan or check scan results.

Manual testing

Manual testing is accessibility testing done by real people. During manual testing, our testing team uses assistive technology like screen readers to uncover accessibility issues. Manual testing best represents how people with disabilities can use your website/app.

Manual testing typically takes several weeks to complete but is extremely thorough. Once you’re notified that manual testing is complete, head to the Evaluations page to check your results.

Rules

Rules are accessibility requirements for websites/apps. They’re created based on success criteria from the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).

Rules tell you what elements of your website/app might create accessibility issues and guide you toward fixing them.

In the platform, we scan and evaluate websites/apps against rules to find those potential accessibility issues. Each violation of a rule is called a finding.

Findings

Findings are instances where rules are violated. The same rule can be violated more than once on a website/app, so you can have multiple findings from the same rule. Once you have findings, you can start your remediation.

Scan results list each finding under the violated rule. Select the rule on the Scan results page to get to the list of findings.

Manual test results list each finding on its own and note the instances and frequency. Select the finding ID on the Evaluations page to learn more about each finding.

What's next?

To keep learning about the platform, run your first scan.

If you want to learn more about digital accessibility, head to the Access Academy for detailed courses.