Having an accessible website in this ever-evolving world is crucial. Website performance is an important factor. It can either make or break the user experience. An accessible website removes brocades for people with disabilities. It makes the virtual world more comprehensive.
Luckily modern web browsers have evolved with more features to support accessibility. They are equipped with powerful developer tools that allow developers and designers to optimize and analyze a website’s performance and accessibility.
Using Chrome DevTools for improving web accessibility is the finest option. Chrome DevTools provides many features that help developers optimize their website’s performance and upgrade web accessibility to ensure a good user experience for everyone, including people with disabilities. Adhering to accessibility testing, Chrome leads to a higher customer retention rate and increased generated revenue.
This article on accessibility testing on Chrome dives into understanding Chrome DevTools, its needs, and benefits. It also discusses web accessibility, its importance, and leveraging Chrome DevTools to improve web accessibility.
Understanding Chrome DevTools
Chrome DevTools is a set of web developer tools. It is built into the Google Chrome browser that lets the developers edit pages and diagnose problems rapidly, thus helping to build better websites. It is a powerful toolkit that enables developers to inspect, debug, and edit code and measure the pages’ performance.
Why do developers need Chrome DevTools?
Chrome DevTools provides a plethora of options that make it undeniable for developers. Some features of Chrome DevTools are listed below:
- Chrome DevTools gives developers powerful tools for inspecting and editing the code. It is easier to find errors and fix any errors in the code.
- DevTools lets developers measure the performance of their pages. They can use the performance panel to find and fix obstructs in the code and see how pages perform on different browsers and devices.
- DevTools lets developers simulate different types of browsers and devices. With Device Mode, developers can test their page on various devices and see how it works. The Browser Mode also lets developers simulate different versions of browsers. This ensures that their page functions correctly and looks good in all browsers.
- Chrome DevTools has a Network Throttling feature that helps developers strangle network speed to imitate different connection speeds. Developers can test how their page performs on slow connections with Network Throttling.
Benefits of Chrome DevTools
Chrome DevTools bring many advantages that can enhance web accessibility for users. They lend a hand in creating an inclusive, comprehensive, and user-friendly web experience. Let’s dive into the advantages of using the DevTools:
Unmatched efficiency- Adopting these tools into the workflow soars productivity. These tools perform automated checks and reduce time-consuming, manual accessibility audits. The tools allow developers to catch potential issues early, saving hours of debugging.
Universal accessibility- The tools aid in creating a universally accessible web experience. They ensure that the web pages are accessible to everyone with usability.
Usability enhancement- Improving web accessibility makes the website more usable for everyone. The DevTools help to enhance readability, navigation, and UX for all users.
SEO advantages- A more accessible site gives an edge in terms of SEO. Web accessibility improvements can help with faster page loads, easier navigation, and more readable content.
Ensuring compliance- Following accessibility guidelines like ADA is not only the right thing to do but can also have legal implications. Chrome’s Accessibility DevTools helps users verify their compliance with these guidelines, keeping factors like hefty penalties at bay and lawsuits.
Sections of Chrome DevTools
To start with DevTools, developers first need to open the Chrome browser and go to the URL they want to inspect. For the next step right-click on any element on that page and select ‘Inspect Element’. This opens up the DevTools panel. The DevTools panel is divided into different sections:
- The Elements panel
The Elements panel lets developers inspect and edit the CSS and HTML of the page. With the Elements panel, developers can make changes to the code and see those changes reflected on the page.
- The Sources panel
The Sources panel lets developers view and edit their page’s JavaScript and CSS code. With the Sources panel, developers can set breakpoints, step through code, and see the values of variables.
- The Network panel
The Network panel lets developers see how their page is loading. With the Network panel, developers can see what resources are being loaded and how long each resource takes to load.
- The Performance panel
The performance panel lets developers see how quickly their page is loading and rendering. It allows developers to find bottlenecks in their code and optimize their pages for better performance.
- The Console panel
The Control panel lets developers run JavaScript code on their pages. It also helps to test code snippets or debug the code.
- The Application panel
The Application panel lets developers inspect the application state of the page. They can also view and edit localStorage, cookies, and sessionStorage.
- The Memory panel
The Memory panel lets developers see how much memory their page is using. Developers can track down memory leaks and optimize their code for better memory usage.
What is web accessibility?
The ability of a website to be accessible to people with disabilities is called web accessibility. It is the practice of ensuring that no brocade prevents the interaction of people with physical disabilities with the web. Disabilities may include visual, hearing, neurological, cognitive, and motor problems.
There are many assistive technology tools available to help specially-abled people. These technology tools make it easier for them to navigate and interact with a website. These assistive tools involve alternative keyboards, screen readers, eye-tracking tools, screen magnifiers, etc. After getting a brief idea about web accessibility let us know why it is important.
Why is web accessibility important?
Many technologies are available to remove the barriers for disabled people to digital access. These technologies are important as everyone should enjoy access to information. These benefits ensure that everyone can use the internet and have a good web experience.
Having a good accessibility strategy also has business benefits. Accessibility is a component of design and development. It touches almost every element of the web’s creation. Accessible websites can have better search results, increased audience reach, reduced maintenance costs, and demonstrate corporate social responsibility. Therefore, having a well-designed and accessible website does not just make the website accessible to those with abilities but improves the user experience for everyone.
Leveraging Chrome DevTools to improve web accessibility
Leveraging the different accessibility-related features in Chrome DevTools helps to improve web accessibility. Some of the accessibility-related features in Chrome DevTools are mentioned below:
Lighthouse Audits panel- The Lighthouse Audits panel is powered by aXe. It is a good tool for examining and improving web accessibility. The audit report is informative. It states what failed, and why it failed and provides links to resources to help the user learn more.
Element inspector- The inspect element feature in DevTools gives users access to a tooltip with accessibility features at a glance. It shows up whenever users inspect an element on a web page. It displays the following properties:
- Contrast ratio- Contrast ratio measures the difference in brightness between the background and foreground colour of the text.
- Role- Role displays the function of the element. It shows ‘generic’ for elements like <span> and <div> without semantic meaning.
- Name-Name displays the visible text.
- Keyboard-focusable- Keyboard-focusable shows if users can focus on an element using the keyboard. A grey colour shows that an element is not keyboard-focusable. The green colour shows that the element is keyboard-focusable.
Contrast ratio- This feature of Chrome DevTools measures the difference in brightness between the foreground and background colour of the content on the web page. This feature is helpful when choosing the colour scheme of web pages during the design phase. Using the colour picker helps to choose colours that meet the standard.
Accessibility pane- The accessibility pane provides insight into the ARIA attributes, accessibility tree, and computed accessibility properties of DOM nodes. The accessibility pane is often hidden, so to access it, users need to open the command menu to open DevTools, Command+Shift+P on Mac, or Control+Shift+P on Linux and Windows. The command menu is an autocomplete search field.
Emulating colour preferences- Using DevTools can help developers simulate how users perceive the web pages. The options available are light, dark, and no preference. Dark mode helps the eyes by exposing them to less light. To access this feature developers need to open DevTools and press Control+Shift+P on Windows and Linux, or Command+Shift+P on Mac to open the command menu. Then, search and select Show Rendering to empower the rendering tab. Navigate to the Emulate Vision Deficiencies pane and choose from the options available.
Leveraging LambdaTest to perform accessibility testing
Accessibility testing is used to check websites to ensure that content is accessible. LambdaTest lets testers test the accessibility of websites using Screen Reader and Speech Viewer using Non-visual Desktop Access. LambdaTest accessibility DevTools is a powerful tool. It is built for easy development by developers and testing of accessible web applications.
LambdaTest is an AI-powered test execution platform used for manual and automated testing of web and mobile applications. This platform allows testers to perform real-time and automation testing by providing access to more than 3000 environments, real mobile devices, and browsers online.
LambdaTest integrates into the workflow with all needed tools and functionalities to detect, fix, and ensure that the web project has maintained accessible standards. It is incorporated to ensure that the website meets the accessibility needs.
It allows for accessibility testing to test web applications to identify and resolve potential issues comprehensively, WGAC compliance to ensure that the website complies with the WGAC to cater to users with disabilities, automation testing to streamline the testing process, cross-browser testing to test the website’s accessibility across different browsers, element inspection to inspect individual elements, and accessibility standards to stay up-to-the-minute with the latest accessibility standards.
Conclusion
Web developer tooling to improve accessibility has improved rapidly over the years. Chrome DevTools has evolved with more features that support the accessibility of the web page. It provides a robust framework for promoting an inclusive and accessible web experience.
With careful understanding and execution, the tools can significantly assist web developers in ensuring a seamless user experience. This article explored the features that developers can leverage to improve website accessibility.
Hope this article helps you with the knowledge of improving web accessibility with the help of Chrome DevTools.