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Test cases
Accessibility test cases, written as tests rather than criteria references
Twenty eight cases covering keyboard only completion, focus visibility and order, modal focus trapping, programmatic labels, announced errors and live regions, contrast for text and non text elements, alternative text, reflow at 320 pixels, 200 per cent zoom, target size, dragging alternatives, time limits and reduced motion.
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28 worked examples
Complete every primary task using only a keyboard
TypeAccessibilityPriorityHigh- Test data
- Each core journey driven by tab, shift tab, enter, space and arrow keys
- Expected result
- Every task completes with no mouse. A control reachable only by pointer makes the task impossible rather than inconvenient, which is why this case is first.
Keep focus visible at all times
TypeAccessibilityPriorityHigh- Test data
- Tab through every interactive element, including over images and coloured backgrounds
- Expected result
- Focus indicator is always visible with sufficient contrast against its background, and is never removed by a style rule that suppresses the default outline.
Follow a logical focus order
TypeAccessibilityPriorityHigh- Test data
- Tab through a page whose visual layout differs from its source order
- Expected result
- Focus follows the visual reading order, and no positive tab index is used to force a sequence that then breaks when the layout changes.
Trap and restore focus in a modal dialogue
TypeAccessibilityPriorityHigh- Test data
- Open a dialogue, tab past its last control, close with escape
- Expected result
- Focus moves into the dialogue on open, cycles within it, escape closes it, and focus returns to the control that opened it rather than to the top of the page.
Prevent interaction with content behind a modal
TypeAccessibilityPriorityHigh- Test data
- With a dialogue open, tab and use a screen reader to explore the page behind it
- Expected result
- Background content is neither focusable nor announced, so a screen reader user is not reading a page they cannot interact with.
Provide a working skip link
TypeAccessibilityPriorityMedium- Test data
- Tab once from page load, activate the skip link
- Expected result
- Link becomes visible on focus and moves focus to the main content, rather than only moving the scroll position while focus stays in the header.
Label every form field programmatically
TypeAccessibilityPriorityHigh- Test data
- Every input, select, checkbox, radio group and file control
- Expected result
- Each has an associated label announced on focus. A placeholder is not a label, and it disappears on entry leaving no accessible name.
Announce validation errors and link them to their field
TypeAccessibilityPriorityHigh- Test data
- Submit a form with three failures using a screen reader
- Expected result
- Errors are announced, each is programmatically associated with its field, and focus moves to the first failure rather than the user being left to hunt.
Identify required fields without relying on colour
TypeAccessibilityPriorityHigh- Test data
- A form marking required fields visually
- Expected result
- Requirement is conveyed in text or programmatically as well as visually, so it is available to a screen reader and to a colour blind user.
Announce dynamic content changes
TypeAccessibilityPriorityHigh- Test data
- A search updating results, a toast notification, and a loading state completing
- Expected result
- Each is announced through a live region at an appropriate urgency, because a visual only update is invisible to a screen reader user.
Announce the state of a toggle or expandable control
TypeAccessibilityPriorityHigh- Test data
- An accordion, a disclosure, a switch and a sort control
- Expected result
- Expanded, collapsed, pressed and sort state are exposed programmatically and update when they change, rather than being conveyed by an icon alone.
Meet contrast requirements for text
TypeAccessibilityPriorityHigh- Test data
- Body text, large text, placeholder text, disabled text and text over an image
- Expected result
- Body text meets 4.5 to 1 and large text 3 to 1. Placeholder and helper text are frequent failures because they are deliberately lightened.
Meet contrast requirements for non text elements
TypeAccessibilityPriorityHigh- Test data
- Input borders, icon only buttons, focus indicators, chart series and toggle states
- Expected result
- Each meets 3 to 1 against adjacent colours, so a field boundary or an icon control remains perceivable.
Convey information without relying on colour alone
TypeAccessibilityPriorityHigh- Test data
- A status column, a required field marker, a chart legend and an error state
- Expected result
- Each carries a text label, icon or pattern in addition to colour, verified by viewing the page in greyscale.
Provide meaningful alternative text
TypeAccessibilityPriorityHigh- Test data
- An informative image, a decorative image, an icon button, a chart and an image containing text
- Expected result
- Informative images describe their purpose, decorative ones are hidden from assistive technology, and a chart offers its data as text or a table.
Give links and buttons a purpose clear from their name
TypeAccessibilityPriorityHigh- Test data
- Several links reading read more and a row of icon only actions
- Expected result
- Each has a distinct accessible name identifying its target or action, since a screen reader user often navigates by a list of links out of context.
Use headings to describe the real structure
TypeAccessibilityPriorityMedium- Test data
- Every page template reviewed by its heading outline
- Expected result
- One h1 per page, no skipped levels, and headings used for structure rather than chosen for their font size.
Mark up data tables so relationships are announced
TypeAccessibilityPriorityHigh- Test data
- A data table with row and column headers, and a layout grid
- Expected result
- Headers are associated with their cells so a value is announced with its context, and a layout only grid is not announced as a data table.
Reflow at 320 pixels without two dimensional scrolling
TypeAccessibilityPriorityHigh- Test data
- Every page at a 320 pixel viewport width
- Expected result
- Content reflows into one column with no horizontal page scroll. A wide table scrolls inside its own container rather than forcing the body sideways.
Remain usable at 200 per cent zoom and with resized text
TypeAccessibilityPriorityHigh- Test data
- 200 per cent browser zoom, then text size increased independently
- Expected result
- Nothing is clipped, overlapped or cut off, and no content becomes unreachable. Fixed pixel heights on text containers are the usual cause of failure.
Support both device orientations
TypeAccessibilityPriorityMedium- Test data
- Each screen in portrait and landscape on a tablet and a phone
- Expected result
- Both orientations work unless one is essential to the task, and rotating does not lose entered form values.
Meet the minimum target size for interactive controls
TypeAccessibilityPriorityMedium- Test data
- Icon buttons, close controls, table row actions and closely spaced links
- Expected result
- Each meets the minimum target size or has sufficient spacing, so adjacent controls cannot be activated by mistake.
Offer an alternative to a dragging action
TypeAccessibilityPriorityMedium- Test data
- A drag and drop reorder, a slider and a swipe to delete
- Expected result
- Each has a single pointer or keyboard alternative, because a dragging motion cannot be performed by many users.
Keep focused content clear of overlays
TypeAccessibilityPriorityMedium- Test data
- Tab to fields near a sticky header, a cookie banner and a support widget
- Expected result
- The focused control is never fully hidden behind a fixed element, which is a common failure on long forms with sticky headers.
Let the user control time limits
TypeAccessibilityPriorityHigh- Test data
- A session timeout, a carousel and an auto dismissing notification
- Expected result
- Limits can be extended or turned off, a carousel can be paused, and a notification does not disappear before it can be read.
Respect a reduced motion preference
TypeAccessibilityPriorityMedium- Test data
- Reduced motion enabled at system level with animations and parallax present
- Expected result
- Non essential animation is removed or reduced, and nothing flashes more than three times a second under any setting.
Declare the page language and any changes within it
TypeAccessibilityPriorityMedium- Test data
- A page in one language containing a passage in another
- Expected result
- Page language is declared and the inline passage is marked, so a screen reader pronounces each with the correct voice.
Verify with an actual screen reader on each platform
TypeAccessibilityPriorityHigh- Test data
- One core journey completed with a desktop screen reader and one on a mobile device
- Expected result
- Journey completes on both. An automated scan finds roughly a third of issues, so this case is what makes the rest of the set meaningful.
What goes in each field
ID
RequiredStable identifier, prefixed by module.
Test case
RequiredWhat is being verified, in one line.
Type
Functional, negative, boundary, security, state, performance, accessibility or compatibility. Use it to check coverage is spread rather than clustered on the happy path.
Priority
Risk based, weighted by whether the barrier is total. Anything that makes a task impossible for a keyboard or screen reader user is High. Anything that makes it harder but still possible is Medium.
Test data
The specific values, including the invalid and boundary ones.
Expected result
RequiredThe precise observable outcome, including message text where the wording itself is the requirement.
Put the mouse down and finish the task
An automated scan finds roughly a third of accessibility problems. These four checks find the ones that stop a task completely.
Complete the journey by keyboard alone
Not a sample of controls: the whole task, end to end. A control reachable only by pointer does not make the task harder, it makes it impossible.
Watch where focus goes
Open a dialogue, tab past its last control, press escape. Focus that escapes into the page behind, or does not return to the trigger on close, loses the user entirely.
View the page in greyscale
Status columns, required markers, chart legends and error states usually rely on colour alone. Greyscale exposes every one of them in a single glance.
Narrow to 320 pixels and zoom to 200 per cent
Content must reflow to one column with no horizontal page scroll, and nothing may be clipped when text is enlarged. Fixed pixel heights are the usual cause.
Why accessibility defects block tasks
Most published accessibility material is a list of success criteria, which tells a tester what to care about but not what to do or what passing looks like. These are written the other way round: an action, specific test data, and an observable expected result. That matters because the same criterion can pass on one screen and fail on the next, and because a criterion reference gives a developer nothing to reproduce. Automated scanning is genuinely useful and genuinely limited: it reliably finds missing labels, contrast failures and structural problems, and it cannot tell you whether a task can be completed.
Keyboard operability is where the total barriers live. If a control cannot be reached, the task cannot be done, and no amount of good markup elsewhere compensates. Focus management is the same category one step further in: a modal that does not trap focus lets a screen reader user wander into content they cannot interact with, and one that does not restore focus on close drops them back at the top of the page with no idea where they were. Both are cheap to test and both are routinely broken by component libraries used without configuration.
Dynamic content is the failure mode that testing with sighted eyes never reveals. A search that updates results, a toast that confirms a save, a validation summary appearing after submit: each is obvious visually and completely silent to a screen reader unless it is announced through a live region at the right urgency. The related case is state on toggles and sort controls, where an icon rotating is meaningful to one group of users and invisible to another.
Finally, the reflow and zoom cases catch a class of defect that affects far more people than assistive technology users. Content that does not reflow at 320 pixels forces two dimensional scrolling on a phone, and content clipped at 200 per cent zoom is unreadable for anyone with low vision, which is a large and growing population. Both are usually caused by fixed pixel heights on text containers, both are found in minutes, and both are frequently missed because desktop testing happens at one comfortable window size.
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