How to Conduct Usability Studies for Accessibility

When conducting usability testing studies with participants who use assistive technology it’s important to conduct sessions on site, letting people use the technology they are familiar with. Learn how to conduct your own accessibility studies to discover specific information about how your own users who use assistive technology interact with your website or intranet. 

This 47-page report presents 40 tips and tricks for running better usability test sessions with people who use assistive technologies. For design best practices, please see Usability Guidelines for Accessible Web Design.

Topics covered

• Learn how to adapt standard usability testing practices to accommodate people with disabilities
• Testing for accessibility and usability throughout the project lifecycle
• How we conducted our accessibility studies
• Supplement the general guidelines with empirical tests of your own design with your own users
• Trust, consent forms, pictures, and video
• Using video and still cameras
• Conducting studies at the user's home or office
• Screen reader and braille sessions
• Motor skill assistive technology sessions
• Recruiting and preparing participants
• Quantitative and qualitative study tips
• Metrics to collect
• Sample documents for accessibility studies
• Recruiting screener used in the quantitative part of the study
• Checklist used in the quantitative part of the study
• Facilitation notes used in the quantitative part of the study
• Question sheet used in the quantitative part of the study
• Consent forms