Advanced Accessibility with JS and Automated Testing

When: Thursday, Nov 11 (9am - noon)
Where: Online / Zoom
Level: Intermediate / Advanced
Instructor: Marcy Sutton

Accessibility is a core requirement of the web development process. While manual testing will continue to be essential, some accessibility scenarios can be automated with JavaScript and modern tools. In this half-day workshop, you'll learn how to test for accessibility in various parts of the software development lifecycle.

You'll write JavaScript unit tests with Jest and Testing Library for accessible interactive components. You'll also learn how to increase coverage for accessibility by writing integration tests with Cypress. It's not always easy to reliably assert accessibility with code even using today's tools, so you'll also learn some of the gotchas and workarounds necessary to implement accessibility tests that mimic user experiences in the real world.

To round out this technical workshop, you'll also gain an understanding of how accessibility requires a shift in culture so we don't simply throw code at the problem in vain. We want to ensure quality experiences that people with disabilities can use. It's important to know when and why to apply an automated accessibility testing approach, beyond JavaScript coding mechanics.

This workshop is intended for intermediate to advanced web developers with JavaScript experience. React knowledge will be helpful but is not absolutely required. This is part two following another workshop for beginner to intermediate developers: Intro to Accessible Web Development with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.