Automated Accessibility Testing: Advantages and Pitfalls

This webinar will provide an opportunity to share how accessibility was foundational to the development of the Michigan State University (MSU) Libraries' new website, which launched in late 2022. The MSU team is committed to creating an accessible, inclusive, and responsive web presence for the MSU Libraries. They will share their design processes and tools used to develop an accessible and sustainable website. These processes involved constantly engaging with the members from Libraries’ Accessibility Working Group and the Libraries’ Accessibility Coordinator on a bi-weekly basis to demonstrate, receive feedback, and get guidance on the accessibility questions that came up during development.

The MSU team will discuss the process of automating accessibility testing using Cypress.io, an open source end-to-end testing framework used in conjunction with cypress-axe to automate the accessibility checks. This webinar will elaborate on the usage of such tools, similar open-source software, and their incorporation into their development process. They will share their experience in setting up these tools in addition to their usage and their pitfalls in working towards making the MSU Libraries' new website accessible to a wide range of audiences.