Agile development thrives on fast, iterative progress—and that can make accessibility feel like a hurdle rather than a habit. But accessibility testing doesn’t have to slow you down. In fact, when baked into your sprint process from the outset, accessibility becomes a natural part of your workflow—reducing rework, enhancing code quality, and safeguarding your organization from legal risk.
This guide walks through how to integrate accessibility testing into your Agile sprints without sacrificing speed or innovation. With the right approach, inclusive design becomes a team-wide mindset—and a competitive advantage.
Why Accessibility Testing Belongs in the Sprint
Accessibility testing helps ensure your website or app can be used by people of all abilities, including those who rely on screen readers, keyboard navigation, voice recognition, and other assistive technologies.
Leaving accessibility checks until the end of a project—or worse, after launch—often leads to expensive remediation and a poor user experience. Worse, you could face lawsuits for failing to meet standards such as the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) or U.S. laws, including the ADA and Section 508.
Agile teams are already built for continuous improvement. By incorporating accessibility testing into your sprints, you:
- Catch issues earlier when they’re cheaper to fix
- Avoid bottlenecks during QA
- Improve design clarity and usability for everyone
- Demonstrate a commitment to inclusivity and compliance
Let’s break down exactly how to make this work in practice.
Shift Accessibility Left: Early Planning Wins
To integrate accessibility testing into a sprint, it needs to begin before the sprint starts.
1. Include Accessibility in User Stories
Start by writing user stories with accessibility in mind. Instead of:
As a user, I want to submit a form so I can sign up for updates.
Add accessibility context:
As a screen reader user, I want to submit a clearly labeled, keyboard-navigable form so I can sign up for updates.
This keeps accessibility visible to the entire team and sets the tone for inclusive features from day one.
2. Define Acceptance Criteria
Each user story should include accessibility-related acceptance criteria, such as:
- All buttons must be focusable via keyboard.
- Form fields must include visible and programmatically associated labels.
- Error messages must be conveyed visually and via ARIA alerts.
These criteria guide both developers and testers—and reduce ambiguity when it’s time to validate.
Build Accessibility into Design
Accessibility testing is often easier when designs are inclusive from the start.
3. Collaborate with Designers
Designers should use accessible color contrast, readable font sizes, logical tab order, and meaningful icon labels. Review early wireframes and prototypes against WCAG standards—ideally with tools like Stark or Figma plugins for accessibility.
4. Run Design Reviews
Hold accessibility-focused design reviews during planning or refinement. Spotting issues before development starts saves everyone time. Flag problems like insufficient contrast, unclear buttons, or missing focus indicators.
Develop With Accessibility in Mind
Your dev team is the frontline for accessibility. Setting clear expectations and tools helps them move fast without sacrificing inclusion.
5. Use Accessible Components
Encourage developers to use pre-tested accessible components or frameworks. For example, use accessible modal libraries that manage focus trapping and ARIA attributes out of the box.
6. Lint for Accessibility
Incorporate linters like eslint-plugin-jsx-a11y to catch common accessibility mistakes in code. This provides near-instant feedback—right inside the developer’s editor.
7. Write Semantic HTML
Encourage the use of native HTML elements like <button>, <label>, and <nav> over custom divs and spans. These elements carry built-in accessibility benefits and reduce the need for ARIA workarounds.
Make Testing Part of the Flow
Testing for accessibility isn’t a separate track—it’s part of sprint validation, just like functional testing.
8. Automated Accessibility Tests
Automate what you can using tools like WAVE or Lighthouse. These tools catch issues like missing alt text, ARIA misuse, or low contrast—before code merges.
Run them as part of your CI pipeline, so broken accessibility fails the build just like broken code.
Important Note: Automated tests only catch ~30% of WCAG issues. Manual testing is still essential.
9. Manual Testing in Sprint
Manual checks don’t need to wait for final QA. During development or code review:
- Test keyboard-only navigation
- Use a screen reader (like NVDA or VoiceOver) to verify flows
- Check page headings and tab order for clarity
Spread these tasks across the team so it’s not all on QA or accessibility specialists.
Retrospectives: Keep Improving
Agile is all about continuous learning. Use retrospectives to talk about what worked—and what didn’t—with accessibility during the sprint.
Questions to consider:
- Did we include accessibility in all relevant stories?
- Were any accessibility bugs pushed to a future sprint?
- Are our automated tools giving useful results?
Use this feedback to tweak your workflow, tooling, or documentation.
Tips for Getting Started (or Leveling Up)
If you’re new to accessibility testing in sprints, keep it simple and scale up over time. Here’s a roadmap to get started:
- Pick one or two automated tools to run in dev and CI.
- Train your team on basic WCAG principles—especially designers and frontend devs.
- Set clear accessibility goals in your Definition of Done (e.g., no critical issues, passes keyboard navigation).
- Assign shared responsibility—accessibility isn’t just the QA team’s job.
- Start tracking accessibility debt just like tech debt. Tackle it bit by bit.
For teams already doing accessibility work, the next step might be:
- Formalizing a test plan
- Adding assistive tech testing
- Bringing in real users with disabilities for feedback
Don’t Bolt It On—Build It In
Too often, accessibility is treated as an afterthought—an item saved for the backlog or a separate “phase.” But that’s a recipe for stress, rework, and risk.
When you incorporate accessibility testing into your sprint cycle, it becomes routine—not reactive. You don’t have to choose between speed and inclusion. You get both.
And the benefits go beyond compliance. You build better products, open your brand to more users, and reduce friction for everyone.
Need Help Fitting Accessibility Into Your Workflow?
At 216digital, we specialize in helping Agile teams bake accessibility into every phase of the sprint cycle. From audits and remediation to training and ongoing support, our team ensures your products are not only compliant—but more usable and inclusive by design.
Ready to build accessibility into your sprint?
Let’s talk. Schedule a consultation today.