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  • How to Fit Accessibility Testing Into Your Sprint

    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:

    1. Pick one or two automated tools to run in dev and CI.
    2. Train your team on basic WCAG principles—especially designers and frontend devs.
    3. Set clear accessibility goals in your Definition of Done (e.g., no critical issues, passes keyboard navigation).
    4. Assign shared responsibility—accessibility isn’t just the QA team’s job.
    5. 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.

    Greg McNeil

    July 23, 2025
    Testing & Remediation
    Accessibility, Accessibility Audit, Accessibility Remediation, Accessibility testing, automated testing, Web Accessibility Remediation, Website Accessibility
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