Accessibility Testing

You can test accessibility using VoiceOver or TalkBack audio, or use the Accessibility Inspector to verify the VoiceOver/TalkBack output (text), attributes, and the navigation order of accessibility elements.

When you activate accessibility testing mode, the Accessibility Testing mode on icon is displayed next to the + icon on the Devices tab of the lab. When this mode is active, only devices that support accessibility testing with VoiceOver/TalkBack audio are displayed. When this mode is active and you open a device remotely, the Accessibility VoiceOver/TalkBack tab is selected. VoiceOver/TalkBack is automatically enabled on the device.

Accessibility testing considerations

A number of considerations should be taken into account when testing accessibility.

Consideration area	Details
Hosted devices	Accessibility testing on private and public hosted devices is not supported.
Accessibility testing with VoiceOver audio	Supported only on iOS version 14.0 and later. To perform accessibility with audio on an iOS device, the device is Bluetooth paired with an available Android device connected to the same connector. Pairing is supported on private Google Pixel devices, and on Samsung and Xiaomi device models detailed in the support matrix. For more details, see the Support matrix. The minimum Android OS version required for the pairing device is Android 10. However, Android 9 is also supported when pairing with a Redmi Note device. If no supported pairing device is available, you will not be able to use VoiceOver testing with audio. The pairing is automatic. You cannot select the device used for pairing. Both devices consume license capacity. Phone calls received on the device may impact audio streaming. Phone call audio is blocked by Apple due to privacy concerns and is not supported for audio streaming. When starting or stopping audio streaming, the Screen Broadcast pop-up is displayed. There is no need to interact with the pop-up. Audio streaming starts or stops automatically within a few seconds.
Accessibility testing with TalkBack audio	Supported only on Android 11 and later. Enable Do not Disturb to prevent unexpected notifications. Android 11: The device screen needs to be on. Phone call audio is blocked due to privacy concerns and is not supported for audio streaming. Making and receiving phone calls during tests is currently not supported on Android devices and may cause the device to disconnect.
Accessibility Inspector	On iOS devices, supported only on iOS version 13 and later.
Exploratory testing	Not supported for accessibility testing.
Language support	TalkBack/VoiceOver accessibility testing is supported on the following device operating systems: English, Chinese (simplified), French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese(Brazil) and Spanish.
Landscape mode	If your app uses landscape mode, change the device orientation to portrait before enabling TalkBack/VoiceOver audio testing on the device. After accessibility testing is enabled on the device, you can open the app.

Test accessibility with TalkBack/Voiceover audio

You can test accessibility using VoiceOver or TalkBack audio.

When Accessibility Testing mode is active and you open a device remotely, the Accessibility VoiceOver/TalkBack tab opens. VoiceOver/TalkBack Accessibility is switched on automatically.
If the Accessibility Testing mode is not active, click the Accessibility testing button in the side pane of the device access window. Then, select the VoiceOver/TalkBack tab and switch on VoiceOver/TalkBack Accessibility. The device is automatically prepared for TalkBack/VoiceOver audio accessibility testing. This preparation includes:
- Automatically enabling Bluetooth and pairing the device with an Android device (iOS)
- Enabling TalkBack/VoiceOver
- Enabling audio streaming
Preparing the device may take up to two minutes. Wait until the device is ready for testing.
Important note for iOS: If the Bluetooth pairing is unsuccessful or disconnects, switch off VoiceOver Accessibility, and then switch the option back on. If the issue persists, open the paired Android device and check if there are alerts that need to be clicked.
When the setup finishes on the device, OpenText recommends enabling sleep mode on your screen reader. On Non Visual Desktop Access (NVDA) screen reader, for example, the default shortcut for sleep mode is Insert + Shift + Z keys.
When you finish testing on the device, you can turn off sleep mode.
Use Next and Previous to move between elements, or click Activate to make an element active.
Alternatively, you can control TalkBack and VoiceOver with keyboard shortcuts. For details, see TalkBack shortcuts and VoiceOver shortcuts.
Note: If you activate an item in the device display with the Ctrl + Alt keys and then want to go to elements in the web page using the Tab key and a screen reader, you may need to double-press the Esc key to change the focus back to the web page.

TalkBack shortcuts

This section covers the keyboard shortcuts for TalkBack.

Navigation

The following table details the TalkBack navigation shortcuts.

TalkBack navigation

Shortcut

Next item

Screen Reader sleep mode on: Right arrow

Screen Reader sleep mode off: Alt + Right arrow

Previous item

Screen Reader sleep mode on: Left arrow

Screen Reader sleep mode off: Alt +Left arrow

Activate item

Alt + Ctrl

Global

The following table details the TalkBack global action shortcuts.

TalkBack global actions	Shortcut
Home	Alt + o
Back	Alt + b
Open notifications	Alt + n Opens the device's notification panel to view any notifications. This shortcut is similar to swiping down from the top of the screen.
Open app drawer	Alt + a Opens the apps list on the device, displaying all installed applications. This makes navigation and selection easier. This shortcut is similar to pressing the Home button and accessing the app drawer.
Next reading control	Alt + Shift + Ctrl + down arrow Moves to the next reading control on the screen. Reading controls determine how TalkBack reads content. For example, by character, word, or paragraph. This shortcut cycles forward through the options.
Previous reading control	Alt + Shift + Ctrl + up arrow Moves to the previous reading control on the screen. Reading controls determine how TalkBack reads content. For example, by character, word, or paragraph. This shortcut cycles backwards through the options.
Adjust reading control up	Alt + Shift + up arrow Adjusts the current reading control upwards, increasing the granularity. For example, if you are reading by sentence, this shortcut moves you up to reading by paragraph.
Adjust reading control down	Alt + Shift + down arrow Adjusts the current reading control downwards, decreasing the granularity. For example, if you are reading by paragraph, this shortcut moves you down to reading by sentence.

Other actions

The following table details additional TalkBack shortcuts.

TalkBack other actions	Shortcut
Take screenshot	Alt + s
Download log	Alt + l
Show TalkBack menu	Alt + Ctrl+ space Opens the TalkBack menu for additional options and settings. These options allow for more customization and actions.
Help	Alt + h When you use a screen reader on your computer, this shortcut moves the focus to the keyboard shortcuts section to announce the options.

VoiceOver shortcuts

This section covers the keyboard shortcuts for VoiceOver.

Navigation

The following table details VoiceOver navigation shortcuts.

VoiceOver navigation	Shortcut
Next item	Screen Reader sleep mode on: Right arrow Screen Reader sleep mode off: Alt + Right arrow
Previous item	Screen Reader sleep mode on: Left arrow Screen Reader sleep mode off: Alt +Left arrow
Activate item	Alt + Ctrl
Home	Alt + o

General

The following table details VoiceOver general shortcuts.

VoiceOver general actions	Shortcut
Cycle through settings by turning rotor left	Alt + Ctrl + left arrow Rotates the rotor to left to change the reading settings. For example, to move between characters, words, or heading. Rotating left changes the current rotor setting to the previous one.
Cycle through settings by turning rotor right	Alt + Ctrl + right arrow Rotates the rotor to left to change the reading settings. For example, to move between characters, words, or heading. Rotating right changes the current rotor setting to the next one.
Adjust current setting by turning rotor up	Alt + Ctrl + up arrow Adjusts the selected rotor setting by increasing the reading granularity, or by navigating through the options within the rotor's current mode. For example, increasing volume or speech rate.
Adjust current setting by turning rotor down	Alt + Ctrl + down arrow Adjusts the selected rotor setting by decreasing the reading granularity, or by navigating through the options within the rotor's current mode. For example, decreasing volume or speech rate.
Help	Alt + h When you use a screen reader on your computer, this shortcut moves the focus to the keyboard shortcuts section to announce the options.

Other actions

The following table details additional Voiceover shortcuts.

VoiceOver other actions	Shortcut
Take screenshot	Alt + s
Download log	Alt + l

Test accessibility with the Inspector

You can use the Accessibility Inspector to verify the VoiceOver/TalkBack output (text), attributes, and the navigation order of accessibility elements.

If the Accessibility testing mode is active, switch off VoiceOver/TalkBack accessibility.
If the accessibility testing tab is not open, click the Accessibility testing button in the side pane of the device access window.
Select the Inspector tab, and switch on Accessibility Inspector.
To shift the focus to an element, use the Next and Previous buttons in the Accessibility Testing toolbar to move between elements, or hold the Ctrl key and use your mouse to click the element.
Tip: Navigating between elements enables you to verify that the order of the elements makes sense, and that there are no navigation traps — elements that cannot be reached using the VoiceOver/TalkBack swipe right/left gesture.
The element in focus is highlighted with a blue border. When elements overlap, the top element highlighted by VoiceOver/TalkBack when you tap this specific location on the screen is highlighted. The VoiceOver/TalkBack descriptions for each accessibility element are displayed as text, together with the available attributes for the element. You can also use mouse-over to view the details of an element.
To display all the accessibility elements on the screen, click the Show all elements button . Elements are marked with their accessibility frame. To view the navigation order of the elements, click the dropdown next to the Show all elements button and select Show order.

After a change such as performing a gesture, changing the device orientation, entering text in a text box, or opening a new page, click the Refresh button in the accessibility testing pane to refresh the accessibility data. If the last highlighted element is still on the screen, it is highlighted. If not, the top element of the accessibility tree is highlighted.

Accessibility testing - device support

For details on the devices supported for accessibility testing, see the Support matrix.