Why Accessibility Testing Isn’t Optional Anymore

One question echoes through product meetings, daily stand-ups, and compliance reviews: Why is accessibility still treated like an afterthought? It’s 2025, and let’s be honest, we’re far past the point of asking if accessibility matters. The real question is: why hasn’t it always been at the heart of how we build?

With the European Accessibility Act (EAA) now in full effect and global expectations for inclusive digital experiences soaring, accessibility has moved from a “nice-to-have” to an absolute must, with the digital accessibility software market estimated to reach 1373.92 million USD by 2032.

Especially for tech companies eyeing the European market, the pressure is on to create software that truly works for everyone, regardless of ability.

The truth is simple: Accessibility testing isn’t optional anymore. It’s a critical piece of building software that’s not just scalable and user-friendly, but also future-ready and legally compliant. In this blog, we’ll unpack why accessibility is taking center stage and how leading QA teams are stepping up to shape a more inclusive digital future.

Accessibility Has Entered the Compliance Mainstream

For years, accessibility lingered on the fringe of software conversations as an ethical ideal, underfunded and widely overlooked. Today, that’s no longer the case. Regulatory pressure, operational demands, and real user needs have pulled accessibility squarely into the heart of modern QA.

Main Drivers in 2025:

• The European Accessibility Act: As of June 2025, digital products and services sold in the EU must meet defined accessibility standards. This affects everything from banking apps and e-commerce platforms to ATMs and e-books.
• Laws with teeth: Enforcement mechanisms are real; non-compliance can result in fines, litigation, or even market exclusion.
• Market expectations: Accessibility is now a user expectation, not a special feature. Companies ignoring it risk losing customers to more inclusive competitors.

Accessibility testing isn’t just about ticking regulatory boxes. It’s about making your product usable for the broadest possible audience, improving usability for all, including people with temporary, situational, or permanent impairments.

From Add-On to Built-In: Rethinking the QA Lifecycle

Accessibility testing can’t be a phase. It has to be a mindset embedded from the earliest stages of product design and continuously validated throughout the lifecycle.

• Designing for Accessibility From Day One: Modern QA begins long before the first line of code is written. Accessibility must be part of:
• Product requirements: Accessibility criteria and acceptance criteria should be explicitly written into user stories.
• Design systems: UI libraries and components must be built with correct semantic markup, color contrast ratios, and scalable layouts.
• UX validation: Prototypes should undergo accessibility reviews before they become code, preventing issues and not just detecting them later.

This shift-left approach ensures accessibility isn’t introduced through bug tickets, but through intentional architecture.

• Embedding Accessibility Testing into CI/CD Pipelines:Automation helps scale accessibility testing, but it has to be appropriately integrated.
• Build-time scans using tools like Pa11y or Axe-core catch basic violations like missing ARIA attributes, poor contrast, or improper headings.
• End-to-end test automation can validate dynamic focus order, keyboard traps, and responsive behavior.
• Accessibility gates in continuous integration pipelines ensure that critical issues block deployments.

This setup allows QA teams to detect regressions in real time and ensures that accessibility is a shared responsibility across builds, not a separate task siloed to one team.

• Manual Testing Where It Matters Most: Automated tools can only catch a fraction of accessibility issues. The rest require context, empathy, and human judgment:
• Screen reader testing uncovers usability gaps machines can’t see, like confusing alt text, unclear navigation landmarks, or hidden content.
• Keyboard-only navigation is essential for users who can’t use a mouse. Testers verify whether all functions are accessible via keyboard.
• Cognitive load evaluations help assess whether users with neurodiverse needs can easily understand and operate interfaces.

In practice, this requires trained testers, real devices, and often collaboration with users who rely on assistive technologies.

The Cost of Waiting: Risks of Ignoring Accessibility

Many companies still think they can “do accessibility later.” But the longer you wait, the more expensive and dangerous it becomes.

What’s at Risk:

• Legal action: EAA violations can trigger penalties, lawsuits, and negative press.
• Technical debt: Retrofitting accessibility into an existing codebase is far more complex than designing for it from the beginning.
• Brand damage: Users excluded by inaccessible interfaces don’t stay quiet. Reviews, social media, and customer churn all reflect that.
• Missed market opportunities: One in five users lives with a disability. Excluding them is not just unethical, it’s unprofitable.

In 2025, accessibility isn’t a favor to users. It’s a requirement for any business serious about scale, sustainability, and compliance.

Accessibility at Scale: Best Practices for Modern QA Teams

Accessibility testing at scale is achievable only with the right culture, processes, and tooling.

• Make Accessibility Part of the Definition of Done: If accessibility isn’t in your acceptance criteria, it’s not being tested. QA should refuse to sign off on features that aren’t inclusive.
• Invest in Reusable Testing Assets: Create and maintain shared accessibility test cases, design patterns, and linting rules across teams. Don’t reinvent the wheel.
• Integrate with Existing QA Infrastructure: Accessibility should live alongside your functional, performance, and security tests. Use the same dashboards, reporting tools, and defect triaging flows.
• Upskill Your Teams: Every tester, developer, and designer should have at least a foundational understanding of accessibility principles. This is not a specialist domain; it’s a core competency.

Conclusion: Building for Everyone Is Building for the Future

Accessibility isn’t a trend, it’s a baseline. In 2025, if your product isn’t usable by everyone, it’s incomplete. Testing for accessibility isn’t about doing more; it’s about doing things right, from the start.

Teams that embed accessibility into design, code, automation, and QA are the ones delivering products that last. Not just compliant but consistent, inclusive, and ready for a global market.

At SDET Tech, accessibility isn’t a phase; it’s built into every sprint, every pipeline, and every decision. From proactive audits to integrated automation, we help companies make accessibility a default, not a debate.

Because future-ready software isn’t just fast or functional, it works for everyone.

Explore how we’re shaping that future at sdettech.com.

FAQs

1. When should accessibility testing start in a new project?

At the very beginning, during planning and design. Waiting until the development or QA phases introduces rework and technical debt. Define accessibility acceptance criteria alongside feature specs to prevent issues instead of patching them later.

2. Do we need dedicated accessibility engineers?

Not always. It’s more effective to build accessibility awareness into every role: QA, developers, and designers. A few champions with more profound expertise can guide reviews, but daily responsibility should be shared across the team.

3. Will accessibility testing slow down our releases?

If it’s an afterthought, when integrated into CI/CD and automated alongside other tests, accessibility checks run silently in the background. Manual testing can be scoped to high-impact flows without delaying delivery.

4. We don’t operate in the EU. Does the European Accessibility Act matter to us?

Yes. Even if the EAA doesn’t apply directly, accessibility expectations are rising globally. Markets, clients, and users are demanding inclusive products. Ignoring it risks missing opportunities and damaging trust.

5. Our product is internal-facing, do we still need accessibility testing?

Internal users definitely rely on accessible systems, too. If your teams include people with disabilities or might in the future, you owe them the same usability as any customer. Accessibility improves efficiency and equity company wide.