“Disability is not something an individual overcomes. I’m still disabled. I’m still Deafblind. People with disabilities are successful when we develop alternative techniques and our communities choose inclusion.”
-Haben Girma, first deafblind graduate from Harvard Law
Rethinking Digital Transformation Through Inclusion
Enterprises today are in constant pursuit of efficiency—seeking more impact without inflating costs. The answer, time and again, lies in digital transformation, powered by innovation.
We’ve seen technology evolve from Traditional AI to Generative AI and now to Agentic AI—a wave redefining how organizations operate, compete, and grow.
Yet amid this rapid advancement, many enterprises overlook a vital truth: innovation means little if it leaves people behind.
More than 1 billion people—nearly 15% of the world’s population—live with some form of disability, representing a vast yet often untapped audience. Global standards like WCAG and regional laws such as the RPWD Act mandate inclusion, but the real imperative goes beyond compliance—it’s about opportunity, reach, and trust.
As Rudolph Godson, a visually impaired SME at Indium, aptly puts it:
“Accessibility testing isn’t a ‘nice to have’—it’s a ‘must have’ when defining what usability truly means in software.”
What is Accessibility Testing
Imagine trying to book a flight, but the “Confirm” button isn’t labeled for your screen reader. Or watching a product demo video with no captions while sitting in a noisy café. Now imagine that frustration multiplied for millions of users who face these barriers every day.
In a world where almost everything—from shopping to learning to banking—happens online, accessibility is not optional—it’s essential. Yet, for people with disabilities such as complete blindness, hearing loss, mobility impairments, or neurodivergence, the digital world can often feel like a maze designed without them in mind.
That’s where Accessibility Testing steps in. It’s the process of ensuring that every user—regardless of ability—can perceive, understand, navigate, and interact with your digital products effortlessly & seamlessly. More than just a technical exercise, it’s about creating experiences that include everyone, not just the majority.
To help enterprises and developers achieve this, organizations globally outlined four foundational principles of accessibility:
- Perceivable: Information and user interfaces must be presented in ways users can recognize—whether visually, audibly, or through touch.
- Operable: Every function must be usable by all—whether through a mouse, keyboard, voice command, or assistive tool.
- Understandable: The design and content should be clear, predictable, and easy to follow for users of all cognitive abilities.
- Robust: Content must work seamlessly across devices, browsers, and assistive technologies, both today and in the future.
With AI at the heart of quality engineering, enterprises can automate issue detection while minimizing manual effort with context-aware insights to enhance accuracy using AI, accessibility testing can reach a new high & no longer isn’t about checking a compliance box—it’s about designing every platform for humanity. Because accessibility ensures that technology empowers everyone equally, bridging the gap between innovation and inclusion.
The Business Case for Accessibility Testing
Did you know that nearly 20% of the global population lives with some form of disability—that’s roughly 1 in 10 people facing significant accessibility challenges? Yet, many digital experiences still overlook this massive audience.
Accessibility isn’t just ethical—it’s economical.
Enterprises that prioritize accessibility expand their market reach, unlock new revenue streams, and elevate their brand reputation—all without significant additional investment.
By building inclusive digital experiences, organizations can:
- Expand customer reach and loyalty by engaging a wider audience.
- Reduce legal and compliance risks, avoiding costly lawsuits.
- Enhance brand trust and reputation through inclusive design.
- Lower long-term costs by identifying issues early through continuous testing.
At Indium, we help enterprises bring this strategy to life—validating applications for compliance, usability, and inclusivity. The result? Seamless experiences, confident users, and inclusive growth.
Because when everyone can participate, everyone wins.
Common Accessibility Barriers in Digital Products
While businesses increasingly focus on user experience, many digital products inadvertently exclude a segment of users due to accessibility barriers. These barriers often prevent people with disabilities from interacting with websites, apps, and software as intended. Some of the most common challenges include:
- Visual Barriers: With a lack of alternative text for images, poor color contrast, non-scalable fonts or fixed layouts, the interface can become unreadable & difficult to use for people with visual impairments.
- Auditory Barriers: Lack of visual cues for audio alerts, content captions or transcripts for videos or audios can exclude a wide user who are deaf or hard of hearing.
- Motor and Interaction Barriers: Interfaces that require precise mouse movements or gestures or when the interactive elements such as buttons, links are too close together, it becomes frustrating for users with limited mobility to navigate the platform with ease.
- Cognitive and Learning Barriers: Complex navigation, inconsistent layouts, or excessive content density, lack of instructions can lead to error and delays while overwhelming users with cognitive impairments
- Technological Barriers: Incompatibility with assistive technologies like screen readers, voice recognition software, or alternative input devices leave users unaware of the changes making the platform useless to use.
These barriers often result in a frustrated experience for users with difficulties resulting in loss of revenue & damaged reputational risk for enterprises. By identifying these challenges & addressing them proactively at an early development stage with deep & thorough accessibility testing can elevate customer experience, increase usability, drive engagement, and grow revenue.
How Accessibility Testing Works
Accessibility testing isn’t just about tools—it’s about understanding human experiences. Here’s how effective testing unfolds:
- Discovery & Mapping : Understanding your users, platforms, and applicable regulations forms the foundation. This step aligns accessibility goals with business outcomes.
- Automated + Manual Testing : With automated tools such as VoiceOver, screen readers, & voice recognition testers can catch surface-level issues and provide real-time insights, while human experts identify nuanced barriers that automation misses—ensuring comprehensive coverage.
- Actionable Reporting & Documentation : From detailed test plans to VPATs and remediation guides, reports provide prioritized, actionable insights for faster resolution.
- Continuous Monitoring & Regression : Accessibility isn’t static. Regular re-assessments and governance frameworks ensure inclusivity evolves alongside innovation.
The result? Seamless, compliant, and inclusive digital experiences that empower all users—while safeguarding your business against risk.
How is AI Revolutionizing Accessibility Testing
As AI continues to reshape the digital experience, accessibility testing is entering a new era —faster, smarter, & more inclusive. While traditional methods have served enterprises for more than a decade, companies have struggled with accessibility & inclusivity. But AI has changed that effectively.
With AI, enterprises automate detection of complex digital barriers that traditional methods often miss while accelerating testing through intelligent audit automation, enabling rapid scans across vast web and app environments while providing context-aware insights.
By simulating real user interactions, including those with disabilities, AI uncovers nuanced accessibility issues, improving both accuracy and coverage.
AI doesn’t just stop at detection. It learns and adapts continuously, evolving alongside dynamic user interfaces and ever-changing accessibility standards, reducing dependency on deep expertise, empowers teams to act without delay, and ensures accessibility becomes a proactive, scalable process—not a one-time box to tick. When paired with human judgment, AI enables enterprises to deliver digital experiences that are both compliant and truly inclusive
AI adds intelligence to accessibility testing by mimicking real-world user interactions and applying advanced analysis techniques that uncover issues traditional tools often miss. Its capabilities include:
- Image recognition: Analyse visuals to identify defects and inaccurate alternate text and suggest meaningful captions.
- Seamless operability: Through NLP, AI can review page structure, labels, and content readability to ensure clarity for assistive technologies.
- Pattern recognition: Identifies recurring accessibility issues across large applications, reducing duplication in testing though standardization.
- Context-aware detection: Distinguishes between critical accessibility barriers and minor layout shifts, reducing false positives.
- Simulation of user behaviors: AI can reproduce interactions with screen readers, keyboards, and other assistive technologies to uncover usability gaps.
By combining these capabilities, AI accelerates testing, improves precision, and reduces costs—all while making accessibility more actionable and less manual. The outcome is a digital experience that works for everyone, everywhere.
Why Enterprises Lag in Accessibility Testing
Despite the proven impact of accessibility on user experience, compliance, and brand trust, many enterprises continue to treat accessibility testing as an afterthought—often placing it at the very end of the software development cycle due to low prioritization & poor implementation of inclusive designs as designers often fail to understand the impact on actual users.
This reactive approach comes at a cost. Identifying accessibility defects late in the process is both expensive and time-consuming, often requiring extensive rework. As a result, organizations either:
- Over-rely on automation tools, which can detect only about 40% of accessibility issues, missing nuanced, real-world usability barriers that only human judgment can uncover; or
- Neglect user feedback entirely, leading to partial compliance and unintentionally excluding large segments of users with disabilities.
In essence, the problem isn’t the lack of awareness—it’s the lack of early integration. Accessibility testing must shift left in the development cycle, becoming an integral part of design and Quality Assurance, not an optional add-on. Only then can enterprises move from checking boxes to creating inclusive, human-centered digital experiences that truly perform for everyone.
Indium’s Approach to Accessibility Testing
At Indium, we truly believe accessibility isn’t just a technical standard—it’s a reflection of how deeply an enterprise values its users—a business differentiator. We are building AI-driven software, accessible & inclusive for all because inclusivity is not just asocietal obligation; it’s a business strategy. That’s why Indium has been at the forefront of helping enterprises make their digital platforms both compliant and genuinely usable for all.
Here’s how we make it happen:
- Full-Spectrum Accessibility & Compliance Audits
We go beyond surface-level checks to ensure complete compliance with WCAG, ADA, Section 508, EAA, EN 301 549, AODA, and more—helping enterprises avoid legal risks and reputational setbacks while fostering trust with every user. - Hybrid Testing Methodology
Our unique Automation + Manual Testing approach, combined with Assistive Technology validation, ensures that every interface is tested end-to-end. Indium made sure comprehensive testing with an in-house visually impaired SME who not only suggests defects & gaps but also verify them early, helping teams save time, reduce rework, and deliver a seamless user experience from the start. - Regulatory Documentation Simplified
From audit-ready deliverables and compliance dashboards to remediation roadmaps, we provide the visibility and confidence needed to meet accessibility regulations—without adding complexity to your workflow. - Continuous Monitoring & Governance
Accessibility isn’t a one-time exercise—it’s a commitment. Through ongoing reviews, tracking, and regression testing, we ensure that accessibility remains integrated into your development and release cycles. - Industry-Specific Accessibility Solutions
Whether it’s healthcare, finance, education, SaaS, or the public sector, our testing frameworks are tailored to meet each industry’s unique regulatory, functional, and user needs—because every accessibility challenge is unique. - Support & Remediation Assistance
We don’t just identify issues; we help you fix them. Our experts guide teams through actionable remediation steps—closing accessibility gaps without compromising design or user experience integrity.
At Indium, our approach is simple yet powerful: make accessibility continuous, measurable, and meaningful. Because when software becomes inclusive, businesses don’t just comply—they connect.
The Human Impact: Stories Beyond Compliance
Accessibility isn’t just about meeting legal requirements—it’s about creating experiences that work for everyone. At Indium, we’ve seen firsthand how accessibility testing transforms not only compliance metrics but also business outcomes, customer trust, and brand reputation. Here are a few real-world examples where accessibility went from being a liability to becoming a strategic advantage.
Case Study 1: Turning Legal Risk into Inclusive Growth
A global economic impact analysis platform was facing mounting lawsuits and compliance challenges. Adoption rates were falling, and the poor user experience created reputational damage while expanding operational costs.
Enter Indium
We designed a structured accessibility testing approach that:
- Analyzed key workflows and built compliant, structured accessibility scenarios.
- Delivered accessibility checklists and consolidated defect reports to enable early fixes.
- Introduced regression testing every alternate sprint, ensuring faster validation of frequent product changes.
Business Impact
The results spoke for themselves:
- 100% accessibility coverage across the platform.
- 50+ defects identified and fixed with actionable insights.
- A vastly improved user experience for people with different disabilities.
Case Study 2: From Compliance Gaps to Competitive Edge
A cybersecurity analytics platform giant was at risk of losing deals and customers due to non-compliance, with over 100 accessibility defects reported. Lawsuits, increased churn, and delayed fixes were escalating costs and slowing releases, creating frustration across stakeholders.
Enter Indium
We implemented a structured accessibility testing framework that:
- Strengthened overall platform quality through detailed analysis and planning.
- Engaged a visually impaired SME to uncover real usability gaps and provide actionable recommendations.
- Delivered transparent defect reports with severity and resolution tracking.
Business Impact
This proactive shift enabled the enterprise to:
- Achieve 100% accessibility coverage across the platform.
- Deliver a 40% faster development turnaround through streamlined validation.
- Identify 30+ additional defects that significantly improved application quality.
Case Study 3: Scaling Accessibility for a Multi-Service Platform
A leading ride-hailing platform struggled to keep up with accessibility across its fast-evolving, multi-service ecosystem. Testing complex workflows on different devices and platforms became resource-intensive and error-prone.
Enter Indium
Our partnership enabled a scalable and efficient approach through:
- Collaboration with Level Access to prioritize reporting and detect issues beyond automation.
- Automating accessibility validation across 400+ application screens.
- Consolidating defect reports with severity classification to focus on business-critical workflows.
Business Impact
The transformation was remarkable:
- 100% accessibility coverage achieved across the platform.
- 25+ additional defects uncovered, going beyond tool-based testing to strengthen overall product quality.
The Road Ahead: Accessibility as a Driver of Innovation
As AI continues to redefine the digital landscape, accessibility will shape the next era of innovation. The future lies in merging AI-driven insights, automation, and human empathy—a synergy that ensures no user is left behind.
With Agentic AI on the rise, the road to inclusivity becomes easier & defined as it helps testers automate the execution process of the entire testing workflows with minimal human intervention and improve over time with real-time insights & feedback.
Indium is leading this charge—building a future of zero assistive gaps and seamless inclusivity, where technology adapts to every individual. With our global experts and flexible engagement models, we deliver scalable accessibility solutions that strengthen usability, trust, and growth.
Because accessibility doesn’t slow innovation—it scales it.
A connected world is an inclusive world. And an inclusive world is where real progress begins.
