Last year, I worked with Fable to write a blog post. I’m very behind on posting a post about that post, but here it is!
Go read it on Fable’s blog:
Power up your design system with accessibility testing
What’s in the blog post
It breaks down accessibility testing for design systems into 3 levels:
- Level 1: Testing the elements
- Level 2: Testing the system
- Level 3: Testing the journey
Each level covers the general outlines of its particular form of testing and why it’s worth doing. I also included indicators for when a testing type might be a good fit for a given situation, as well as some points of caution.
The article wraps up by emphasizing the importance of collaboration between design systems teams, testers, and product teams. And then provides a quick example of how we handled some design system accessibility testing on the GOV.UK Design System team.
Anniversary reflections
One year on from the publishing of the blog post, there are a few things I might change about it. Not much, but there is one element which warrants a retrospective comment.
Essentially, I don’t think the caveats and notes of caution were strong enough. Teams should work to find and fix known and simple accessibility issues first, before moving on to usability testing.
Testing a design system’s accessibility with people can be complex and time-consuming. It’s very much worth doing, but deserves a proper build-up and planning.
We owe it to testers to present them with prototypes and questions that effectively gather usable insights. It’s not enough to just plop some components in front of someone who uses a screen reader in their daily work and say “have at it”. We need to do our due diligence to make the best use of their time and efforts. That means testing design systems strategically. Ensuring the results of testing can make their way back to and affect the design system in meaningful ways.
That’s all I’ve got to say for now, but a huge thank-you to everyone who has read the article over the past year!
Related links
Here’s a couple links to previous work I’ve done around accessibility testing for design systems:
- YouTube video: Testing a component’s accessibility (90 minutes)
- Testing accessibility concerns in the GOV.UK Design System
- Version number
- 1.0.0
- First published date
- June 10, 2025
- Last updated date
- June 10, 2025
- Appreciation and special thanks
- I very much appreciate the fine folks at Fable, especially Amber Knabl and Kate Kalcevich, for working with me to evolve the blog post mentioned in this blog post to its final form. Special thanks to Kavana Ramesh for being my trusted accessibility usability research peer, career confidant, and lunch pal.
Leave a Reply