In this webinar, three members of Slack's engineering team will dive into how they approach and scale accessibility at Slack. You'll leave with actionable advice on how you can grow your own accessibility team and how you should be approaching accessibility in the development process.

1. How Slack
Approaches
Accessibility Testing
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Sharanya
Viswanath
Staff Engineer, Test
Infrastructure
Slack
Kirstyn Torio
Staff Engineer,
Quality
Slack
Kristina
Rudzinskaya
Staff Engineer,
Quality
Slack

2. A11Y Testing at Slack
Kirstyn Torio
Sharanya Viswanath
Kristina Rudzinskaya
3PlayMedia 2019

3. Hello!
Sharanya Viswanath
Staff Engineer,
Test Infrastructure
Kirstyn Torio
Engineer, Quality
Kristina Rudzinskaya
Staff Engineer, Quality
2

4. Look through...
● Slack company values as a11y foundation
● Problems we’re trying to solve
● How we are solving them through testing
● Success Stories
3

5. 4
Slack Values

6. 5
Empathy

7. 6
Solidarity

8. 7
Courtesy

9. 8
Expertise

10. 9
Everyone!

11. Everyone does Accessibility
A11Y Team
A11Y
Advocates
10
SLACK
values

12. How do we empower everyone to
build accessible features?
11

13. 12
● How do we increase a11y awareness?
● How do we fit accessibility into existing process?
● How do we provide a thorough coverage?
Everyone does Accessibility

14. 13

15. QE Testing
14

16. Manual QE Approach
15
Foundational Testing
Slack-wide Testing
External
15

17. 16
Foundational
Testing

18. 17

19. 18
Slack-wide
Testing

20. Slack-wide testing: Strategy!
1919

21. Slack-wide testing: Strategy!
2020

22. Slack-wide testing: Education!
2121

23. Slack-wide testing: Education!
22

24. Slack-wide testing: Education!
23

25. 24
External
Testing
24

26. 25

27. 26

28. Incoming project is
sent to the
coordination channel
Slack & Ultra Process
27

29. Incoming project is
sent to the
coordination channel
QE demos the
feature and send
test scenarios
Slack & Ultra Process
28

30. Incoming project is
sent to the
coordination channel
QE demos the
feature and send
test scenarios
ULTRA tester creates
Accessibility test cases
Slack & Ultra Process
29

31. Incoming project is
sent to the
coordination channel
QE demos the
feature and send
test scenarios
ULTRA tester creates
Accessibility test cases
ULTRA tester runs
the test cycle
Slack & Ultra Process
30

32. Incoming project is
sent to the
coordination channel
QE demos the
feature and send
test scenarios
ULTRA tester creates
Accessibility test cases
ULTRA tester runs
the test cycle
Defects reported into
ULTRA’s project
management tool
Slack & Ultra Process
31

33. Incoming project is
sent to the
coordination channel
QE demos the
feature and send
test scenarios
ULTRA tester creates
Accessibility test cases
ULTRA tester runs
the test cycle
Defects reported into
ULTRA’s project
management tool
ULTRA tests bug
fixes
Slack & Ultra Process
32

34. 3333

35. Scaling A11y Testing
34

36. ● Different across platforms
● Web Application:
○ Web Frontend, Backend
○ > 5 - 10 times a day
● Mobile/ Desktop:
○ Nightly
Deployment Process
35

37. ● Pre-merge checks:
○ Static Linters
○ Unit Tests
○ Some Functional Tests
● Post-merge checks:
○ More heavy Functional
Tests
Continuous Testing for A11y
36
Effort
UI
Unit Tests
Linters

38. Pre-merge Checks
37
Linters
● Plugin: eslint-plugin-jsx-a11y
● E.g: alt-text, media-has-caption, label-has-for

39. Pre-merge Checks
38
Unit Tests

40. Pre-merge Checks
39
UI

41. All put together on CI
40

42. AutoQE Assurance
41

43. Before Development
42

44. During Development
43

45. After Development
44

46. 45
More examples

47. Success Story
46

48. Success Story
47

49. Success Story
48

50. 49

51. Thank you!
50

52. Questions?
51