1. Accessibility Guide
  2. Developing Accessible Apps
  3. Testing Apps for Accessibility

4.6 Testing Apps for Accessibility

APEX includes a built-in tool called the Advisor, which developers can run as part of quality assurance of an application.

To help with other non-mandatory attributes defined by a developer, the Advisor includes a set of accessibility checks to highlight possible common accessibility problems (such as page items with no labels or page regions with no row headers defined). Developers should review and fix such problems as part of their ongoing development process. We recommend fixing issues identified by the Advisor before performing other accessibility testing (such as testing with Assistive Technologies).

Parent topic: Developing Accessible Apps

4.6.1 About Accessibility Checks in Advisor

The Advisor performs the following accessibility checks when you run it. These checks identify some common configuration errors which have a negative impact on accessibility.

Theme Style tested for accessibility

Theme Styles that have not been tested for accessibility may contain more issues, such as insufficient color contrast.

Page has page title

Meaningful page titles help users understand the content and purpose of the current page. (Note: Global pages, and pages with no regions are excluded from this check.)

Region has Row Header

Regions that support row headers should have a column with the Value Identifies Row attribute set to Yes.

Page item has label

The item should have a defined label. For example, only defining the Value Placeholder text is not sufficient in labelling an item for accessibility.

Page item does not cause an unexpected context change

Some page item settings can cause an unexpected change of context for the user, such as select lists that submit the page after a value is selected.

Consider the following ways to retain the context of the page:
  • Remove page submit or redirect behavior from page items, and replace the functionality with Dynamic Actions or Cascading LOVs (if you need to stay on the same page).
  • Notify users what happens when they click an item. For example, adding "Launches new page" in the label.
Display Image item has image ALT text defined

Display Image page items must provide text or a column (depending on the Based On setting) to serve as the image's alternative text. This is important for accessibility, as it is the only way for some users to perceive the content of the image.

Parent topic: Testing Apps for Accessibility

4.6.2 Running Advisor on a Single Page

Perform accessibility checks (and others) on a page in an app.

To run Advisor on a single page:

  1. Navigate to the appropriate page.
  2. Click the Utilities menu and select Advisor.

    Advisor appears.

  3. Under Checks to Perform, review the selected options. Select and deselect options as appropriate.
  4. Click Perform Check at the top of the page.

    A Results page appears.

  5. To alter the existing preferences:
    1. Under Filter Result, deselect the appropriate options.
    2. Click Apply Filter
  6. To re-run the Advisor and see if reported problems are fixed, click Perform Check.

Parent topic: Testing Apps for Accessibility

4.6.3 Running Advisor on an Entire Application

Perform accessibility checks (and others) on an entire app.

To run Advisor on an entire application:

  1. Navigate to the appropriate application:
    1. On the Workspace home page, click the App Builder icon.

      The App Builder home page appears.

    2. Select the application.

      The Application home page appears.

  2. Click Utilities.
  3. Click Advisor.

    The Advisor page appears.

  4. Under Checks to Perform:
    1. Expand Checks to Perform.
    2. Review the selected options. Select and deselect options as appropriate.
  5. In Pages(s), enter a comma separated list of pages in the field provided. To check all pages, leave this option blank.
  6. Click Perform Check at the top of the page.

    A Results page appears.

    Tip:

    Current Advisor settings are used next time the check is performed.

  7. To alter the existing preferences:
    1. Under Filter Result, deselect the appropriate options.
    2. Click Apply Filter.
  8. To run Advisor again, click Perform Check.

Parent topic: Testing Apps for Accessibility

4.6.4 Enabling Accessibility Tags in PDF Documents

Manually enable and disable accessibility preferences that persist beyond the user's current session using the APEX_UTIL.SET_PREFERENCE procedure.

Creating an accessible PDF enables the document to be read aloud by a screen reader and other text-to-speech tools and increases the PDF file size. Setting the p_preference parameter APEX_PDF_ACCESSIBLE to Y adds accessibility tags for native PDF printing. Alternately, setting APEX_PDF_ACCESSIBLE to N disables accessibility tags. This preference is set automatically when the Include Accessibility Tags switch is enabled in the download dialog of an interactive report or interactive grid.

See Also:

SET_PREFERENCE Procedure in Oracle APEX API Reference

Parent topic: Testing Apps for Accessibility