Slack's Automated Accessibility Testing: Challenges and Triumphs

2025-01-08
Slack's Automated Accessibility Testing: Challenges and Triumphs

The Slack engineering team details their journey implementing automated accessibility testing. Initial attempts to integrate Axe into their React Testing Library and Jest framework failed due to complexities. They pivoted to Playwright, using custom functions and strategies to successfully automate accessibility checks and integrate them into CI/CD. While not fully hiding automated checks, they minimized developer overhead by simplifying workflows, improving reporting, and establishing clear processes. Future plans include further optimization and exploring AI-assisted testing.