Quality control

In accessibility, the process of testing a product or its components against a defined specification to verify conformance. Quality control is quantitative — it measures specific outcomes, such as whether images have alt text, whether colour contrast meets WCAG thresholds, or whether keyboard navigation reaches all interactive elements. Automated accessibility testing tools like axe and WAVE perform quality control checks, as does manual testing with assistive technologies. Quality control catches defects but cannot ensure good accessibility on its own; without quality assurance processes embedded earlier in the development lifecycle, defects are found late and are more costly to fix.