I'm visually impaired.
I use voiceover.
Test your site with voiceover. It's easy with ios.

Also test localizations. I hate when what i get as words depends on language - when other info is missimg.

Another good way to test boiceover style would be the old Links browser.

Do automated testing! The thing that drives me crazy is when someone has a perfectly accessible website, that's easy to use, and does everything right. Then they introduce some new feature, and...totally inaccessible. Lots of automated testing tools are available. No, they don't catch everything. But I'd rather a website that I can at least use, even if it's not perfect, than a perfect website that breaks twice a month because nobody tests the new features and changes. Use the accessibility testing tools, and don't release your website updates into production until the tests pass. This way, even if you can't get feedback from a blind person on every new change, you can at least be sure it'll work most of the time.

I'm visually impaired (and a developer). The big thing that bothers me is I use the increase/decrease text size options (ctrl +/-/0) in my browser of choice (firefox). This destroys the format for most sites. Many times I'll have to increase text size to read, then reset it back to normal in order to navigate.


Try increasing the text size on your sites to something ridiculous like 24pt and see how it formats.


Tooltips generally do not zoom with those so they are very difficult to read.

As far as screen readers I haven't looked in to it in a while. I did contract work for NASA several years ago and they required Section 508 compliance.

What I find annoying is every site seems to follow the white background black text template. I use Stylish on Firefox and a custom template that turns all pages black with white font to make it easier to read. The same can be achieved on Chrome with the extension change colors. It's a happy surprise when I visit a site that has a dark background with white font.