{
  "schema": "vedokrok.public-item.v1",
  "release_id": "MHC-RPUB-20260920-75ad787a",
  "url": "/knowledge/include-the-people-whose-access-needs-your-tests-miss",
  "id": "MHC-D-RESEARCH-1097",
  "version": "0.1.0",
  "title": "Include the people whose access needs your tests miss",
  "summary": "An accessibility score is not a person completing the task.",
  "kind": "protocol",
  "body": "Include participants with relevant disabilities and assistive technologies in realistic task evaluation. Ask about their usual setup and access needs before the session. Combine their findings with standards-based checks instead of making either stand for the other.",
  "limits": [
    "Do not ask people to simulate a disability as a replacement for involving users. Participation must be accessible and voluntary."
  ],
  "topics": [
    "product-discovery-50"
  ],
  "intents": [],
  "source_ids": [
    "RS-789B0E22EE7CFA3B"
  ],
  "evidence": [
    {
      "claim": "W3C recommends involving users with disabilities alongside standards-based accessibility evaluation.",
      "source_id": "RS-789B0E22EE7CFA3B",
      "role": "supports",
      "note": "Neither a small user sample nor an automated scan certifies complete accessibility.",
      "locator": "Combining user involvement with conformance evaluation."
    }
  ],
  "use_when": [
    "An interface passes automated checks but some people still cannot use it."
  ],
  "avoid_when": [
    "Do not ask people to simulate a disability as a replacement for involving users. Participation must be accessible and voluntary."
  ],
  "example": "A keyboard check passes, but a screen-reader user cannot tell whether a recording has finished processing.",
  "check": "Can the team connect each finding to a task, setup and observed barrier, while stating what was not tested?",
  "steps": [
    "Recruit across the relevant needs rather than treating one participant as representative of everyone.",
    "Support the participant’s familiar tools and agreed accommodations.",
    "Record barriers, successful workarounds and untested combinations explicitly."
  ],
  "sources": [
    {
      "id": "RS-789B0E22EE7CFA3B",
      "title": "Involving Users in Evaluating Web Accessibility",
      "url": "https://www.w3.org/WAI/test-evaluate/involving-users/"
    }
  ],
  "relations": [
    {
      "from": "MHC-D-RESEARCH-1097",
      "to": "MHC-D-RESEARCH-1105",
      "type": "useful_with",
      "url": "/knowledge/announce-the-result-without-stealing-the-user-s-place"
    },
    {
      "from": "MHC-D-RESEARCH-1097",
      "to": "MHC-D-RESEARCH-1098",
      "type": "useful_with",
      "url": "/knowledge/give-the-user-a-goal-and-keep-your-instructions-out-of-the-result"
    }
  ],
  "collections": [
    {
      "id": "RC-B54B60261508AF85",
      "title": "Find the user problem before building more machinery",
      "url": "/collections/find-the-user-problem-before-building-more-machinery"
    }
  ]
}