We say testing is everyone's responsibility. But do we do enough about it is my question. We are in 2022, and still there are more tools in the market available to help web automation testers to find locators, than the knowledge and tools for the developer team to make more testable web applications. The part which is more thought provoking is that before making the application testable, they have to ensure that the application being built is actually W3 Compliant. The idea came to me in 2005 when I was building along with a dedicated team a no code platform OpKey. One of the areas i worked on was creating our own locator finder. While trying to build complex algorithms to build just the right locator which will finally work to find the element which doesn't have a unique identifier on the html page. 

The idea is unique and time worthy as it will bring shift left approach in the way web applications are built. We test at the html level while they are being built and ensure they are following all compliance standards. We empower developers, and testers with help of learning and tools to ensure that we are making the thing right by doing right things. The problem I foresee is to break the current mindset where people will have to unlearn that instead of finding locators and building too cool AI tools to automatically manage and heal your test, you build the thing in the right way. The support is look for is to empower me to work on this idea with like minded people who wish to believe that change is the only way forward. 

 

References

https://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/tools/

https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20-TECHS/H93.html

https://www.w3.org/WAI/standards-guidelines/act/rules/3ea0c8/proposed/