Accessibility Testing: Case History of Blind Testers of Enterprise Software
http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/stc/tc/2006/00000053/00000001/art00005
  access restricted (by the publisher) to members/subscribers/customers only
  peer-reviewed

Bayer, Nancy L. and Lisa Pappas
Technical Communication Online
2006

Abstract:

How do software companies evaluate whether accessibility criteria mandated by law are met? Confirmation is often provided by filling out a checklist. However, the method used for determining compliance to the checklist is not specified. Typically the task of filling out the checklist is done by accessibility specialists, usability professionals, quality assurance testers, or, in one case we know of, the development team that wrote the software. We have conducted several types of accessibility evaluations, walkthroughs, and testing with scenarios by sighted test participants and testing by blind test participants. While testing with blind participants takes considerable preparation time, we have uncovered important findings that were not revealed with sighted participants. We consider accessibility testing by blind participants an important component of our evaluations.