About

Methodology

Different kinds of evidence answer different accessibility questions.

We separate evidence types

No Default distinguishes standards, automated results, manual testing, assistive-technology testing, research, first-person accounts and interpretation. They should not be presented as interchangeable.

We make limits visible

Test guidance should explain both what a pass establishes and what it does not establish.

We don't generalise one person's experience

First-person accounts can reveal barriers and challenge assumptions. They do not make one person representative of an entire disability group.

What might our testing be missing?

No test method represents every way a product may be used. At the end of a testing cycle, record what was covered and what was not: tasks, environments, assistive technologies, interaction modes and whether disabled-user testing was conducted.

The aim is not to create a checklist of people to test “for”. It is to make the limits of the evidence visible and decide what additional perspectives or methods are needed.

How No Default uses evidence

Source type is part of the claim. No Default does not treat a standard, research paper, platform document, first-person account and its own interpretation as interchangeable evidence.

Standard

Normative requirements such as WCAG. Used for what a conformance requirement actually says.

Platform guidance

Documentation about a particular platform or assistive-technology environment. Useful within that scope, not universal proof.

Research

Evidence whose strength depends on method, participants, context and limitations.

First-person account

Evidence of one person's experience. Valuable without being treated as representative of everyone sharing a diagnosis or disability.

Community discussion

Useful for discovering recurring questions, language and possible barriers. It is not automatically verified evidence.

No Default interpretation

An analysis, synthesis or working principle developed by this project. It should be labelled and open to challenge.

Source and review dates

Substantive guidance should identify its important sources and a last-reviewed date. A review date means the page was checked against its cited material on that date; it is not a guarantee that every external source remains unchanged.

Claims about people

No Default avoids turning a single person's experience into a claim about a disability group. Where broader claims are made, they should be supported by broader evidence. Where the evidence is first-person, it should remain first-person.

Corrections

Evidence can be incomplete, outdated or interpreted poorly. Corrections and challenges are explicitly invited, including disagreement with No Default's framing.