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Testing Skip Navigation Accessibility Features in GatsbyJS

This test suite validates the accessibility features of skip navigation links in a Gatsby application. It ensures proper implementation of Reach UI’s skip navigation component and verifies both the presence and focus behavior of skip links for improved keyboard navigation.

Test Coverage Overview

The test suite provides essential coverage for skip navigation functionality, a critical accessibility feature.

Key areas tested include:

Existence of skip navigation links on page load
Proper focus management when navigating between pages
Integration with Reach UI’s skip link implementation

Implementation Analysis

The testing approach utilizes Cypress’s powerful selector and assertion capabilities to validate accessibility features. The tests employ data attributes for reliable element selection and leverage Cypress’s built-in focus management testing capabilities.

Implementation highlights:

Usage of data-reach-skip-link selectors
Focus state verification
Click event simulation for navigation testing

Technical Details

Testing infrastructure includes:

Cypress test runner for integration testing
Reach UI skip navigation component
Custom data attributes for testing (data-cy-page-link)
Cypress visit and get commands for page interaction
Focus management assertions

Best Practices Demonstrated

The test suite exemplifies several testing best practices for accessibility features.

Notable practices include:

Explicit testing of accessibility components
Clear test case separation for existence and behavior
Use of descriptive data attributes for element selection
Focus on user interaction patterns
Comprehensive validation of component behavior

gatsbyjs/gatsby

examples/using-reach-skip-nav/cypress/integration/skip-nav.test.js

            
describe("Skip Navigation Test", function() {
  it("Has a skip link", function() {
    cy.visit("/")
    cy.get("[data-reach-skip-link]").should("exist")
  })

  it("focuses skip link on navigation", function() {
    cy.get("[data-cy-page-link]").click()
    cy.focused().should("have.attr", "data-reach-skip-link")
  })
})