Accessibility Tools and Resources

Web and IT Accessibility Tutorials

• WebAIM (Web Accessibility In Mind)
  offers a wealth of helpful resources, including an introductory tutorial, articles for audiences of all levels of expertise, a blog, and an active discussion list.
• HTCTU Trainings and Tutorials
  Developed by the High Tech Center Training Unit of the California Community College system, these tutorials are extremely thorough and well-written, and cover a broad variety of topics related to IT accessibility.

Web and IT Accessibility Resources from DO-IT

The DO-IT Center (Disabilities, Opportunities, Internetworking, and Technology) at the UW has worked tirelessly since 1991 to increase the participation of individuals with disabilities in challenging academic programs and careers. In doing so DO-IT has developed a number of resources related to IT accessibility, including the resources listed below.

• DO-IT Knowledge Base
  Search hundreds of articles with answers to common questions, case studies, and promising practices regarding accessibility of technology, college, graduate school, and careers for individuals with disabilities.
• Technology and Universal Design
  A collection of publications and videos on various aspects of procurement and development of accessible technology.
• World Wide Access: Accessible Web Design – Publication and accompanying video with general information on how to make web pages accessible to people with disabilities.
• Creating Video and Multimedia Products that are Accessible to People with Sensory Impairments – Publication on how to design video presentations that are accessible to individuals with disabilities.
• Web Accessibility: Guidelines for Administrators
  Non-technical guidance for administrators on how to assure that websites in their organizations are accessible to everyone.
• Access to Technology: An Online Tutorial
  An overview of assistive technology as well as the design of accessible electronic and information technology.

Guidelines and Standards

• Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (WCAG)
  This is the definitive set of web accessibility guidelines, from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
• Accessible Rich Internet Applications (ARIA)
  ARIA is a W3C specification, currently a working draft, that provides a way to make dynamic web applications and advanced user interface controls more accessible to people with disabilities.
• Section 508
  This site from the U.S. Access Board features the full text of the Section 508 legislation, the Electronic and Information Technology Accessibility Standards and accompanying tutorials, and the latest draft of the soon-to-be-updated standards.
• The Web Standards Project
  A self-described “grassroots coalition fighting for standards which ensure simple, affordable access to web technologies for all.”
• IMS Global Learning Consortium Accessibility Specification
  IMS is working on an AccessForAll Meta-data Specification, which is intended to make it possible to identify resources that match a user’s stated preferences or needs. This builds on work by the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative. IMS has also developed a set of Guidelines for Developing Accessible Learning Applications.

Standards Validation and Accessibility Evaluation Tools

The tools listed in this section are all free and have been recommended by web developers at the UW who have experience developing accessible websites.

• W3C Validators
  Having valid code is a first step toward web accessibility and cross-browser compatibility. The W3C provides several tools for checking the validity of your code, including an  HTML Validator, CSS Validator, and Mobile Checker.
• Total Validator
  This tool is an (X)HTML validator, an accessibility validator, a spell checker, and a broken links checker all rolled into one tool allowing one-click validation of your web pages. It’s available as a standalone application for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux; and is also available as a Firefox extension.
• HTML Tidy
  This is a software library that evaluates and cleans up HTML, automatically generating a reformatted (i.e., “tidied”) version. HTML Tidy is integrated into the free web development editor HTML-Kit and is available in a Windows GUI version called TidyGUI.
• Deque Axe is an open source rules library for accessibility testing. It was developed to empower developers to take automated accessibility testing into their own hands and to avoid common pitfalls of other automated accessibility tools.
• Functional Accessibility Evaluator (FAE)
  Online web accessibility evaluator from the University of Illinois, designed for testing WCAG 2.0 Level A and AA requirements. FAE is capable of crawling a website and providing a summary report, plus reports for each individual page.
• WAVE
  Developed by the folks at WebAIM, this online tool evaluates the accessibility of a web page and shows results using icons and indicators, embedded onto the original page.
• AChecker
  This online web accessibility checker was developed by the Adaptive Technology Resource Centre at the University of Toronto.

Color Checkers

The W3C’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 requires a specific contrast ratio between foreground and background colors. There are several tools available for measuring contrast:

• Colour Contrast Analyser
  This free application, available in Windows and Mac versions, makes it easy to check foreground & background color combinations. Both versions include an eyedropper tool for easily grabbing a particular color from anywhere on the screen.
• WebAIM Color Contrast Checker 
  This handy online tool includes a feature to “lighten” or “darken” existing colors until you find a combination that meets WCAG 2.0 requirements.

Browser Toolbars, Add-ons, and Extensions

• Web Developer Toolbar for Firefox or Chrome.
  This highly useful toolbar is packed with features, including many that help developers to create websites that are accessible.
• AInspector Sidebar for Firefox
  This tool conducts an accessibility evaluation (based on WCAG 2.0 and ARIA) of the page that’s currently loaded in the browser, and provides feedback in a sidebar.
• WAVE Chrome Extension
  This toolbar from WebAIM is similar in some ways to the one preceding it in this list, albeit with a few different accessibility rules and a different user interface. We recommend trying both to see which one you like best.
• Accessibility Bookmarklets
  This suite of bookmarklets can be used in any browser and work by visually highlighting specific accessibility features within a web page, including ARIA landmarks, headings, lists, and accessibility-related features of images and forms.

Programming, Scripting, and ARIA

Given the high level of interest in dynamic web programming among UW Web Developers, it is imperative that developers become familiar with accessibility standards, guidelines, and techniques, and apply them with developing web applications. Accessibility of dynamic web applications is dependent in large part on ARIA, the W3C’s draft specification for Accessible Rich Internet Applications. For additional information and resources related to ARIA see our ARIA for Web Applications page.

Also, the following tool enables developers to inspect the accessibility information that is being exposed by web browsers to the operating system through various accessibility APIs. This can be very helpful for gaining a deeper understanding of the accessibility of your website or application:

• Accessibility Viewer (aViewer)
  Works in Windows only

Mobile Development

• Accessibility for Apple Developers
  Apple’s site includes a variety of resources for iOS developers.
• Accessibility for Android Developers 
  Includes a variety of resources that help developers to use the Android framework to make applications more accessible.
• Adobe PhoneGap Accessibility
  This post on the Adobe Accessibility Blog describes developments in PhoneGap accessibility and links to several tools and resources.

Assistive Technologies

When testing web pages and IT products with assistive technologies, it is important to be aware that no two assistive technology (AT) products are alike. Developers are cautioned to use these tools only as an approximate gauge of accessibility. What seems to work perfectly in Product A may be inaccessible in Product B. Therefore, developers should resist the tendency to develop sites and applications that work with a particular AT product, and focus instead on developing sites that comply with standards.

Some assistive technology vendors provide demo versions of their products, some of which can be used indefinitely but time-out after a few minutes of operation. Product licenses vary as to whether using these demo versions is permissible for testing and development purposes.

Also, all major desktop operating systems are bundled with basic assistive technology utilities. For more information about these utilities in Windows and Mac OS X consult the accessibility sites at Microsoft, Apple.

In addition, the following free assistive technologies can be useful for testing web pages.

• NVDA
  NVDA (“Non-Visual Desktop Access”) is a free, open source screen reader. WebAIM publishes a handy guide on Using NVDA to Evaluate Web Accessibility.
• VoiceOver 
  VoiceOver is the screen reader that ships with Mac OS X, as well as iOS devices such as the iPhone and iPad. WebAIM publishes a handy guide on Using VoiceOver to Evaluate Web Accessibility.
• ChromeVox
  ChromeVox is Google’s screen reader that ships with Chrome OS. It is also available as an extension for the Google Chrome web browser.