Accessibility Tools
Overview
The following is a list of tools that can help you assess the level of accessibility of your pages.
Remember that no tool can give you a 100% certain answer to the question "Is my page accessible?" This requires testing by a qualified individual.
A more comprehensive list of tools is available on the W3C website.
Screen readers
Screen readers are a form of Assistive Technology that many students use. Getting familiar with operating a screen reader can help you understand the context of your website/application within Assistive Technology, and it can give you an appreciation of the importance of good usability.
Although most students who use screen readers use JAWS, it's licensing is often cost prohibitive for developers. A free alternative is NVDA, or the included VoiceOver on Macs.
Browser plugins
- WAVE toolbar - Probably the single best accessibility tool out there. It provides alerting to common errors, and insight into the structure of a page. Highly recommended.
- Fangs screen reader emulator - The next best thing to operating a screen reader yourself; Fangs will show you what a screen reader would say to a user. Highly recommended.
- Color contrast tool - Helps identify if sufficient color contrast exists.
- Accessibility tools - all purpose toolbar.
External checkers
- AChecker - Online Web accessibility evaluation tool
- Cynthia Says Portal - Online Web accessibility evaluation tool
- W3C HTML Validator - Validates your HTML coding