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Tools and Resources for Accessible Web Design

Compiled by
John Slatin, University of Texas at Austin (jslatin@mail.utexas.edu)
Jim Allan, Texas School for the Blind & Visually Impaired (jimallan@tsbvi.edu)

Rev. Dec, 2002

Accessibility Guidelines and Standards

• Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI), at http://www.w3.org/wai. A major activity of the World Wide Web Consortium, the WAI is a broad collaboration among industry, academic research, and members of the disability community to define standards and techniques for maximizing the accessibility of Web-based materials for all users.
• WAI Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (including checklist and techniques documents), at http://www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT/. These Guidelines are the closest thing to a universally accepted standard for accessible Web content (though this position may be challenged by the U.S. government’s Section 508 standards; see below). (Note: the WAI site also includes useful information about use of color, etc.)
• Section 508 Final Standards, at http://www.access-board.gov/sec508/standards.htm. These standards became effective on June 21, 2001, and govern IT accessibility for all federal agencies and entities operating federal contracts. These standards are expected to have significant impact in the private and nonprofit sectors as well as in government. For additional information on Section 508, see http://www.section508.gov.
• IBM Web Accessibility Checklist and Tutorial, at http://www-3.ibm.com/able/accessweb.html. The most recent version of IBM’s accessibility checklist is closely aligned with Section 508 federal standards. Each checkpoint includes a link to a short, clear tutorial about basic design and testing techniques.
• SALT: Specifications for Accessible Learning Technologies, by the National Center for Accessible Media in collaboration with the IMS Global Learning Consortium. At http://ncam.wgbh.org/salt/.
• Making Educational Software Accessible. Excellent, detailed guidelines for CD-ROM-based multimedia. The guidelines aim at education, but are much more broadly applicable. Site includes downloadable prototypes and information about accessibility issues related to specific development platforms. At http://ncam.wgbh.org/cdrom/guideline/.
• Distance Education: Access Guidelines for Students with Disabilities. The California Community College System’s comprehensive accessibility guidelines for its distance learning applications, published in 1999. At http://www.htctu.fhda.edu/dlguidelines/final%20dl%20guidelines.htm.
• “Designing Web Sites for People with Learning Disabilities.” Useful guidelines published by England’s Society for People with Learning Disabilities. The document tries to practice what it preaches. At http://www.learningdisabilities.org.uk/html/content/webdesign.cfm.
• Guidelines for Signing Books. Guidelines for the production of video-based stories in sign language, developed by an international team in the European Union. At http://www.sign-lang.uni-hamburg.de/SigningBooks/SBRC/Grid/d71/guide00.htm

Accessibility resources

Books

• Maximum Accessibility: Making Your Web Site More Usable for Everyone
  By John Slatin and Sharron Rush, Addison Wesley Professional, ISBN: 0201774224
• Constructing Accessible Web Sites
  by Jim Thatcher, et al. glasshaus ISBN: 1904151000
• Building Accessible Websites
  by Joe Clark. New Riders Press, ISBN: 073571150X
• Homepage Usability: 50 Websites Deconstructed
  by Jakob Nielsen, Marie Tahir. New Riders Publishing; ISBN: 073571102X
• Designing Web Usability : The Practice of Simplicity
  by Jakob Nielsen. New Riders Publishing; ISBN: 156205810X

Online information and tutorials

• “Web Accessibility for Section 508,” at http://www.jimthatcher.com/webcourse1.htm. The online accessibility course described in the next entry, on the site of the person who wrote it. Thatcher’s site includes other valuable information, including a comparison chart with side-by-side views of Section 508 requirements and related WCAG Checkpoints. http://www.jimthatcher.com.
• Information Technology Technical Assistance Training Center (ITTATC) Web Accessibility Course, at http://www.ittatc.org/training/webcourse/index.cfmr. This course was developed by Jim Thatcher, a member of the panel that developed the accessibility standards for Section 508. Thatcher developed the first screenreader for computers using a graphical user interface.
• Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired Web site, at http://www.tsbvi.edu. This site, maintained by Jim Allan, Webmaster and Statewide Technical Specialist, provides a wealth of information on a broad range of accessibility topics. Allan is a member of the WAI.
• Adaptive Technology Resource Center, University of Toronto, at http://www.utoronto.ca/atrc/. Wide-ranging research and development program related to adaptive technologies for persons with disabilities, including excellent work on Web and software accessibility. See also the SNOW project site, at http://snow.utoronto.ca/index.html.
• National Center for Accessible Media (NCAM), at http://ncam.wgbh.org/. NCAM has pioneered such important developments as closed captioning and descriptive video service, and continues to conduct innovative research on ways to make video and other media both interactive and accessible. Free download of NCAM’s MAGpie software for captioning and describing video.
• WebAIM. Web Accessibility in Mind. Tutorials, training, accessible simulations, laws, guidelines and more. At http://www.webaim.org/. The 508 checklist with success/failure criteria is especially helpful - http://www.webaim.org/standards/508/checklist
• WebSavvy. Useful tutorials and other information on accessible design, including Flash, from the University of Toronto. At http://www.websavvy-access.org.
• Lighthouse International’s guides to improved legibility through font selection and sizing, and effective use of color and contrast. Available at “Simple Steps to More Readable Type through Universal Graphic Design” is available at http://www.lighthouse.org/bigtype/universal_graphic_design.htm. And “Making Text Legible: Designing for People with Partial Sight” is available at http://www.lighthouse.org/print_leg.htm.
• Safe web colours for colour-deficient vision. Available at http://more.btexact.com/ces/colours/. Guidelines for selecting Web colors that work for people who have difficulty seeing certain colors. Excellent illustrations. By Christine Rigdon of British Telecom.
• Captioning FAQ. A readable guide to closed captioning by the Media Access Group at WGBH-TV in Boston, the PBS station that pioneered closed captioning for television in the early 1970s. At http://main.wgbh.org/wgbh/pages/mag/services/captioning/faq/.
• Trace Research and Development Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Probably the leading center for research on information technology and people with disabilities. At http://www.trace.wisc.edu.
• HTML Writer’s Guild web site, www.hwg.org and the Guild's AWARE Center (Accessible Web Authoring Resources and Education) http://www.awarecenter.org/. Site was last updated in April 2001, but authoring resources are still useful.
• International Center for Disability Resources on the Internet, Section 508 resource Page, at http://www.icdri.org/section_508_resource_page.htm. Substantial listing of government, industry, and academic resources related to federal accessibility standards as defined by Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act.
• Microsoft’s Enable site, www.microsoft.com/enable. Substantial site providing information about and access to many Microsoft tools for accessible design, plus links to many other resources including information about Microsoft’s Active Accessibility (MSAA) Application Programming Interface (API) for Windows.
• UseIt! Web site maintained by Jakob Neilsen, a leading usability expert who has written some useful pointers about accessible design. www.useit.com.
• ITAL’s AccessFirst site, at http://www.ital.utexas.edu/accessfirst/. Information about the AccessFirst Design & Usability Studio and other AccessFirst design projects.

Validation and repair tools

• WebXACT (formerly known as BOBBY), the automated accessibility checker.  Available at http://webxact.watchfire.com/.  Comes in two versions—one on the Web, one standalone (Java-based_ application.  Standalone version can check a whole Web site; the online version checks one page at a time and has trouble with dynamically generated pages.  Be aware that no automated tool can possibly detect all accessibility problems.  Humans are necessary!)
• A-PROMPT.  An evaluation and repair tool developed jointly by Toronto's Adaptive Technology Resource Center and Wisconsin's Trace Research & Development Center (see above).  Available for download at http://aprompt.snow.utoronto.ca/. W3C's HTML Validation Service, available online via the WAI site at www.w3.org/wai.
• HTML-Kit.  Available at http://www.chami.com/html-kit.  This powerful Web-authoring tool performs several useful and important functions, including HTML validation and conversion to XHTML.  It also cleans up extraneous HTML code generated when Microsoft Office documents are saved as Web pages.
• The WAVE, at http://wave.webaim.org.  Developed at Temple University (Philadelphia) by the late Len Kasday, the WAVE is especially useful in helping sighted developers see ALT text and recognize the order in which items on their pages will be read by screenreaders and speaking browsers.
• Microsoft Powerpoint WWW Accessibility Wizard.  At http://cita.disability.uiuc.edu/software/office/.  Developed by the Division of Education-Rehabilitation Services at the University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign.  This tool steps Powerpoint authors through the process of converting Powerpoint presentations into accessible Web-based presentations.
• The WAI's Evaluation and Repair Tools Working Group maintains a list of free and commercial evaluation and repair tools.  The list is frequently updated.  Available at http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/existingtools.html.

Authoring tools reported to provide at least some support for creating accessible content

• Macromedia’s Dreamweaver MX includes extensions for checking compliance with Section 508 and with general usability guidelines. If you turn on Accessibility Preferences, the authoring tool will prompt for ALT text, table markup, form labels, and other accessibility features.http://www.macromedia.com/macromedia/accessibility/
• Access.Adobe. Information about accessibility features for Adobe products, including instructions on using Acrobat 7 and MS Word 2000 to create accessible PDF documents. At http://access.adobe.com

Tools for captioning, descriptive video, etc.

• MAGpie (Media Access Generator). Produced by the National Center for Accessible Media (NCAM) at WGBH (PBS) in Boston, http://www.wgbh.org/ncam/. Tool for producing closed captions, descriptive video, etc., and outputting files in multiple formats including QuickTime, RealPlayer, SMIL, and SAMI. Version 2.0 is currently in beta-testing.
• Apple QuickTime Pro. Supports multiple tracks for video, audio, closed captioning, description, etc. Limitation of current version is that captions, etc., are all part of one QuickTime file and therefore not read by screen readers such as JAWS and Window-Eyes. Reportedly this will be solved in the next version which will also provide better support for SMIL (see above). http://www.apple.com/quicktime/products/
• SMIL. Synchronized Media Integration Language. A W3C specification for coordinating synchronized display of multiple media tracks such as video, audio, captions, descriptions, etc., etc. SMIL is an XML application. See http://www.w3.org/AudioVideo/. RealPlayer 8 Basic can play SMIL documents, allowing users to toggle audio descriptions and captions on and off.

Assistive Technology Browser Resources

• Connect Outloud - JAWS for the Web - http://www.freedomscientific.com/fs_products/software_connect.asp

Other Useful Evaluation Tools/Toys

• Microsoft IE 5.x Developer Accessories (View partial source, view DOM, more) -   http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/previous/webaccess/default.asp
• Microsoft IE 5.x  Web Accessories (links list, toggle images, more) -  http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/previous/webaccess/ie5wa.asp
• 508 Compliant Demo Tools (find images with no 'alt', gray scale a page, and kill style sheets)
  http://www.508compliant.com/tools.htm
• Ian's Favlets (show page dependencies, table headings, links-titles and hrefs, and more)
  http://www.accessify.com/tools-and-wizards/accessibility-checking-favelets.asp
• Jesse's Bookmarklet site
  http://www.squarefree.com/bookmarklets/

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Last Revision: January 15, 2009