Resources

General Web Accessibility and Tools

General Web Accessibility Resources

Overall Evaluation and Education

  • WebAIM (Web Accessibility in Mind): The most comprehensive resource on the web for both learning about accessibility and evaluating your website or product.
  • Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (WCAG 2.0):The technical standards for web accessibility. UC uses these standards to determine compliance with the official UC Information Technology Accessibility Policy. WebAIM provides a helpful checklist for implementing these standards.
  • Section 508 of the United States Rehabilitation Act: Section 508 is an amendment to the the Rehabilitation Act, implemented in 1998. Section 508 outlines the requirements for ensuring that all federal agencies make their electronic and information technology accessible to people with disabilities. Once again, WebAIM has a helpful checklist for understanding Section 508.

Tools for Running Scans and Tests

  • Juicy Studio toolbar: A Firefox toolbar from Juicy Studio that goes beyond common accessibility issues. This toolbar helps identify Accessible Rich Internet Applications (ARIA) roles (important for dynamic content and advanced user controls), examines data tables, and evaluates color contrast (for low-vision users).
  • Paciello Group toolbar for Internet Explorer: A toolbar specifically built to test for web accessibility in IE.
  • HTML CodeSniffer: Client-side script that checks HTML source code and detects violations of a defined coding standard.
  • Chrome Accessibility Developer Tools: This extension will add an Accessibility audit, and an Accessibility sidebar pane in the Elements tab, to the native Chrome Developer Tools.
  • AInspector: Web accessibility evaluation tool for Firefox based on WCAG 2.0 and ARIA.
  • aXe: Deque System's aXe (The Accessibility Engine) open source library is a lightweight JavaScript library that executes automated accessibility testing inside your testing framework or browser of choice.
  • Tenon.io: Automated accessibility testing coverage for a wide array of accessibility best practices.
  • Image Alt Tag Checker: Analyze all img alt attributes from your page to spot missing tags and to find out where to optimize alt tags for SEO.

External Resources

Color Contrast Tools

  • Juicy Studio Color Contrast Analyser: To use this tool, add your website's background color and foreground color to the boxes provided. The analyser will calculate your site's overall contrast ratio, which will allow you to determine if your site passes the WCAG 2.0 requirements for visual presentation of text.
  • Paciello Group Contrast Analyser: This tool is a native app for Windows and Mac that will evaluate the color contrast of your website, and will also tell you if your site meets the WCAG 2.0 standards for color contrast.
  • ColorZilla: The ColorZilla browser extension is available for Firefox and Chrome, and includes an eyedropper, color picker, and color analyzer. This tool also includes a gradient generator.
  • Colorfilter: This tool is still in development. If you only use one filter, use the grayscale filter which will not only point out potential problem areas, but will also let you see more clearly which areas the filter is unable to process.  
  • Webaim Contrast Checker: Simply select or enter a foreground and background color in RGB hexadecimal format (e.g., #fd3 or #f7da39). Select the lighten and darken options to modify the colors slightly. You can use the color picker to change colors or change luminosity.