Tools and resources for Accessible Web Design

Compiled by
John M. Slatin
Director, Institute for Technology and Learning
University of Texas at Austin

Information resources

  1. Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (including checklist and techniques documents), at http://www.w3.org/wai. The Guidelines are the closest thing to a universally accepted standard for accessible Web content. (Note: the WAI site also includes useful information about use of color, etc.)
  2. WAI Curriculum on Accessible Web Content. Consists of 4 closely related sets of slides designed either for classroom presentation or self-study.
  3. WebABLE Solutions: www.webABLE.com. Site maintained by Mike Paciello, founder of the Web Accessibility Initiative. Good design and usability information plus links to hundreds of other resources, including the WAI site
  4. HTML Writerís Guild web site, www.hwg.org and the Guild's AWARE Center (Accessible Web Authoring Resources and Education) http://aware.hwg.org/ . See their presentation at http://www.hwg.org/opcenter/events/fedweb/20.html for some useful information.
  5. Microsoftís 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.
  6. UseIt! Web site maintained by Jakob Neilsen, a leading usability expert who has written some useful pointers about accessible design. www.useit.com.
  7. IBM Accessibility Center at http://www.ibm.com/able. Valuable information about Web accessibility, relevant legislation, employment of people with disabilities, IBM assistive technologies.
  8. 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.

 

Validation tools

  1. BOBBY, the automated accessibility checker. Available at www.cast.org/bobby. Comes in two versionsóone 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!)
  2. W3Cís HTML Validation Service, available online via the WAI site at www.w3.org/wai.
  3. HTML-Kit. http://www.w3.org/People/Raggett/tidy/. Designed by Dave Raggett, developer of VRML specification; some portions of this tool are reportedly included in Allaire HomeSite now.

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

  1. HoTMeTaL Pro, version 6.0, by SoftQuad. Very good support for accessibility features, such as prompting for SUMMARY and CAPTION tags for tables as well as ALT text for images, etc. Includes HTML and accessibility validators. Interface is accessible but somewhat difficult. Available only for PC.
  2. Allaire HomeSite apparently also does some prompting for accessible content features. They have also reportedly included an HTML validator in HomeSite. As of October 25, 2000, Macromedia has announced the availability of an accessibility validator as a free extension to its popular Dreamweaver authoring tool; the company promises that this and other accessibility support will be incorporated into the next release of Dreamweaver. Macromedia has also pledged to produce accessibility extensions for Flash and a new Flash player that supports accessibility.

Tools for captioning, descriptive video, etc.

  1. Apple QuickTime Pro (widely available). 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 support SMIL (see below).
  2. 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.
  3. SMIL. Synchronized Media Integration Language. A W3C specification for coordinating synchronized display of multiple media tracks such as video, audio, captions, descriptions, etc., etc.