Web Accessibility Tools
Web Accessibility Tools
Here's a list of free tools that you can use to check your website for accessibility– web based or downloadable.
Web Based
Accessibility Valet is a tool that allows you to check webpages against either Section 508 or WGAC accessibility compliance. One URL at a time may be checked with this online tool in free mode or unlimited use with paid subscription.
Adobe offers this resource for converting PDF files into either HTML or plain text. The PDF file must be online and a URL given to the converter to process. Note that only text is converted: graphics and other non-text elements are simply dropped.
The Cynthia Says portal is a web content accessibility validation solution. It is designed to identify errors in your content related to Section 508 standards and/or the WCAG guidelines. This free tool, meant for educational purposes, is an online test that only validates one page at a time.
TAW3 is a tool for the analysis of websites, based on the W3C - Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. It will check one URL at a time from its web-based mode, or offers downloadable versions for your desktop or browser.
WAVE is a free web accessibility evaluation tool provided by WebAIM. It is used to aid in the web accessibility evaluation process. Rather than providing a complex technical report, WAVE shows the original webpage with embedded icons and indicators that reveal the accessibility information within your page.
Vischeck is a tool for showing what things look like to someone who is color blind. You can try Vischeck online by either running Vischeck on your own uploaded image files or by running it on a webpage by feeding it a URL. You can also download the program as a Photoshop plugin to use it on your own computer.
Plugins
Dreamweaver Accessibility Plugins
Dreamweaver is the most popular and capable WYSIWYG webpage editor on the market today. Adobe Software offers a collection of vendor and third-party supplied plugins and add-ons that give a wide range of accessibility checking options.
Colbis allows designers to predict image legibility for color deficient viewers by accurately simulating color blindness. Given that up to 10% of the male population is affected by some sort of color blindness, webpage designers should use a tool such as this to preview their pages to make sure important information is not lost.
Some of the links on this page may require additional software to view.