Checking Web Sites for Accessibility

The best way to test your web content for accessibility is by having people with various disabilities test it, including people who use screen readers, people who need to enlarge the text, people who are deaf, and people who cannot use the keyboard. But there are intermediate steps that you can take to assess the accessibility of your web content.

• UCSC Web Accessibility Tools/Training
• Sensus Access
• SiteImprove
• SiteImprove Accessibility Plug-in for Chrome
• Visit the Tools and Testing page at UCOP's Resources for Designing Accessible Web Sites. This site includes a description of available testing tools, web developer tools, captioning services and tools, surveys and forms, and color analyzers.
• Click on the Articles tab at the Web Accessibility In Mind (WebAIM) website. WebAIM remains one of the best Internet resources on web accessibility, and they have a large number of articles in their "Evaluation, Testing, and Tools" section, including several on how to use screenreaders to evaluate web site accessibility.
• Don't forget about the accessibility of PDFs. With more and more information being posted as PDFs, it is critical that PDF content be accessible, too. Several on-line resources exist to assist you on this topic:
  • Tips on making PDFs accessible
  • WebAIM's article on this topic includes instruction on how to create accessible PDFs using Adobe Acrobat, Microsoft Word, and OpenOffice.org Writer.
    

• Consider obtaining screenreader software so that you can assess for yourself how your site appears to those using this technology.
• If you have PowerPoint presentations available on your site, read the latest article on PowerPoint accessibility at WebAIM's website.