Tools
The following tools can be useful to web developers in creating and testing accessible sites and applications:
Checklist
- Web Accessibility Quick Test Checklist (PDF) - quick and easy tests that can be used to check accessibility during development.
Online Testing Tools
- W3C Markup Validation Service - the W3C validator tests live and uploaed web pages for valid HTML/XHTML code, the foundation for accessibility.
- Functional Accessibility Evaluator (FAE) - FAE automatically tests live web pages and/or sites for compliance with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's Web Accessibility Best Practices.
- WAVE - WebAIM's web accessibility evaluation tool test pages against leading accessibility standards and helps authors visualize accessibility issues. WAVE can test live and uploaded pages.
- ATRC Web Accessibility Checker - the University of Toronto's experimental checker uses 267 automatic and manual accessibility tests to check live and uploaded pages.
Toolbars
Internet Explorer
- Internet Explorer Developer Toolbar - a powerful toolbar from Microsoft that includes a DOM inspector, image report, and easy means of switching off CSS and scripts. (Included in IE 8.)
- Web Accessibility Toolbar [for IE], Version 2.0 - a powerful toolbar from the Web Accessibility Tools Consortium that lets you examine the structure and accessibility of web pages, including tables, headings, form fields, images and more.
- MSF&W Accessibility Toolbar - the custom-built toolbar that we use when manually testing web pages for accessibility; it provides quick and easy access to the most important tests.
Firefox
- Firefox Accessibility Extension - a toolbar from the University of Illinois designed to help people with disabilities as well as developers.
- Web Developer Extension - a powerful Firefox extension for that lets you examine the structure of web pages.
Assistive Technology Software
- ZoomText trial - screen magnification software from Ai Squared.
- JAWS trial - screen reading software from Freedom Scientific.
- Window-Eyes trial - screen reading software from GW Micro
- NVDA - an open source screen reader that works much like JAWS and Window-Eyes
- Assistive Technology Quick Reference - the essential commands for operating ZoomText, JAWS, and related accessibility features.
More Information
For more information about accessibility tools and testing techniques, please email accessibility@msfw.com or call (217) 698-3535 · (217) 698-1353 TTY.
