Accessibility Evaluation Procedure DRAFT

This evaluation procedure is meant to be a simple, standard method for getting a general idea of how accessible a Web site is and to identify the most important problems with the site.

Key Concepts

Begin by thinking about the experience of a handicapped person trying to use the Web. The following are some key concepts to understand about accessible Web design:

Standards-compliant: Pages that adhere to standards are easier to design assistive and adaptive client programs for.
No mouse: A person with poor sight, no sight, or poor dexterity cannot use a mouse.
A linear experience: Encountering a Web page with a voice browser is a linear process, progressing through the content elements in sequence or navigating by the structure of the content. A sighted person using a graphic browser, on the other hand, can take in two-dimensional spatial arrangements of content and go directly to any visible part.
Alternatives: Provide alternative text for people who cannot see graphics.
Making connections: When you can only hear a page, it can be hard to tell which text goes with which form field or which row and column a table cell is in. Simple labelling of text and form field pairs and of rows and columns enables assistive and adaptive programs to correctly present content relationships.

For a more complete explanation of accessibility aspects of Web design, see WebAIM's Introduction to Web Accessibility.

Setup

Get and install the AIS Web Accessibility Toolbar in your Internet Explorer browser.

Evaluation Procedure

Identify key pages for site.
- The home page
- An example of each of site page types. Web sites typically have only a few standard page layouts. Select at least one page of each layout type.
For each of the key pages:
1. Check for standards-based, validated coding
  - View the Web page to be checked.
  - From the Web Accessibility Toolbar, pulldown the "Validate" menu to "W3C HTML Validator" and then select the "Validate HTML [new window]" option
  - If the Result is colored in green (it may say several things) then the page complies with standard coding practices.
  - If the Result is colored red, then the code in the page needs some work. Do not worry about the details, just put in your report that it failed validation.
2. Evaluate keyboard navigibility of the page
  - Using just the keyboard (no mouse), navigate through the page.
    1. Can you reach all the information on the page?
    2. If the page has form fields and links, can you tab to them?
    3. Are you able to use the functionality offered by the page successfully?
3. Evaluate coding and page design using the Web Accessibility Rubric
4. Check for Section 508 compliance using WebXact (formerly known as Bobby). Go to the Web Accessibility Toolbar, pull down the "Tools" menu to "WebXact/Bobby", and select "Section 508 Check [new window]" option.
Write up report
1. Brief summary of results
2. Results
  - Are the pages compliant with coding standards?
  - Can a person use the site without using a mouse?
  - What aspects of coding and design received a score of 1 (Site has failed to implement this checkpoint) or 2 (Site has partially implemented this checkpoint)?
3. Discussion
  - Discuss the problems identified.
4. Resources
  - List resources that could be helpful to someone working on improving the site

Additional Resources

Web Developer Extension, a toolbar similar to the AIS Web Accessibility Toolbar, but for FireFox
WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind