Tools and Resources

This page provides a list of tools and resources that support accessible development, primarily of web and multimedia content and applications. The list was compiled with input from developers across the University of Washington, and is a work in progress. To contribute to the list, please see the Collaboration page, or send recommendations to Terry Thompson at tft@washington.edu.

Web and IT Accessibility Tutorials

• Introduction to Accessible Information Technology in Education
  This self-paced online course focuses on accessibility issues that relate to information technology and related law and policy issues in education. Developed at the UW by the National Center on Accessible Information Technology in Education (AccessIT).
• WebAIM (Web Accessibility In Mind)
  Introductory tutorial, articles for audiences of all levels of expertise, a blog, and a discussion list
• HTCTU Traninings and Tutorials
  Developed by the High Tech Center Training Unit of the California Community College system, these tutorials are extremely thorough and well-written, and cover a broad variety of topics related to IT accessibility.
• Web Accessibility for Section 508
  A tutorial by accessibility consultant Jim Thatcher, thoroughly explains each of the Section 508 web accessibility standards with plenty of examples
• Guide to the Section 508 Standards for Electronic and Information Technology
  This is the official guide from the U.S. Access Board, the federal agency who developed the standards. This guide is easy to read, provides excellent examples, and covers all IT categories that are addressed by Section 508 (including web, software, multimedia, hardware, telecommunications, and standalone IT equipment)
• Web Accessibility 101
  This online course on web accessibility policy, standards, and design is developed and maintained by the University of Wisconsin-Madison, one of the first higher education institutions to implement a high-level web accessibility policy.
• Building Accessible Websites
  Free, online, and recently upated version of the popular book by accessibility consultant Joe Clark
• Dive Into Accessibility
  An on-line book by Mark Pilgrim, sub-titled "30 days to a more accessible web site"

Informative Websites and Blogs

• Developer Guidelines from IBM
  This excellent resource includes accessibility checklists for software accessibility, web accessibility, Java accessibility, hardware accessibility, and more.
• Guild of Accessible Web Designers
  GAWD is "a worldwide association of professional organisations, web designers and developers working together to promote the use and preservation of accessible design standards". Their blog explores a variety of interesting topics related to accessibility.
• Boxes and Arrows
  A general blog for Web designers, with lots of good articles about accessibility in the real technology world
• A List Apart
  As it describes itself, this website/blog "explores the design, development, and meaning of web content, with a special focus on web standards and best practices."
• Skills for Access
  "The Comprehensive GUide to Creating Accessible Multimedia for e-learning"

Web and IT Accessibility Resources from DO-IT

The DO-IT Center (Disabilities, Opportunities, Internetworking, and Technology) at the UW has worked tirelessly since 1991 to to increase the participation of individuals with disabilities in challenging academic programs and careers. In doing so DO-IT has developed a number of resources related to IT accessibility, including the resources listed below.

• DO-IT Knowledge Base
  Search hundreds of articles with answers to common questions, case studies, and promising practices regarding accessibility of technology, college, graduate school, and careers for individuals with disabilities.
• Technology and Universal Design
  A collection of publications and videos on various aspects of procurement and development of accessible technology.
• World Wide Access: Accessible Web Design - Publication and accompanying video with general information on how to make web pages accessible to people with disabilities.
• Creating Video and Multimedia Products that are Accessible to People with Sensory Impairments - Publication on how to design video presentations that are accessible to individuals with disabilities.
• Web Accessibility: Guidelines for Administrators
  Non-technical guidance for administrators on how to assure that websites in their organizations are accessible to everyone.
• Access to Technology: An Online Tutorial
  An overview of assistive technology as well as the design of accessible electronic and information technology.

Guidelines and Standards

• Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0
  This is the definitive set of web accessibility guidelines, from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
• Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0
  Update to WCAG 1.0, still a working draft
• Section 508
  This site from the U.S. Access Board features the full text of the Section 508 legislation, the Electronic and Information Technology Accessibility Standards, and accompanying tutorials.
• TEITAC Wiki
  TETIAC (pronounced "tie tac") is the Telecommunications and Electronic and Information Technology Advisory Committee, currently working with the Access Board on a rewrite of the Section 508 standards. Here's a direct link to the current working draft.
• The Web Standards Project
  A self-described "grassroots coalition fighting for standards which ensure simple, affordable access to web technologies for all."
• IMS Global Learning Consortium Accessibility Specification
  IMS is working on an AccessForAll Meta-data Specification, which is intended to make it possible to identify resources that match a user's stated preferences or needs. This builds on work by the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative. IMS has also developed a set of Guidelines for Developing Accessible Learning Applications.

Standards Validation and Accessibility Evaluation Tools

The tools listed in this section are all free and have been recommended by web developers at the UW who have experience developing accessible websites. A wide variety of additional products are available for purchase. To explore the full spectrum of products in this area (free or otherwise), use the Simple or Advanced Search feature on the W3C's Web Accessibility Evaluation Tools site.

• W3C HTML Validator
  Having valid code is a first step toward web accessibility and cross-browser compatibility. This tool checks the validity of your HTML, XHTML, and other XML-based file types.
• HTML Tidy
  A software library that evaluates and cleans up HTML, automatically generating a reformatted (i.e., "tidied") version. HTML Tidy is integrated into the free web development editor HTML-Kit, is available in a Windows GUI version called TidyGUI, and is available in an HTML Tidy Web Interface as a service from UW Technology.
• Functional Accessibility Evaluator (FAE)
  Online web accessibility evaluator from the University of Illinois at Urbana-champaign. Is capable of crawling a website and providing a summary report, plus reports for each individual page.
• WAVE
  Developed by the folks at WebAIM, this online tool evaluates the accessibility of a web page and shows results using icons and indicators, embedded onto the original page.
• Web Accessibility Verifier
  This online checker was developed by the Adaptive Technology Resource Centre at the University of Toronto, and is the successor to A-Prompt.
• VisCheck
  Emulates websites as individual with various types of color blindness would perceive them.
• Colour Contrast Analyzer
  For Web Pages, from Vision Australia, a Windows program for evaluating whether your choice of colors will work for people with color-blindness.

Browser Toolbars, Add-ons, and Extensions

For Firefox

• Firefox Web Developer Toolbar
  This highly useful toolbar is packed with features, including many that help developers to create websites that are accessible.
• Firefox Accessibility Extension
  Developed at the University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign, there is some overlap between this toolbar the the Web Developer Toolbar, but this one focuses more specifically on accessibility.
• Firebug
  An add-on for FireFox that greatly speeds up the process of cracking problems in Web page behaviors. As the product website explains, "you can edit, debug, and monitor CSS, HTML, and JavaScript live in any web page".

For Internet Explorer and Opera

• IE Developer Toolbar
  This tool is Microsoft's answer to the Firefox web Developer Toolbar, and is similarly feature-rich.
• Web Accessibility Toolbar
  This toolbar is similar to the Firefox Accessibility Extension, but has a more visual approach to presenting accessibility information. Versions are currently available for Internet Explorer and Opera. Continued development on this tool is led by the Web Accessibility Tools Consortium (WAT-C), an overall great resource for free accessibility tools.

Programming/Scripting/AJAX

Given the high level of interest in dynamic web programming among UW Web Developers, we have developed a separate page of resources specifically dedicated to AJAX Accessibility. Below is the short list of highlights, plus a couple of resources at the end not related to AJAX.

• W3C WAI-ARIA Overview
  WAI-ARIA is the W3C's Accessible Rich Internet Applications Suite, a specification and related documents that define a way to make dynamic Web content accessible.
• AJAX Accessibility Overview
  Succinct overview of issues and best practices, from IBM.
• How to Make Your AJAX Applications Accessible
  Max Kiesler's annotated list of 40 tutorials and articles
• Accessible Web 2.0 Applications with WAI-ARIA
  Excellent overview by Martin Kliehm, on A List Apart
• WAI-ARIA Live Regions
  Excellent article by Gez Lemon, on Juicy Studio
• Java Accessibility
  For Java developers. this page is Sun Microsystems' hub for tools and resources related to Java accessibility.
• Ultimate Dropdown Menu 4 (UDM4)
  This tool supports the creation of accessible dynamic menus for websites.

Assistive Technologies

When testing web pages and IT products with assistive technologies, it is important to be aware that no two assistive technology products are alike. Developers are cautioned to use these tools only as an approximate gauge of accessibility. What seems to work perfectly in Product A may be inaccessible in Product B. Therefore, developers should resist the tendency to develop sites and applications that work with a particular AT product, and focus instead on developing sites that comply with standards.

Some assistive technology vendors provide demo versions of their products, which typically time-out after a few minutes of operation. Product licenses vary as to whether using these demo versions is permissable for testing and development purposes. For information about available products and license restrictions, contact the Access Technology Lab.

Also, all major desktop operating systems are bundled with basic assistive technology utilities. For more information about these utilities consult the accessibility sites at Microsoft, Apple, and the Linux Accessibility Resource Site (LARS).

In addition, the following free screen readers can be useful for testing web pages.

• Thunder
  Free screen reader
• Fire Vox
  An open source, freely available talking browser extension for the Firefox web browser.
• NVDA
  Another free, open source screen reader.
• Fangs
  Screen reader emulator from Standards Schmandards

Multimedia Accessibility

• MAGpie
  Free tool for adding captions and audio description to videos, from National Center on Accessible Media at WGBH
• Captionate
  Tool from Manitu Group, embeds caption data directly into a Flash Video file
• Automatic Sync Technologies
  Upload videos and transcripts and have them captioned automatically within minutes
• CC For Flash
  Another NCAM product, tools for supporting closed captioned video within Flash
• Adobe Accessibility Blog
  Features several articles on adding captions to Flash video