Website Accessibility Resources
Various tools used to access websites for people with disabilities and to evaluate the accessibility of websites for use by people with disabilities.
AccessApps
http://www.rsc-ne-scotland.ac.uk/eduapps/accessapps.php
AccessApps is an initiative supported by the JISC Regional Support Centers (RSC) and JISC TechDis. It consists of over 60 freely downloadable, accessible, open source and freeware Windows applications that run from a thumb drive. AccessApps provides a range of solutions to support writing, reading and planning as well as sensory, cognitive and physical difficulties.
Accessibar
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4242
Accessibar is an accessibility toolbar add-on for Mozilla’s Firefox web browser enabling easy, powerful and highly configurable manipulation of web page display and text-to-speech output. Accessibar can change fonts and background colors of a webpage, can increase line-spacing, can show/hide images and Flash on a webpage, has integrated text-to-speech capabilities, and many more accessibility features.
Accessible Information Solutions (AIS) Accessibility Toolbar
http://www.webaim.org/resources/ais
The AIS Toolbar allows developers to manually evaluate web pages for accessibility. Its options include: identifying components of a web page, simulating user perspectives, and providing links to additional resources for evaluating web pages for accessibility. The AIS toolbar is available in a number of languages for free non-commercial use, but can be used only with Internet Explorer.
AChecker
http://www.atutor.ca/achecker/
AChecker is an open source Web accessibility evaluation tool. It can be used to review the accessibility of Web pages based on a variety of international accessibility guidelines. Use the Public AChecker to evaluate the accessibility of a Web site you know or download AChecker to set up your own version.
CAST (Center for Applied Special Technology)
CAST is a nonprofit research and development organization that works to expand learning opportunities for all individuals, especially those with disabilities, through Universal Design for Learning. Founded in 1984 as the Center for Applied Special Technology, CAST has earned international recognition for its innovative contributions to educational products, classroom practices, and policies. Its staff includes specialists in education research and policy, neuropsychology, clinical/school psychology, technology, engineering, curriculum development, K-12 professional development, and more.
EASI: Equal Access to Software and Information
EASI is an independent, non-profit organization that provides information and guidance in the area of access-to-information technologies by individuals with disabilities. EASI shares information about developments and advancements within the adaptive computer technology field to colleges, universities, K-12 schools, libraries and into the workplace. EASI also provides online training on adaptive technology and how institutions can provide barrier-free computer and information technology systems for persons with disabilities. The EASI web site includes information about information technology, education, and disability with special topics on science and math learning; EASI's consulting service and publications; Internet captioning; ITD e-journal; disability legislation; hardware and software; libraries; distance learning; and more.
IBM's Essentials of Web Accessibility Course
The Essentials of Web Accessibility course is part of a series of self-directed and self-paced Web Based Training courses. Course topics include: Introduction to Web Accessibility, Web Accessibility Standards, Web Accessibility Techniques, Creating Accessible Flash Objects, and Improving the Web Experience for People with Disabilities.
ITTATC Course by Jim Thatcher: Web Accessibility for Section 508
http://jimthatcher.com/webcourse1.htm
This online course was written for the Information Technology Technical Assistance and Training Center (ITTATC) by Jim Thatcher. Funded in support of Section 508, the course includes information on making web pages accessible and concludes with a summary pegged to the sixteen Section 508 standards. For an extensive list of resources related to Web accessibility, see http://jimthatcher.com/resources.htm.
JISC Techdis Toolbar
http://access.ecs.soton.ac.uk/ToolBar/download
This toolbar, also known as the ‘Studybar’, has been created as an open-source, cross-browser toolbar to help students customise the way they view and interact with web pages to help their study skills.
The concept behind JISC Techdis Toolbar is simple: One toolbar to provide all of the functionality you would usually get in many different products, and which will run in any desktop web browser.
There are two versions of JISC Techdis Toolbar available:
- If you are a user, you have a choice of either installing the Lite bookmarklet version that can be accessed with one click in your browser, or a full install which will load automatically for every page.
- If you manage a website, you are able to embed JISC Techdis Toolbar Lite into a link on your website, which will allow your visitors to utilise JISC Techdis Toolbar, without installation. For more information, please see the versions page otherwise please visit the downloads page to start using the toolbar. The functions menu privides simple instructions for use.
Knowbility
Knowbility's mission is to ensure barrier-free information technology - supporting the independence of people with disabilities by promoting the use and improving the availability of accessible information technology. Knowbility programs include:
- Accessibility Consulting and Advisory Services, including accessibility assessments, implementation services, and technical guidance to help corporations and organizations meet federal requirements and other institutional mandates for accessibility.
- Accessibility training for web and software professionals. From basic to advanced topics our training courses allow you to develop applications that work for everyone including people with disabilities.
- Educational and Community Initiatives, such as ATSTAR teacher-training, which helps schools and other community organizations include students with disabilities in learning activities.
- Awareness Programs, including speakers bureau and the Accessibility Internet Rally (AIR) produced annually in cities throughout the United States.
NVDA (Non-visual Desktop Access) Screen Reader
http://www.nvda-project.org/wiki/Download
NVDA is a free and open-source screen reader for the Microsoft Windows operating system. NVDA can be installed on both physical as well as virtual desktops. Your system won’t be impaired by it, no video drivers will be installed. If you like, you can even put the portable version onto a USB thumb drive and run NVDA from there, requiring no installation at all.
The Paciello Group Color Contrast Analyzer
http://www.paciellogroup.com/resources/contrast-analyser.html
Available for free download, this is primarily a tool for checking foreground & background color combinations to determine if they provide good color visibility. It also contains functionality to create simulations of certain visual conditions such as color blindness.
Raising the Floor
http://www.raisingthefloor.net
Raising the Floor is an international consortium of organizations and individuals focused on ensuring that people experiencing disabilities, literacy problems, or the effects of aging are able to access and use all of the information, resources, services, and communities available on or through the Web. Some of the resources available from the consortium include:
For individuals with blindness, low-vision, or reading difficulties, the following solutions turn traditional web content (and books) into a format that can be more easily understood by people who have blindness or low vision, or who prefer to have basic reading assistance. These projects may offer magnification and restructuring of web pages for easier viewing, text-to-speech computer reading of web pages, and additional tools for reading electronic books.
- Fire Vox - a plugin to Mozilla Firefox that provides text-to-speech, magnification, and other features for web content. This project is in continuing development. AccessTomorrow - Developed by the Ideal Group AccessTomorrow is a portable and accessible browser (Fire Vox) that is bootable from a USB flash memory drive. This project is in continuing development as the AccessTomorrow Project.
- LowBrowse - developed by Lighthouse International. Lowbrowse is a plugin to Mozilla Firefox that magnifies and visually simplifies web pages. This project is continuing development as the LowBrowse Project.
- WebAnywhere- developed by the University of Washington's WebInSight group. WebAnywhere is a browser based screen reader-like program for Web content: a specialized, web-based browser that provides text-to-speech, navigation features, and simplified display of web pages. This project is continuing development under the WebAnywhere project.
- Bookshare.org - developed by Benetech. Bookshare.org is an online community that enables people with visual and other print disabilities to legally share scanned books. See the BookAnywhere project.
- TOHRU - Trace Online Hand Raising Utility. Developed by the Trace Center. A fully accessible online tool that facilitates participation in online teleconferences by allowing users to digitally "raise their hands" to signal that they would like to speak next. See the TOHRU project.
For web content developers:
- Photosensitive Epilepsy Analysis Tool (PEAT) - developed by the Trace Center. PEAT is a tool for web developers to screen their videos and other content for flashing that could trigger epileptic seizures. This tool is a foundation for RtF's Epilepsy/Seizure prevention and Seizure risk detector project areas.
- Contrast Tool - commissioned by the Trace Center and developed by the Web Accessibility Tools Consortium, this tool makes it easy to measure contrast on pages, parts of pages, or parts of images. This project is continuing development as the Contrast Tools Project.
- Audio Contrast Tool - commissioned by the Trace Center and developed by David MacDonald and Audacity Programmers, this analysis was added to the Audacity Open Source tool to give web developers an easy method to determine the difference in volume between foreground speech and background noises.
- CapScribe - an application for captioning and describing videos. A web-based version is now in development as the Capscribe Project.
- Fluid Components - reusable user interfaces that take the hard work out of supporting rich interaction in a Web application. These components and similar toolkits are being developed as the ATRC Toolkit Project.
- Eclipse Accessibility Tools Framework (ACTF) - a framework that serves as an extensible infrastructure upon which developers can build a variety of utilities that help to evaluate and enhance the accessibility of applications and content for people with disabilities.
TechSoup Global
http://www.techsoupglobal.org/
Founded in 1987 as CompuMentor, TechSoup Global is a recognized leader in bringing technological empowerment and philanthropy to social benefit organizations- including nonprofits, nongovernmental organizations, libraries and other social change agents. Over the past two decades, TechSoup’s innovative programs have supported social benefit organizations on the international, national, and local level. Their unique service model allows them to forge partnerships between unlikely allies to address the unmet technology needs of these organizations.
Microsoft is a lead product donor on TechSoup, as well as an advocate and funder for the expansion of the TechSoup Global platform. Software donations are a key part of the company’s global citizenship commitment to bring the benefits of relevant, accessible and affordable technology to those who don’t currently have it. Microsoft believes NGOs deserve access to the best technology tools to do their important work in their communities, and donates its software in support of their goals. They make more than 50 products available on the TechSoup platform.
To access more Microsoft resources for NGOs, including free and donated software, software support, training, and case studies of how other NGOs are using technology, visit NGO Connection at http://www.microsoft.com/ngo.
Thunder Screen Reader
This is an open source (free) screenreader available for download.
Trace Research and Development Center
The Trace Research & Development Center is a part of the College of Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Founded in 1971, Trace has been a pioneer in the field of technology and disability, with a focus on making off the shelf technologies and systems like computers, the Internet, and information kiosks more accessible for everyone through the process known as universal, or accessible, design. Primarily funded by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research at the US Department of Education, the Trace website includes an extensive list of resources related to Web accessibility.
University of Illinois Accessibility Extension
http://cita.rehab.uiuc.edu/software/mozilla
The Accessibility Extension provides new menus and keyboard shortcuts for accessing every feature of a web page viewed using Mozilla.
University of Southampton
http://access.ecs.soton.ac.uk/penapps
This university's School of Electronics and Computer Science (ECS) Accessibility Projects page highlights the many web and e-learning accessibility tools being developed by ECS for free and open use by users around the world.
Viewable With Any Browser Campaign
http://www.anybrowser.org/campaign/
The Viewable With Any Browser campaign includes an Accessible Site Design Guide which discusses issues in web page accessibility and how to make web pages as accessible as possible. This is not an HTML guide, but helps designers know what the accessibility trouble spots are in web pages, and provides advice on how to deal with them. Additional information is included in the links section. Individuals are invited to discuss accessibility issues in the Any Browser Forum, as well, and can browse sample letters to send to web sites found to be inaccessible to encourage administrators to make them viewable with any browser.
WAVE 4.0 Web Accessibility Tool
WAVE is a free web accessibility evaluation tool provided by WebAIM. It is used to aid individuals in the web accessibility evaluation process. Rather than providing a complex technical report, WAVE shows the original web page with embedded icons and indicators that reveal the accessibility of that page.
The Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)
The Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) works with organizations around the world to develop strategies, guidelines, and resources to help make the Web accessible to people with disabilities. WAI develops its work through the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)’s consensus-based process involving different stakeholders in Web accessibility. These include industry, disability organizations, government, accessibility research organizations, and more. WAI, in partnership with organizations around the world, pursues accessibility of the Web through five primary activities:
- Ensuring that core technologies of the Web support accessibility
- Developing guidelines for Web content, user agents, and authoring tools
- Facilitating development of evaluation and repair tools for accessibility
- Conducting education and outreach
- Coordinating with research and development that can affect future accessibility of the Web
An overview of WAI is available at: http://www.w3.org/Talks/WAI-Intro/Overview.html. This presentation covers:
- What is Web accessibility?
- Why is Web accessibility important for people with and without disabilities?
- What is the World Wide Web Consortium doing to address Web accessibility?
- What resources are available to help make Web sites and Web applications accessible?
- What actions are useful in promoting Web accessibility?
Note: These slides were last updated in 2005. For updated information, visit the WAI home page at: http://www.w3.org/WAI/.
WebbIE text-only browser
Available for fee download - currently available in 15 languages. Includes the web browser plus:
- Accessible RSS News Reader for RSS and news. Read RSS feeds, accessible ways to get news and info from your favorite sites
- Accessible BBC iPlayer for BBC radio and TV programs
- Accessible Podcatcher for free audio broadcasts
- Listen to podcasts, audio recordings available for free over the Internet
- Accessible BBC Live Radio for BBC radio stations
- Get any of dozens of live radio stations on the Internet
- Clock for time and reminders
- Get the time easily and add reminders for events during the day
- Calendar for diary and events
- Plan your days ahead with an easy-to-use calendar
- Accessible Gutenberg Library for free books
- Browse, download and read thousands of books completely free.
- Accessible Internet Radio Tuner for radio stations from around the world
- Listen to any one of dozens of free live radio stations from all over the world
- Accessible PDF for reading PDF files
- Convert PDF files into HTML, or just read them as plain text in your screenreader
- Internet Explorer Appearance Editor for using Internet Explorer with some sight
- Easily choose the best font, color scheme and appearance for your web pages using this simple tool
- Disk Explorer for working with files and folders; take the complexity out of working with your computer with this replacement for Windows Explorer
Working via the Internet with volunteers who have disabilities
http://www.serviceleader.org/new/virtual/archives/categories/volunteers_with_disabilities/index.php
Serviceleader.org offers specialized resources for volunteers as well as volunteer managers and service leaders who are interested in utilizing technology to benefit their organizations. Serviceleader.org’s Virtual Volunteering Resources page includes information and resources on including people with learning, mental health-related, and other non-apparent disabilities, in online volunteerism. Although designed to promote volunteerism, this information can be applied broadly to making online content accessible to people with disabilities. The Virtual Volunteering Resources page includes tips on accommodating people with disabilities, links to disability and Web accessibility resources, and more.
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