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Re: looking for pricing information ofvarious accessibility testing tools

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From: Cliff Tyllick
Date: Dec 8, 2008 8:50AM

Shirang, the most comprehensive review that I'm aware of is Jim Thatcher's, at http://jimthatcher.com/site_resources.htm

As Peter said, many useful tools are open source. I'm a bit wary of your perception that a tool would be able to "automatically fix the bugs" or, beyond a certain extent, "provide recommendations to resolve the issue." Although automated processes can identify many potential accessibility issues, in most cases only a human can determine whether the potential issue is actually an issue. The simplest example:
--Does each image need an alt tag? (Of course. Software can easily check for a missing alt tag.)
--Is it OK for the alt tag to be empty? (Perhaps. Only a human can tell.)
--Is it OK for the alt tag to contain information? (Sometimes. Again, only a human can tell.)
--Is the information in the right information. (Hmmm. That's often arguable. Only a human can tell, but often no two humans will agree.)

So software would have to flag every image and say one of these:
--The alt tag is missing. Add an appropriate one, even if it's empty.
--The alt tag is empty. Check it and see if it needs content. If it does, add content that is appropriate, meaningful, and helpful.
--The alt tag has content. Check it and see if it should be empty. If it shouldn't be empty, make sure the content is appropriate, meaningful, and helpful.

There are open source agents that do that.

Cliff Tyllick
Web development coordinator
Agency Communications Division
Texas Commission on Environmental Quality
512-239-4516
<EMAIL REMOVED>

>>> Shrirang Prakash Sahasrabudhe < <EMAIL REMOVED> > 12/8/2008 4:37 AM >>>
Hi Peter
I am looking at tools used for automated accessibility testing of websites.
Tool that runs through underlying html and reports the accessibility bugs.
I am interested in tools possessing capability to either automatically fix the bugs or provide recommendations to resolve the issue.
Target audience is designers, developers, testers.
I've used Wave for sometime, but want to know details of best and most utilized commercial tool in the web accessibility testing space.
Thanks
Shrirang