WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Re: Enterprise Web Accessibility Tools

for

From: Katherine Mancuso
Date: Aug 25, 2010 10:54AM

Thanks to everyone who's given feedback so far (especially the many of you
who have given it off the list).

So I've considered whether we should just use single page checkers, but I
sort of wonder whether our volume (we're in the hundred thousands of pages,
I think, although people seem unclear) would make that too slow to work
well. Then again, it has the advantage of not presenting tons of
information all at once.

I would imagine that what one would do to check at large volume would be to
spend some time analyzing the structure of a certain set of pages (e.g. do
they all have the same menu system, other common elements) and then figure
out a system that combines manual testing & automated checkers. Although, I
think this would be true whether you were using an automated checker that
checked many pages or a single page one.

There seem to be pros and cons to both approaches.

I've gotten some feedback on general methodology around tool use, but if you
haven't replied, I'd love to hear from you about how you do this.

I'm particularly interested in how others integrate this into a general QA
regression test suite & bug tracking system like Jira; the one button filing
of jiras and the ability to run tests from the command line of our suite are
what appealed to us about the larger systems.

Thoughts? What's working for you?

Katherine

On Wed, Aug 25, 2010 at 9:37 AM, Michael S Elledge < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:

> Hi Katherine--
>
> Also be sure to look into the Web Accessibility Checker from the University
> of Toronto ATRC: http://achecker.ca/checker/index.php
>
> I don't know if you can set it up to automatically screen all the pages in
> a site (I wouldn't recommend that anyway), but it has the depth of detail of
> the other tools you mention and you can set the set the screening criteria
> (A, AA, 508, etc.).
>
> Mike Elledge
> Usability/Accessibility Research and Consulting
> Michigan State University
>
>
> Charles McCathieNevile wrote:
>
>> On Sat, 21 Aug 2010 01:30:09 +0200, Katherine Mancuso < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
>> wrote:
>>
>> Hi everyone,
>>>
>>> I seek recommendations and evaluations of enterprise accessibility
>>> checking tools from other people who work at large companies. Besides
>>> specific tool recommendations (or suggestions to avoid a tool at all
>>> costs!), I'm interested in general impressions of what these tools do,
>>> what they don't do, etc, because I'm trying to figure out whether our
>>> requirements are reasonable. I am particularly interested at this
>>> juncture in having conversations with people who have used or evaluated
>>> Rational. Also if anyone has any resources on the issue of evaluating
>>> these tools in general that would be welcome.
>>>
>> ....
>>
>>> General thoughts about tools can be sent to the list; please keep in mind
>>> when referring to specific tools that the tool's developer may be here on
>>> the list, so it might be best to speak about specifics off-list.
>>>
>>
>> Actually, it would be helpful to me, and probably others, to have both
>> general and specific stuff here to see...
>>
>> cheers
>>
>> Chaals
>>
>>


--
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Katherine Mancuso: crusader of community art, social technology, &
disability

Current work:
Walt Disney Imagineering & Parks and Resorts Online, Intern (work:
accessibility evangelism & interactive projects)

Research:
Center for Assistive Technology & Environmental Access (http://www.catea.org
)
Georgia Tech, Digital Media (http://dm.gatech.edu)

Community:
The Vesuvius Group: metaverse community builders (
http://www.thevesuviusgroup.com)
Gimp Girl Community Liaison/Research Fellow (http://www.gimpgirl.com)
Alternate ROOTS: arts*community*activism (http://www.alternateroots.org)

Contact in the web, the metaverse, the world:
http://twitter.com/musingvirtual
http://muse.dreamwidth.org
http://www.linkedin.com/in/kathymancuso
SL: Muse Carmona
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------