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Re: any recommendations for 508 validation and/or repair tools?

for

From: Kilcommons, Cath
Date: Oct 22, 2001 9:23AM

Of course, I agree that knowing the material involved and making
knowledgable decisions is key to making sure that a page is 508
Accessible. So many aspects are discretionary anyway.

That being said, we also have revised our web access policies.
DreamWeaver has been adopted as the campus standard, so we are teaching
our campus to use the 508 Accessibility download (use it early and
often, we say). So far, there have been adequate responses, but I am
not enamored of the product. Some of our people are using the
Accessibility check, then checking against downloadable Bobby (the
Priority 1 section of the report) and manually checking of 508 items
m,n,o,p.

A-prompt is an excellent tool which is obvious enough to the computer
savvy, and we recommend it to such individuals that can handle it, but
it would throw a lot of our WYSIWYG designer for a loop.

The best and most revealing test is the user of AT checking pages for
us. We have been lucky to have an excellent student (who has very
limited vision) on our Web Access committee, and major pages that have
gone through overhaul are checked by her in tandem with another
committee member. What that has revealed has been amazing! Things
that you would never suspect have been ameliorated that way!

Best of luck.
Regards,
Cath

Cath Stager- Kilcommons
Assistive Technology Support and
Web Accessibility Coordinator
Assistive Technology Resource Center
Colorado State University
970-491-6258
<EMAIL REMOVED>