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RE: Accessibility software

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From: Robinson, Norman B - Washington, DC
Date: Dec 19, 2005 3:00PM

Debbie,

My organization has access to any number of commercial tools.
The automated tool approach doesn't really work all that well.

What seems to work best is to have a goal based checklist for
the content creators (e.g.,
http://www.usps.com/cpim/ftp/hand/as508a/508a_c6.html#508hdr92) and to
allow them VISUAL preview instead of only code-based inspection. The
only automated inspection I suggest requiring is a W3C style validator
to eliminate some of the standardization issues, but that can be
burdensome on users (who debatably shouldn't be posting official web
pages unless they understand the basic mechanics and impact of
failures).

I've found Firefox (http://www.mozilla.com/) with the Web
Developer add-on
(https://addons.mozilla.org/extensions/moreinfo.php?application=firefox&
category=Developer%20Tools&numpg=10&id=60) to be the most useful for end
users.

A few other extensions such as Table Inspector
(https://addons.mozilla.org/extensions/moreinfo.php?application=firefox&
category=Developer%20Tools&numpg=10&id=464), a screen reader emulator
(https://addons.mozilla.org/extensions/moreinfo.php?application=firefox&
category=Developer%20Tools&numpg=10&id=402) and easy to identify
colorful source code
(https://addons.mozilla.org/extensions/moreinfo.php?application=firefox&
category=Developer%20Tools&numpg=10&id=655) makes it easy for them to
_visually_ discern the issues.

I mainly recommend these as I've also found many users want to
install the same tools at home and learn the development skills
necessary on their own time. The cost of these tools is nothing, which
allows them to practice and share beyond the usefulness of a commercial
tool. I'm not an open source zealot, but these tools _work_. There is
also AIS Toolbar available for Internet Explorer, but I find the Firefox
approach to be better due to the quality of the extensions, the number
of additional extensions, and the practice that most of my users that
aren't web developers keep Firefox dedicated to a development
configuration.

Finally, a tool to find & replace or traverse the entire file
structure of a web site file by file can be very useful. Mostly for the
users that have web administration responsibilities or who have to
remediate several hundred web pages. It allows them to search for
"<Table" and then look for the absence of summary tags for instance.
There are many shareware programs on Windows and other commandline tools
that do this easily on Linux or OS X. I use WinMerge and "Advanced Find
& Replace" on Windows.

Regards,


Norman B. Robinson