Web accessibility means opening accessibility of the Web to everyone, specifically those who have disabilities, allowing them to perceive, understand, navigate and interact with the Web. These disabilities cover all levels, including auditory, physical, speech, cognitive and neurological. Most Websites have some sort of accessibility barrier that makes it difficult for a person with a disability to use their site. Web accessibility assists making sure that people with all disabilities do not face these roadblocks when accessing the Web.
Tools do exist that assist website developers in making their sites more accessible for those with disabilities. Browsers are also key in web accessibility. The challenge is designing a site and software that meets different users’ needs, preferences and situations. Web accessibility also can benefit those without disabilities, specifically those with a temporary disability such as a broken arm, aging, and slow Internet connections. The accessibility testing tool you should use depends on your site’s needs and budget among many other factors.
DYNO Mapper is a sitemap generator that checks the web accessibility of websites and online applications. DYNO Mapper includes content inventory and audit, as well as daily keyword tracking. Results are displayed within visual sitemaps to allow for easy and efficient project discovery and planning. Version 1.0 was released on December 1, 2014. Version 2.0 was released on May 22, 2018, and included a Visual Accessibility Tester that shows issues visually in your browser. Version 3.0 was released on March 12, 2019, with Authentication capability for testing private websites and online applications as well as monitoring and notifications. Guidelines covered include WCAG 2.1 — W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1, WCAG 2.0 — W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0, WCAG 1.0 W—3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0, Section 508, U.S. federal procurement standards, Stanca Act, BITV, Italian accessibility legislation, and German government standards. The program assists by automatically checking groups of pages or sites, including those that are restricted or password protected, and generating reports of assessment results. Supported formats include CSS, HTML, and XHTML. Licenses are available for individuals, organizations, or enterprise.
Remediate.co provides automated digital accessibility testing for websites, online applications, and PDFs using strict adherence to WCAG standards across all conformance levels. Remediate.co automated testing helps you monitor your website or web application’s accessibility. Get notifications on issues to team members so that your website or web application conforms to WCAG guidelines. Remediate.co custom form authentication helps you test private websites or web applications behind a login page. There is no installation required, and it works with most multi-factor authentication protocols. Most plans include White Label capability, Single Sign On (SSO), Scheduling capability with Unlimited Users / Projects. FREE 14-DAY TRIAL
AATT (Automated Accessibility Testing Tool) is a product offered by PayPal. This platform provides an accessibility API as well as other custom web applications for HTML CodeSniffer. Version 1.0.0 was released in April 2015. The program assists by creating reports of evaluation results. It automatically checks single web pages, as well as groups of web pages or sites. This includes password protected or restricted pages. AATT includes HTMLCodeSniffer with both PhantomJS and Express, which runs on Node. The license is Open Source and supported formats include HTML and Images.
Accessibility Checker, created by CKSource, is a software program that allows you to inspect the accessibility level of content that is created in CKEditor. The software was released on March 20, 2015, and is known as an innovative solution for web accessibility. When accessibility issues are spotted, the product allows you to solve those issues immediately as they are found. The product is user-friendly in that it assists by providing users with step-by-step accessibility evaluation guidance. The product comes in both English and Dutch versions, and the supported formats are CSS, HTML, and XHTML. The Guidelines include WCAG 2.0 – W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0, WCAG 1.0 – W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0, Section 508, and U.S. federal procurement standard. You can test the product out in a trial or demo format, and once a purchase is made, the license can be both commercial and enterprise.
Accessibility Checklist, provided through Elsevier, offers a free and easy way to review the most recent and relevant web accessibility guidelines. The checklist was released on March 20, 2015 and covers guidelines WCAG 2.0—W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0, Section 508 and U.S. federal procurement standards. The checklist gives a simplified language framework, and the user interface is easy to navigate. Users can filter the guidelines by topic, and these topics include keyboard, images and forms. Another filter option includes filtering by standard levels, including A, AA, or AAA.
Accessibility checklist provides step-by-step evaluation guidance in terms of your site’s web accessibility. For those sites and developers who are working on a tighter budget, there is good news. Accessibility Checklist is a free software with no required paid license. Supported formats include CSS, HTML, XHTML, and Images.
Another web accessibility tool is offered through the SSB BART Group, and this tool is the Accessibility Management Platform (AMP). This platform is a web-based platform that provides turkey, scalable solutions for meeting all web accessibility compliance standards, including Section 508, the American with Disabilities Act (ADA), and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. This compliance is garnered through comprehensive testing, reporting and training. Guidelines covered include WCAG 2.0—W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0, WCAG 1.0 – W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0, Section 508, U.S. federal procurement standards, JIS or Japanese Industry Standards, and Irish National IT Accessibility Guidelines.
AMP generates reports of evaluation results and provides users step-by-step evaluation guidance. The report format is in HTML. AMP is an online checker, hosted service and server installation. The program automatically checks groups of web pages, websites or single web pages, as well as password protected or restricted pages. Browser plugins include Firefox, Internet Explorer 8, and Internet Explorer 9. Suggest formats are PDF documents, CSS, HTML, XHTML, PDF, XML Javascript, AJAX, and ARIA. The most recent version was released on June 1, 2004. License include both enterprise and commercial.
Accessibility Viewer is provided through The Paciello Group. Also known as aViewer, it is a Windows' inspection tool that displays accessibility API information exposed by web browsers to the operating system. The accessibility information includes IAccessible2, MSAA, UI Automation, HTML DOM, and ARIA. AViewer was released in April 2015, and it covers the guidelines WCAG 2.0 – W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0, Section 508, and U.S. federal procurement standards. The program assists by displaying information within the web pages, and it automatically checks single web pages. The supported format is HTML and the product is an online service. Unlike many other web accessibility programs, aViewer is also a free license software program.
Inclusive Design Research Centre released its web accessibility program, AChecker on September 19, 2008. The characteristics that make this program appealing is it is interactive, international and customizable, depending on your needs. AChecker allows users to create their own desired guidelines as well as write their own accessibility checks. The program is defined by the OAC (Open Accessibility Checks). Guidelines covered are WCAG 2.0 – W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0, WCAG 1.0—W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0, Section 508, U.S. federal procurement standards, BITV, Italian accessibility legislation, Stanca Act, and German government standards.
The program comes in English, German and Italian formats, and supported formats include CSS, HTML and XHTML. It is an online checker and hosted service that automatically checks single web pages, as well as password protected or restricted pages. Once these are checked, reports are generated with the evaluation results in HTML, PDF, XML and EARL report formats. The API is a Web service, and licenses are free as well as open source.
Adobe Acrobat DC (Document Cloud) 2019, an accessibility checking tool designed to help you better manage all of your critical documents, is now available for shipping. This version is completely redesigned compared to the initial version released several years ago. The guidelines covered in this new release include WCAG 2.1, PDF/UA, and Section 508 compliance.
Acrobat DC has been the industry standard when it comes to creating, editing, and sharing PDFs since its initial release. Adobe Acrobat DC 2019 is the current subscription version wherein you’ll receive ongoing updates with the newest tools and/or innovations available for both desktop and mobile devices.
There are various changes/features that come with the current subscription version, including a new collaborative PDF review service that makes it simpler than ever to collect feedback from reviewers. It also has a new unified experience across all devices — from mobile to web to desktop — with an updated home view, document viewer, tools panel, commenting capabilities, and more. In addition, there’s an all new edit PDF functionality available for Android tablets. The ability to edit PDFs on Apple iPad’s has also been improved.
Adobe Acrobat DC 2019 will be included as one of the 18 fantastic applications that those with a subscription to the complete Creative Cloud receive. Keep in mind, installing the current subscription version may uninstall any earlier version if you’re using a Windows computer. Keep your original serial number and software disc/installer if you may want to reinstall the older release at a later date.
Axe Chrome Plugin by Deque Systems is a program that evaluates the web accessibility of sites and applications from within the Chrome developer tools, specifically. The plugin assists by generating reports of web accessibility evaluation results and automatically checks single pages, password protected or restricted pages included. The specific browser supported is Google Chrome for this plugin. Supported formats are HTML and XHTML, and the guidelines covered are WCAG 2.0—W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0, Section 508, and U.S. federal procurement standards. Being a web-based program, the license for access is free and easily accessible.
Bookmarklets for Accessibility Testing, by Paul J. Adam, uses JavaScript to highlight roles, states, and properties of web accessibility elements on web pages. These are accessible to the screen reader users on any browser, including those on mobile phones. The most recent version 2.0 was released on July 1, 2015, and it covers guidelines including WCAG 2.0 — W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0, Section 508, and U.S. federal procurement standards.
It works by dragging and dropping the link you wish to evaluate into your bookmarks bar to use in any browser. The program assists by displaying information within the web pages themselves, and it automatically checks specific, single web pages. Browser plugins include Google Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer 8 and 9, Opera 12 and 15, and Safari. Supported formats are CSS, HTML and Images, and the license is completely free for users.
CKSource Accessibility Checker by CKSource offers a program that allows users to inspect the web accessibility level of content created specifically within the CKEditor program and then solve any web accessibility issues found. It is a brand-new feature of CKEditor with the most recent version 1.0 released on May 19, 2016. Guidelines covered include WCAG 2.0 — W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0, Section 508, and U.S. federal procurement standards.
The authoring tool is CKEditor itself, and languages include Dutch, English and German. CKSource provides step-by-step evaluation guidance on web accessibility results and will display the information within the web pages themselves. The program will also modify the presentation of web pages as needed. It automatically checks single web pages, and supported formats include HTML and XHTML. Licenses are available open source.
CommonLook PDF Global Access offered by NetCentric Technologies is another web accessibility for PDF documents programs, authored by Adobe Acrobat. The specific format supported is PDF documents or files. CommonLook is a well-known choice for professional PDF web accessibility remediation, and licenses are available for both commercial and enterprise bases.
Released on January 1, 2007, the guidelines covered by this program include WCAG 2.0 — W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0, WCAG 1.0—W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0, Section 508, and U.S. federal procurement standards. The program generates reports of evaluation results and provides step-by-step evaluation guidance on these results.
COMPLYFirst Professional, a program offered by Odellus Corporation, works specifically as a desktop application and is not server based. It provides Automated and Manual DOM interface web accessibility testing and provides reports to management and QA analysts, as well as remediation code samples to developers. The company does provide training classes as well as evaluation of your site’s current web accessibility.
The most recent version was released March 11, 2002. The guidelines covered include WCAG 2.0—W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0, Section 508, and U.S. federal procurement standards. The program generates findings of evaluation results, giving step-by-step evaluation guidance, exhibiting results and information within the page and altering the presentation of web pages. It checks single pages automatically, as well as websites or groups of pages, including those with password protected or restricted pages. Supported formats include CSS, HTML, XHTML, PDF documents, and Images. Licenses are available for commercial and enterprise purposes.
Cynthia Says is a program offered through HiSoftware that helps users identify the web accessibility compliance errors in their site, allowing them to test their individual pages on their site through the Cynthia Says portal and providing feedback in a format that is easy to understand for even the least tech savvy users. The portal is part of a joint education and outreach of Cryptzone, ICDRI, and the Internet Society Disability and Special Needs Chapter, educating users in the concepts behind web site accessibility.
The guidelines covered include WCAG 2.0—W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0, Section 508, and U.S. federal procurement standards. Cynthia Says automatically checks single web pages, and supports formats including CSS, HTML, and Images. Cynthia Says is an online checker as well as free software.
FireEyes, by Deque Systems Inc., is a Firefox-specific plugin that integrates with Firebug and permits QA engineers, developers and subject matter experts to test their site for web accessibility compliance. The program has a screen reader simulation, built-in color contrast analysis, and support for DHTML pages.
The most recent version 2 was released on June 1, 2010. The guidelines covered include WCAG 2.0—W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0, Section 508, and U.S. federal procurement standards. It assists by presenting reports of evaluation results, giving step-by-step evaluation guidance and displaying information within the web pages as well as altering the presentation of web pages. FireEyes assists by creating reports of evaluation results, giving step-by-step evaluation guidance and displaying information within the pages and altering the presentation of the pages. FireEyes checks both single web pages as well as groups of pages or sites, including those that are restricted or password protected.
Browser plugins include Firefox and Internet Explorer 9. Supported formats include CSS, HTML, XHTML, and PDF. Report formats are in HTML, CSV, Exports issues to JIRA and HP ALM. It is an online service, including hosted service, server installation and browser plugin. The licenses are free and are both commercial and enterprise, as well.
HiSoftware Compliance Sherrif Web, offered through HiSoftware Inc., is a platform that monitors and helps to enforce web accessibility guidelines on public web sites and portals and intranets. This program enables organizations to easily validate and watch content on their sites, checking them for compliance contrary to standards-based (WCAG, Section 508) and custom policies for accessibility.
The most recent Version 4.2 was released on March 27, 2013. The guidelines included are WCAG 2.0—W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0, WCAG 1.0—Section 508, W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0, U.S. federal procurement standards, RGAA, French government standards. HiSoftware generates reports of evaluation results, giving step-by-step evaluation guidance and displaying information within the web pages. Reports are provided in HTML, PDF, and CSV format. The program automatically checks single web pages, groups of web pages or sites, as well as restricted or password-protected pages. Browser plugins include Firefox and Internet Explorer 9.
Supported formats are Microsoft Office documents, PDF documents, CSS, HTML, XHTML, and Images. The program is an online checker, hosted service, and server installation. Licenses are commercial or enterprise, with trial or demo versions available.
HTML CodeSniffer is offered through Squiz, and it is a program that detects violations of a defined coding standard and checks HTML documents. The program comes with principles that cover three conformance levels of the WCAG 2.0 and the U.S. Section 508 legislation. The interface is provided in a manner that lets you try out accessibility checks on any web page. It is written completely in JavaScript and can be extended by your developer to enforce custom coding standards by producing what are called your own “sniffs" and does not entail any server-side processing.
The web accessibility guidelines covered include WCAG 2.0—Section 508, W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0, and U.S. federal procurement standards. HTML CodeSniffer generates reports of evaluation results, giving the user step-by-step evaluation guidance and displaying information within the scanned web pages. It automatically reviews single pages specifically, including both restricted and password protected. The browser plugins supported include Google Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer 8, Internet Explorer 9, and Safari. The supported format is HTML, with the most recent version 2.0.3 being released on December 15, 2014. The license is open source, and the online service includes an online checker, hosted service and server installation.
This program is offered through UserLight Ltd, which verifies web accessibility on mobile sites on an iOS device, such as iPhone or iPad. Once verified, the evaluation findings can be exported via Google Spreadsheets or CSV. The program generates reports of the evaluation results but also provides step-by-step evaluation guidance. Mobile Web Accessibility Checker checks single web pages, groups of web pages or sites, as well as password protected or restricted pages.
The most recent version 1.1 was released in August 19, 2006. The guidelines covered include WCAG 2.0—W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0, WCAG 1.0 — W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0, Section 508, and U.S. federal procurement standards. Supported formats include CSS, HTML, and Images. Licenses for the software are commercial, but trial or demo versions are available.
Monsido Web Governance Platform is a platform offered through by Monsido Inc. The program will scan your web site for any web accessibility issues in a format that is easy for those users who are less than “tech-savvy.” In fact, the company states that you do not have to be a web developer or even familiar with web accessibility compliance standards to ensure your site is current and in compliance.
The most recent version was released on July 18, 2013. The guidelines covered include WCAG 2.0—W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0, Section 508, U.S. federal procurement standards, Stanca Act, and Italian accessibility legislation. Monsido generates reports of evaluation results, giving the user a step-by-step evaluation guidance, displaying the information given within the web pages themselves. The program checks single web pages, groups of web pages or web sites, including password protected or restricted pages. Supported formats include CSS and HTML, and the service is an online, hosted service. The license is commercial or enterprise, but users can also test out the program through a trial or demo platform initially.
Pa11y is a program offered through the Nature Publishing Group. It monitors the web accessibility of your web sites with the pa11y-dashboard specifically. The most recent version 1.6.0 was released on April 8, 2015, and it covers guidelines including WCAG 2.0 — W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0, Section 508, and U.S. federal procurement standards.
Pa11y is a free, open source and self-hosted program that lets you monitor as many sites as you need and run tests automatically daily. It assists by generating reports of web accessibility evaluation results, automatically checking single web pages, groups of web pages or sites, as well as password protected or restricted pages. The license is open source, and users can test the program through the demo included on the Pa11y site. The supported formats include CSS, HTML, and Images. The service is specifically an online checker as well as server installation.
SortSite is a tool offered through PowerMapper that lets web developers or users evaluate the web4 accessibility of individual Web pages or entire Web sites. SortSite is used by federal agencies and private and public corporations for web accessibility evaluations. Version 3.03, the most recent version of SortSite was released on June 1, 2009. The guidelines covered include WCAG 2.0—W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0, WCAG 1.0—W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0, Section 508, and U.S. federal procurement standards.
The program assists by presenting reports of evaluation results, and it automatically checks single web pages, groups of web pages or web sites, as well as password protected or restricted pages. Supported formats include CSS, HTML, XHTML, PDF documents, and Images. Platforms supported include both Mac OS X and Windows. The program uses inside and outside firewalls, including intranets and development sites. Licenses are commercial, but users/developers can test the program on a trial or demo basis.
Tenon is a web accessibility testing tool that is known for giving flexibility for designers when evaluating a site’s accessibility. Tenon is specifically aimed at delivering flexibility in tooling for developers, designers, content providers, and testers. The program utilizes API, and it is this platform that easily integrates into your already existing toolset.
The most recent version 1.0 was released on January 1, 2013. Guidelines include WCAG 2.0 — W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0, WCAG 1.0—W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0, Section 508, and U.S. federal procurement standards. Google Chrome is the supported browser plug-in, and supported formats include CSS, HTML, and XHTML.
Tenon assists by creating reports of evaluation results and automatically checks single web pages, groups of web pages or web sites, as well as password protected or restricted pages. Report formats are HTML, XML, CSV, and JSON. The authoring tools involved are Adobe Dreamweaver, Microsoft Visual Studio, and Sublime Text. Tenon is an online service, being an online checker, hosted service and server installation. Licenses are commercial or enterprise, but you can also test the program through a trial or demo version.
Total Validator is a validation program that comes with more than just one tool to evaluate web accessibility. In fact, the program is a 5-in-1 validation tool, including HTML and XHTML validator, an Accessibility validator, a CSS validator, a broken links checker, and, of course, a spell checker. The guidelines covered are WCAG 2.0—W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0, WCAG 1.0—W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0, Section 508, and the U.S. federal procurement standards.
The program can be run from your desktop computer, command line, or via Google Chrome or Firefox add-ons. It assists by generating reports of these five evaluation results, and reports are supported in HTML format. Browser plugins supported include both Google Chrome and Firefox. Total Validator automatically checks single web pages, groups of web pages or websites, and password protected or restricted pages. Supported formats include HTML and XHTML. The most recent version 8.5 was released on August 3, 2014, and licensing is free as well as in commercial format.
WorldSpace, by Deque Systems, is a server-based web accessibility evaluation platform that can retrieve and evaluate entire web sites instead of just individual pages. WorldSpace is fully JavaScript-aware, and can also provide customizable, robust automated site testing, including the ability to multi-part, script complex user input paths.
Guidelines covered include WCAG 2.0—W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0, WCAG 1.0—W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0, Section 508, and U.S. federal procurement standards.
The program generates reports of web accessibility evaluation results and automatically checks single web pages, groups of web pages or web sites and restricted or password protected sites. Supported formats include CSS, HTML, and XHTML. It’s an online service, both hosted service and server installation, and licenses are commercial and enterprise.
Create, edit, customize, and share visual sitemaps integrated with Google Analytics for easy discovery, planning, and collaboration.