I love to share my passion for accessibility. There is something incredibly satisifying about kicking down barriers to information. I’m inspired by the goals of the W3C, “Web for everyone. Web on everything.”
With this in mind, I wanted to share my own practical accessibility practice. When asked to test a site for accessibility, these are the steps that Glenda the Goodwitch takes:
- Validate – make sure the site validates by using the html validator and css validator.
- Test with my browser – turn off images, don’t use the mouse, turn off speakers, increase font size, change window size.
- Test with toolbars – (Web Developer Extension & Web Accessibility Toolbar) turn off CSS, turn off Javascript, set to Greyscale, display structure (headings, lists…)
- Run online accessibility tests on representative pages
use more than one tool, example: WebXact & Wave - Listen to a few pages – JAWS or HomePage Reader
- Run a sitewide accessibility report – LIFT or WebXM
- Hands on accessibility testing with Users who have disabilities
Now I’d like to hear from you. How do you test your pages?
I’d recommend sticking “Test with Lynx” in there as step 4a or so. Not as complete as listening to the pages, but the browser loads pages almost immeasurably fast and can help you catch quite a few accessibility issues rather quickly (redundant alt text, no alt text, rendering order vs. order in the markup, JavaScript functionality vs. hard page refresh functionality, etc.).
On the mostly XHTML/CSS/AJAX web app I have on my plate right now, I use Lynx constantly.
Judging by the look of your list, I could be doing more to test. Much more.
Are any of the screenreaders you use open source/free, Glenda and which do you recommend? And with regard to hands-on accessibility testing – how do you come into contact with users who are willing to test your sites?
Finally, on any given web project, do you allocate time toward testing and on average how much time would you allocate?
Gerard, the screenreader in the US that has 90% market share is JAWS. So I always test with JAWS. WindowEyes is the next most frequently used in my country. Honestly, I just test in JAWS. And, even though I have a license for the full JAWS version, I just download the demo of JAWS and use it. That way, I have the latest version all the time. Only issue with the demo is that it has a time limit of 40 minutes. If you want to use it for more than 40 minutes, you have to restart your machine.
For hands-on accessibility testing, I’m very fortunate to have Dr. John Slatin on my campus. I call his Accessibility Institute and tell them what I need, they find the people with disabilities for me…and I show up and use Dr. Slatin’s testing lab. Now, that isn’t easy for you to do…so ideas are…check your community for online lists of users who will help you test your site. And look for communities of people with disabilities and make friends. For example, I’m friends with the webmaster for the school for the blind and visually impaired (the marvelous Jim Allan)…these communities are happy to help you make the web a more accessible place.
And yes, I always allocate specific time for testing in my development projects. I’m working on a project right now where we have a one week window to do accessibility, validation, search engine optimization and the usabiity recommendations (usability testing completed last week). What that means, in reality, is that you are running these test throughout the development process…as you design and build your product…and you have this spot in the end of the process where your highest priority is to make sure that your site is really meeting the standards (and most importantly…that your site is accessible and usable!)
Wow, that’s pretty comprehensive Glenda! Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this.
It’s a bit ironic that an Accessibility product like JAWS has such a huge Usability problem in the demo! Restart every 40 mins? Still, I’m going to download it and start using it with some of the sites I work on.
Nice list! I’ve taken a new job and one of my responsibilities is to test our site for accessibility. I’ve been using JAWS to speak our site where I can spot incorrect title text and such. The demo was a PITA as we have a very large site so 40 minutes just wasn’t enough. And the version we have wouldn’t run on Windows XP without a different license. Luckily the company paid for the full version, and it wasn’t cheap.
Validating isn’t too difficult. But you’re lucky that you have such readily access to people with disabilities. It’s one thing to learn JAWS as part of my job, but I think it would be much more helpful to have someone who uses it on a more regular basis.
Jonathan, sounds like you are making the web a better place! Rock on! And I wanted to share this new tidbit with you. There is a guy named Cornelius Butler who is providing access to people with disabilities for testing. (it is a pay service) Check it out at http://www.abilitypanel.com/
Onward!