Accessible Design: useful tools and validators

Tools to help you create accessible Web pages

HTML Validation

1. Check your HTML with the W3c HTML validation Service: http://validator.w3.org/.
2. Check your Style Sheets with the W3c Style Sheets Validation Service: http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator.
3. Accessibility Valet and Page Valet: HTML Normalisation and Accessibility Testing. Online and desktop validation tool from talented programmer Nick Key: http://valet.webthing.com/access/

Accessibility Checking tools

1. Cynthia Says Cynthia is a web content accessibility validation solution, it is designed to identify errors in design related to Section 508 standards and the WCAG guidelines. http://www.contentquality.com/.
2. Bobby Accessibility Checker. Will give you a good idea of how well your pages conform to the World Wide Web Consortiums Web Accessibility Guidelines: http://bobby.watchfire.com/bobby/html/en/index.jsp
3. InFocus by SSB Technologies. A software tool for checking the accessibility of web pages: http://www.ssbtechnologies.com/solutions/index.php.
4. WAVE. Useful accessibility checker: http://www.temple.edu/inst_disabilities/piat/wave/.
5. A-Prompt: a free dowloadable web accessibility verifier for Windows 95/98/NT/2000: http://aprompt.snow.utoronto.ca/
6. Liftfrom UsableNet: http://www.usablenet.com/
7. Lift Accessibility Extensions for Dreamweaver and Frontpage: http://www.usablenet.com/
8. InFocus accessibility testing software: http://www.ssbtechnologies.com/products/InFocus.php
9. AccVerify accessibility tool for FrontPage: http://www.hisoftware.com/msacc/newfpIndex.html

Evaluation tools

1. HTML Tidy. A 'must have' application for any HTML author; cleans up HTML and fixes mistakes and a host of problems and points up some accessibility problems. Has built in support for cleaning up HTML produced by Word 2000 and Word 97: http://www.w3.org/People/Raggett/tidy/
2. The World Wide Web Consortiums (W3c) Web Accessibility Initiative have provided a page full of evaluation and repair tools for your wonky HTML: http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/existingtools.html
3. Lynx Browser. Always check your pages using a text browser; Lynx is the best: : http://lynx.browser.org/
4. Lynx Viewer: http://www.delorie.com/web/lynxview.html. This service allows web authors to see what their pages will look like (sort of) when viewed with Lynx, a text-mode web browser.
5. Web page backward compatibility viewer: http://www.delorie.com/web/wpbcv.html.
6. Web page purifier: http://www.delorie.com/web/purify.html. Find out how your web page looks on Web tv.
7. Adobe Acrobat Access. Services provided by Adobe to help make Acrobat PDF files accessible: http://access.adobe.com.
8. How to make PowerPoint accessible: http://www.tsbvi.edu/technology/powerpoint.htm.

Alternative Web Browsers and gateway software

1. Home Page Reader. A spoken on-ramp to the Information Highway for computer users who are blind or visually impaired: http://www-3.ibm.com/able/hpr.html
2. Lynx: href="http://lynx.browser.org/. Lynx is a text browser for the World Wide Web. Check the Yahoo Lynx page
3. MacLynx. Lynx for the Mac. Great! - I use it all the time: http://www.lirmm.fr/~gutkneco/maclynx
4. W3c have compiled a list of alternative Web browsers: http://www.w3.org/WAI/References/Browsing.
6. ReadPlease - free text-to-speech software: http://www.readplease.com/
7. textHELP Systems Ltd. Text To Speech Software: http://www.texthelp.com/
8. Betsie. Provides an on-the-fly text only version of Web pages: http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/betsie/.
9. Web Access Gateway intermediary software for blind web users; converts a web page to text: http://www.flatline.org.uk/~silas/access.html

This article is from the training course Accessible website design in practice created by ScotConnect and the Making Connections Unit. © 2002, 2003, 2004 ScotConnect, Making Connections Unit.

Contributed by Jim Byrne
Updated Monday 25 Aug 2003

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