Accessible Web Site Design -- Why and How

• Part III., Validating Your Site for Compliance
  • Using validators to Insure Compliance.
  • Accessibility as you go: LIFT.
  • 5 steps to an accessible web site.
• Go to: Part I. Why? or Part II. Guidelines.

Accessibility guidelines can be confusing for novice developers. Luckily, there are a number of software programs available that help you review and evaluate your site for compliance.

WAC Web Site Evaluation

The OSU Web Accessibility Center (WAC) analyzes web pages for accessibility to people with disabilities. The WAC offers this as a free service to OSU faculty and staff to expand the use of technology by people disabilities The WAC's goal is to ensure that all distance education and online courses at OSU are fully accessible to persons with disabilities.

To have your web site analyzed, e-mail its URL (address) to webaccess@osu.edu. We will report any accessibility and/or browser compatibility errors found on the page. Once your site receives WAC approval, you are entitled to display a WAC approved icon on your site.

The Bobby Validator

Bobby is an accessibility validator is a free service that will allow you to test web pages and help expose and repair barriers to accessibility and encourage compliance with existing accessibility guidelines, such as Section 508 and the W3C's WCAG. Bobby can be a great first step to understanding accessibility guidelines.

How to Use the Bobby Validator

1. Go to Bobby's home page.
2. Select the standard you want to use to evaluate your web page: either Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 (WCAG) or U.S. Section 508 Guidelines.
• For novice developers, we recommend using the Section 508 standard. It is slightly less stringent and issues are more easily understood and repaired.
• For advanced developers and webmasters, we recommend using the WCAG standard. Although more complex, these guidelines cover a wider range of web tools and plug-ins and insure universal accessibilty.
3. Enter a web page address in the URL box and click "Submit.”
4. When the evaluation is done click on the "Skip to Report"' link to jump to the bottom of the page to review any issues found by Bobby. Be sure to read through the Priority One issues and the User Check issues. The User Check issues can only be verified manually by checking the site.

Want to see Bobby in action? Try this URL: http://www.wac.ohio-state.edu -- does our site need corrections?

A-Prompt Web Accessibility Verifier

(http://aprompt.snow.utoronto.ca/.)

A-Prompt offers a step-by-step guide to identifying and repairing accessibility issues. It even provides automatic repair for most common issues.

Like Bobby, A-Prompt is a free service. However, unlike Bobby, which can be used online, A-Prompt must be downloaded and installed on your machine. Yet, A-Prompt offers many more automated features that guide you through retrofitting your site. In its current format as a standalone for PC platform, the A-Prompt allows the author to select a file or for validation and repair, or select an single HTML element within a file.

The tool may be customized to check for different conformance levels, based on the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0.

If an accessibility problem is detected, A-Prompt displays the necessary dialogs and guides the user to fix the problem. Many repetitive tasks are automated, such as the addition of ALT-text or the replacement of server-side image maps with client-side image maps.

When all potential problems have been resolved, the repaired HTML code is inserted into the document and a new version of the file may be saved to the author's hard drive. After a web page has been checked and repaired by A-Prompt it will be given a WAI Conformance ranking.

Other Validator’s

Also try the W3C's HTML validator. A more complete list of evaluation software with links is available on the W3C site: "Evaluation, Repair, and Transformation Tools for Web Content Accessibility.”

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Accessibility As You Go: LIFT

Validators evaluate the accessibility of web pages that have already been created. Other software, like LIFT, facilitates accessible design as you build your pages.

LIFT from UsableNet (available for Dreamweaver and FrontPage) simplifies compliance with W3C and Section 508 guidelines and allows users to define guidelines to meet their specific needs. Tables, images, scripts and links are easy to manage with the “Fix Wizard,” a simple step-by-step tool that helps users create accessible content. No HTML knowledge is required to use these tools.

For more information about LIFT, including an online demo, check out UsableNet online.

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5 Steps to an Accessible Web Site.

1. Look through the web site that has been submitted.
2. Have Bobby check the site.
3. Review Bobby's summary report.  
4. Verify Priority 1 problems and the User Checks.
5. Ask for help -- Contact WAC with your questions.

WAC Goal 

Our goal is to provide concise, accurate, and consistent reviews to those utilizing our service. Reviews aim to help web designers comply with The Ohio State University Web Accessibility Policy and Standards. Reports from the WAC identify key accessibility issues and recommend changes to further compliance. Recognizing and respecting the unique design of each site, the WAC staff does not comment on aesthetic design decisions that do not affect accessibility. For more about the WAC, see our Mission Statement. To request help from the WAC, visit our Services page.

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Go to: Part I. or Part II.