Accessibility resources

I got an email about accessibility and if I knew if there was any programs or resources that I knew of. I collected a bunch of resources that I use now and then. Some are programs, some are extensions to web browsers, many are online tools.

If I should recommend only a few it would be:

• Webdeveloper extension for Firefox
• Accessibility bar for Internet Explorer
• Online validating service from W3C
• Fangs and FoxyVoice extension for Firefox

The biggest problem is that the major Screen reader software (HAL and JAWS) are so expensive. That is too bad and probably one of the reason why many sites do not care about accessibility. Web developers cannot afford to buy these softwares. I think they should have web developer licenses which where almost free of charge. This would help us developing better web sites and the users of these softwares would get an greater experience.

Well, here is the list:

Programs

JAWS

A real screen reader program that is the most popular screen reader for Windows. Jaws for Windows offers extensive speech and braille display support and is compatible with the screen magnifier Magic. http://www.freedomscientific.com/fsproducts/softwarejaws.asp

HAL

A real screen reader program used by the many users. Hal Screen Reader provides the very best intelligent screen access for visually impaired computer users through speech and Braille. http://www.dolphinuk.co.uk/products/hal.htm

IBM Home Page reader

Home Page Reader brings the world of the Internet to blind and low vision users. This innovative product uses the power of voice to guide users in exploring the marvels of the World Wide Web. http://www-306.ibm.com/able/solution_offerings/hpr.html

Mozilla Firefox

Browser that support a few accessibility extensions. http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/

Web developer

Great extension for Firefox when web developing (Have a lot of other features too) http://www.chrispederick.com/work/firefox/webdeveloper/

Fangs

A screen reader emulator (JAWS), still under heavy development but great so far. I wrote a post how to use Fangs together with FoxyVoice. http://www.standards-schmandards.com/index.php?show/fangs

FoxyVoice

Extension that reads a page, works great together with Fangs, see above. http://foxyvoice.kenche.info/

Tableinspector

Check if your tables are accessible, it is a favelet used with Firefox. This site has a lot of resources about accessibility. http://www.juicystudio.com/complextableinspector.asp

Web Accessibility Toolbar

Extension for Internet explorer. Amazing extension that have a lot of features that can help development. http://www.nils.org.au/ais/web/resources/toolbar/

Lynx for Windows

Lynx is text based browser, mostly used on Linux. There is a port of Lynx for Windows.

Online tools

Validate XHTML

http://validator.w3.org/

Validate CSS

http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/

Colour contrast

http://www.juicystudio.com/services/colourcontrast.asp

Colour blind testing

Test your site with different colour blind problems. http://www.vischeck.com/vischeck/

Bobby accessibility test

This free service 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. http://bobby.watchfire.com/bobby/html/en/index.jsp

Torqemada accessibility test

Torquemada offers to website developers a complete methodology for accessibility analysis which uses a tool for page checking that makes it possible to quickly identify which parts of a page are in error and the HTML code corresponding to these parts. http://www.webxtutti.it/testa_en.htm

Lynx online tool

Lynx is text based browser, mostly used on Linux, here is an online tool emulating this. http://www.delorie.com/web/lynxview.html

Screen reader simulation

Have not tried this one. Is based on Macromedia shockwave. http://www.webaim.org/simulations/screenreader

Web resources

• http://www.webaim.org/
• http://www.autisticcuckoo.net/blog.php
• http://annevankesteren.nl/
• http://www.456bereastreet.com/
• http://www.standards-schmandards.com/index.php
• http://www.24-timmarsmyndigheten.se/ (Swedish)
• http://www.funkanu.se/start.asp?sida= (Swedish)

Related Posts:

• Top 32 articles you must have read 2007 (1)

External links

• Partnersuche
• Hard Drive
• Launch Website Design

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 5th, 2005 at 12:31 pm and are tagged with: accessibility, resource. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Listen to this post Digg this post at del.icio.us, Technorati, Digg, Slashdot. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.