Technical Assistance

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Access to the World Wide Web is an important aspect to everybody's lives. People with Disabilities need access to the World Wide Web, too. The following links will guide you through the guidelines for accessibility using the principles of Universal Design.

For a great article on why accessible web pages are good business, check out this link to New Architect Magazine, December 2002, by Susan Kuchinskas. The last page includes website creation products that cue for accessibility under Section 508.

Bobby Accessibility Test

Bobby is a web-based tool that analyzes web pages for their accessibility to people with disabilities. CAST offers Bobby as a free public service in order to further its mission to expand opportunities for people with disabilities through the innovative uses of computer technology.

Web Accessibility Initiative

World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)

W3C Validator

World Wide Web Consortium W3C leads the World Wide Web by developing common protocols that promote its evolution and ensure its interoperability. The W3C's commitment includes promoting a high degree of usability for people with disabilities. The Web Accessibility Initiative, in coordination with organizations around the world, is pursuing accessibility of the Web through five primary areas of work: technology, guidelines, tools, education and outreach, and research and development.

ILRU Techincal Assistance

ILRU has established a seachable database to enhance the independent living field's ability to recycle solutions that have b een tested and found effective in addressing CIL concerns.

WAVE

This is the accessibility validator developed by Pennsylvania's Initiative on Assistive Technology (PIAT). This tool identifies items on a Web page that should be examined for potential accessibility problems, and describes what the problem might be.

A-Prompt

This is a downloadable tool that identifies potential accessibility problems and provides guided editing to correct the problems. The software is available through the joint efforts of the University of Toronto's Adaptive Technology Resource Centre (ATRC) and the TRACE Center at the University of Wisconsin.

Color Blind Tester

This validator tests your HTML on how it looks to people who are color-blind.

Visicheck Color Blindness Simulator

This simulator is available as a PhotoShop plug-in and in Java, as well as online. Visicheck Classic online checks images only, for all types of color blindness. Visicheck URL checks a single web page for red-green blindness (Deuteranope) only.

Public Lynx Browser Access

One of the best ways to see how accessible your web pages are is in the Lynx text web browser. Lynx shows how your page reads in a linearized format, which is how most screen readers and other alternative browsers render HTML. The Public Lynx page offers several sites that allow guest access to a Lynx browser.

Accessibility Bookmarklets

These are three small JavaScripts that easily enable you to configure Internet Explorer 5x+ browsers to view web pages in grayscale, to kill stylesheets, and to view the images on the page that do not have "alt" attributes.

HTML Validator by WDG

This validator uses a special SGML declaration with custom document-type definitions (DTDs) especially those built from the HTML 4.0 Transitional DTD, work correctly with the WDG HTML Validator but not other validators.

NetMechanic by WDG

NetMechanic offers a limited free page validation service that looks at whether the site meets HTML standards, browser compatibility, load time, and bad links.

CSE HTML Validator

CSE provides downloadable validators that check HTML, XHTML, and WML syntax for Windows-based machines. The Lite version is free.

Doctor HTML

The fee-based version of this validator provides analysis of an entire site. Individual pages can be tested free. The validator analyzes spelling, browser support, image syntax and analysis, font support, meta tags, form structure, table analysis, verifying links, document structure, load time, etc.