Auditing Software Tools for SENDA Compliance

This project has identified a number of tools that may be of use to the academic community. The starting point of this investigation was the W3C WAI web page that lists existing evaluation, repair, and transformation tools for Web Content Accessibility.

WARP. Design>Web Design>Accessibility>Software

The Speechlet Project

Speechlet is a system which allows blind students of the Java programming language to use existing course material. Most Java courses use program examples that generate graphic output. The main reason for this is that students enjoy writing programs that produce interesting and exciting outputs. However, a blind student is unable to see the output of their program and is unable to even gauge that their program has worked. Speechlet was therefore produced to allow a blind student to move the mouse pointer over the screen and hear a spoken description of what is there. This paper discusses the reasons for the development of Speechlet, followed by a description of its operation and finally a discussion of its use in practise.

Mullier, D.J. TechDis (2003). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>Software

The Stomper Scrutinizer: Web Browser w/Visual Simulation  

The Stomper Scrutinizer is a webkit based browser that includes a simulation of human foveal and peripheral vision. By providing a realistic distortion of non-focused page content, the Scrutinizer reveals the perceptability of design features. It is also useful for conducting usability tests, design reviews, and has a number of features (including screenshots) for talking about design.

Andy Edmonds. StomperNet (2007). Resources>Software>Accessibility>Web Design

User Style Sheet Wizard

This is a simple 'wizard tool' to create a User Style Sheet. These can be extremely useful for students with visual impairments, scotopic senstivity or visual processing difficulties such as some forms of dyslexia. User Style Sheets are a client-side application of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), they can be used to overide the presentation of HTML based web pages. They can be extremely powerful in enforcing the way in which the user desires a web page to be presented. You can set option of text font, size and colour. The font colour of hyperlinks etc. The user style sheets can be used in Internet Explorer, Opera and Mozilla.

TechDis (2003). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>Software

Using Opera to Check for Accessibility

There are a lot of tools available to check your Web content for accessibility. Some tools are Web-based (such as WAVE 3.0). Other tools are stand-alone software products that you install on your hard drive. One tool that you may have overlooked is the Opera Web browser. Opera is not an accessibility validator—it's a Web browser—but it can act like an accessibility validator if you know how to use it that way. In fact, it's one of the best available. This article explains why.

WebAIM (2003). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>Software

Web Accessibility Evaluation Tools: Overview

Web accessibility evaluation tools are software programs or online services that help determine if a Web site meets accessibility guidelines. While Web accessibility evaluation tools can significantly reduce the time and effort to evaluate Web sites, no tool can automatically determine the accessibility of Web sites.

Abou-Zahra, Shadi. W3C. Design>Web Design>Accessibility>Software

Web Accessibility Toolbar  

The accessibility toolbar is to aid the manual process in validating web sites. Developed by AIS and provided in Europe and the UK by Southbourne Internet Ltd.

Southbourne Internet Ltd. (2004). Design>Accessibility>Software>Web Browsers

Exploiting Web Tools to Make HTML Documents Accessible

More accessible documents through authoring tool supports. Exploit mainstream tools for easier information retrieval and document manipulation.

Treviranus, Jutta and Jan Richards . University of Toronto (2004). Presentations>Web Design>Accessibility>Software