Accessibility Testing on a Budget

How do you find out how your site sounds? Without dipping in to the wallet, here are some suggestions about how you can test your pages.

Accessify (2003). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>Visual

Adaptive Technologies for the Visually Impaired: The Role of Technical Communicators    

This column examines emerging technologies of interest to technical communicators to help them identify those that are worthy of further investigation. It is intended neither as an endorsement of any technology or product, nor as a recommendation to purchase.

Ray, Deborah S. and Eric J. Ray. Technical Communication Online (1998). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>Visual

Designing Your Web Site for the Blind

Yet those of us who are fully sighted forget that as we make the Web our main information vehicle, we may be cutting out millions of customers or potential customers. And these millions (5 to 10 million in the U.S. alone, by some estimates) have every moral and legal right to have access to that information.

Ball, Guy. Boston Broadside (2001). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>Visual

Guidelines for Writing Accessible Online Help

This article describes how to write effective on-line help for blind and low vision users of text based readers. The authors draw on their collective experience in both using text (screen) readers like JAWS to access web applications as well as preparing accessibility help for web pages and applications. This article doesn't include specific information about building web interfaces or sites, use of controls for accessibility within web sites, Section 508 or WAI Standards and Guidelines, or specific information about hardware or software. We include JAWS instructions as an example because it is commonly used in the United States. Also, we don't include information about actual language used within an interface and how to write it to make the interface more accessible. We are only discussing how to write Help pertaining to the interface itself.

Reed, Will, Everyl Yankee and Wendi Fornoff. Usability Interface (2003). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>Visual

Usable, Accessible Web Pages for Low Vision: Criteria for Designers  

This paper identifies challenges for design of web pages for low vision. It examines key usability considerations (subject, occasion, audience, and purpose) for defining content for web pages and emphasizes seven basic principles of universal design. SOAP for web pages is a model that web page developers can use to define content criteria for websites. The model emphasizes an interdisciplinary approach to audience, needs, task, and requirements analysis. It discusses a user–centered approach (capture, specify, plan, realize, deliver) to usability testing. Additionally, this paper summarizes key findings from low vision research on type legibility. The paper concludes with design principles that can be derived from print–based studies (normal and subnormal vision) for developing accessible web pages.

Reece, Gloria A. STC Proceedings (2001). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>Visual

How to Avoid Screen Reader 'Noise Pollution'

Surely there can't be a skill to writing ALT text for images? You just pop a description in there and you're good to go, right? Well, kind of. Sure, it's not rocket science, but there are a few guidelines you need to follow.

Moss, Trenton. Digital Media Europe (2005). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>Visual

Designing for Screen Reader Compatibility

Techniques that work for one screen reader almost always work in other screen readers. In some cases, one of the screen readers has capabilities that the others do not have, or handles some types of content better than the other screen readers. Still, developers are almost always better off when they focus on accessibility standards and generally-accepted accessibility techniques than when they focus on screen reader differences.

WebAIM (2007). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>Visual