Evaluating Web Accessibility Overview

Introduction

Alternatives for Video Introduction - Resources Overview

When developing or redesigning a website or web application, evaluate accessibility early and throughout the development process to identify accessibility problems early, when it is easier to address them.

There are evaluation tools that help with evaluation. However, no tool alone can determine if a site meets accessibility standards. Knowledgeable human evaluation is required to determine if a site is accessible.

Initial Checks

This video is available with more accessibility features: Video: Easy Checks Overview.

Even if you don’t know anything about accessibility and you don’t have a robust accessibility tool, you can check some aspects of accessibility.

Easy Checks — A First Review of Web Accessibility: Provides step-by-step guidance and brief explanations for checking some aspects of accessibility.

Tools

This video is available with more accessibility features: Video: Evaluation Tools Overview.

Web accessibility evaluation tools are software programs or online services that help determine if web content meets accessibility standards.

Web Accessibility Evaluation Tools List: Includes information on more than 100 tools. You can use the filters to narrow down the list to the types of tools you are interested in.
Selecting Web Accessibility Evaluation Tools: Provides guidance on choosing tools. It describes the features and functionality of different types of evaluation tools, and discusses things to consider for your situation.

Conformance Evaluation and Reports

This video is available with more accessibility features: Video: Conformance Evaluation Overview.

Conformance evaluation determines how well web pages or applications meet accessibility standards. W3C’s Website Accessibility Conformance Evaluation Methodology (WCAG-EM) is an approach for determining conformance to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).

WCAG-EM Overview: Website Accessibility Conformance Evaluation Methodology: A short page with basic information to get you started. We suggest you read it before going to the full WCAG-EM document.
WCAG-EM Report Tool: Website Accessibility Evaluation Report Generator: Helps you generate evaluation reports according to WCAG-EM. It does not do the checking for you. It helps you follow the steps of WCAG-EM and it generates a report from the input you provide.
Template for Web Accessibility Evaluation Reports: Suggests information to include in a report.
ATAG Report Tool: Helps you generate a report on how a tool meets Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG). Authoring tools are software and services used to create web content – such as content management systems (CMS) and what-you-see-is-what-you-get (WYSIWYG) HTML editors.
Accessibility Conformance Testing (ACT) Rules: Describe how to test conformance of accessibility standards such as WCAG and WAI-ARIA. ACT Rules are primarily used by developers of test tools and methodologies. Accessibility testers may find some rules helpful for evaluating edge cases consistently.

Specifications for expressing test results (EARL) and for writing accessibility test rules (Accessibility Conformance Testing (ACT) Rules Format) are introduced in Evaluation Standards Overview.

People

This video is available with more accessibility features: Video: Involving Users in Web Accessibility Overview.

Getting the right people and skills involved makes your accessibility evaluations more effective.

Using Combined Expertise to Evaluate Web Accessibility: Discusses skill sets and considerations for collaborative review.
Involving Users in Evaluating Web Accessibility: Provides guidance on including people with disabilities (“users”) in evaluation throughout project development.

Alternatives for Video Introduction - Resources Overview

This video is also available on a W3C server: Video: Evaluating Web Accessibility - Resources Overview (file format: MP4, file size: 45MB).

Text Transcript with Description of Visuals for Video Introduction - Resources Overview

Audio	Visual
Evaluating web accessibility: resources overview	Evaluating web accessibility: resources overview.
Evaluation helps you ensure that your websites and applications meet accessibility requirements.	A magnifying glass with the word evaluation on a computer screen with a website on it.
Ideally you evaluate regularly throughout the design and development process. This way you find errors early and avoid costly repairs later in the process.	The web page components rearrange on the page until following a good design.
The W3C Web Accessibility Initiative, W-A-I, or WAI, provides free resources to help you with your evaluation.	W3C and Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) logos.
"Easy Checks - A First Review of Web Accessibility" explains how you can do some checks yourself.	"Easy Checks - A First Review of Web Accessibility". A person in front of the computer. A light bulb appears.
Even if you are new to web accessibility and not technical, these checks give you a rough idea of the accessibility of any web page.	A document of checks. Each check is highlighted to show fails or passes.
WAI also maintains a "Web Accessibility Evaluation Tools List" that you can filter.	Web Accessibility Evaluation Tools List. A list of tools displayed as icons..
"Selecting Web Accessibility Evaluation Tools" explains what tools can and cannot do.	Selecting Web Accessibility Evaluation Tools. The tools icons displayed in a computer.
For more experienced evaluators, WAI provides "WCAG-EM", the "Website Accessibility Conformance Evaluation Methodology".	WCAG-EM. Website Accessibility Conformance Evaluation Methodology. A person in front of a computer. A simplified report is displayed.
The "WCAG-EM Report Tool" helps you record the findings as you follow the methodology.	WCAG-EM Report Tool. A progress bar shows the various stages of the evaluation methodology.
To help you better understand how different users experience your website and applications, WAI provides guidance in "Involving Users in Web Projects for Better, Easier Accessibility" and "Involving users in Evaluating Web Accessibility."	The screen splits into 12 fields each with a different user in front of a computer. Involving Users in Web Projects for Better, Easier Accessibility and Involving users in Evaluating Web Accessibility
With all these resources, you can learn how to check your website for accessibility and prioritize the issues you need to address first.	A magnifying glass with the words check for accessibility is replaced with a list of issues.
Web accessibility: essential for some, useful for all.	Icons around a computer: hand; eye; brain; ear; and mouth with sound waves.
For resources on evaluating web accessibility, visit w3.o-r-g/W-A-I/evaluation.	Evaluation resources, W3C and Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) logos.