Tools
Introduction
There are numerous tools available to help evaluate Web documents for accessibility. Unfortunately, as automated agents, they are unable to check aspects of a page that require human judgement to determine compliance. Still, in conjunction with careful user checks, these applications can be time savers. For the most complete list of accessibility tools, visit the WAI's tools page
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Bobby
Perhaps the most well known of these programs is Bobby, an accessibility checker developed by the Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST). Simply enter the URL for the page to be examined, and Bobby will return a report on that page's conformance to Section 508 and the W3C checkpoints. Bobby is also available as a standalone client. This client is available for all major platforms and includes advanced features for checking entire sites as well as individual pages.
Wave
Unfortunately, the online version of Bobby only allows a limited number of checks. A better solution is WebAIM's WAVE Web Accessibility Tool. Like Bobby, this online tool allows you to submit a URL for checking, but Wave provides a very intuitive graphic interface for presenting feedback on you page.
Dreamweaver
Another, perhaps better, option is to use one of two Accessibility Extensions available for Macromedia's Dreamweaver web editor. Avalable through Macromedia Exchange, these extensions provide much of the same functionality as Bobby, without the need to exit your development environment. Macromedia has developed one of these extensions (the "Check Page for Accessibility" extension), but like Bobby, it only checks against the W3C Guidelines. The best option is to use UseableNet's 3rd party "508 Accessibility Suite" extension. This tool has a wealth of features and can be geared specifically towards the legal guidelines established by Section 508.
The last two versions of Dreamweaver, MX and MX 2004, both include built-in accessibility tools that prompt you to add accessibility information and code when adding certain web elements through the graphical interface. This new feature makes the process of creating accessible pages much easier. The built-in accessibility tools are disabled by default and must be turned on in Dreamweaver's preferences to use them.
It is recommended that IDDL web developers make the transition to Dreamweaver and use the 508 Accessibility Suite extension and built-in tools to ensure that their pages comply with these legal prescriptions.
Captioning
The most common tool used for producing such closed-captioning is MAGpie. This free program allows developers to easily create captions for Quicktime, Real and Windows Media. For information on how to use MAGpie, view the MAGpie tutorial at WebAIM. The National Center for Accessible Media (NCAM), the maker of MAGpie, has also created a free captioning extension for Flash that helps ensure content created with that tool is accessible. This tool is somewhat limited in that it doesn't maintain synchronization of the captioning when the presentation is flow is interrupted by rewinding, fast-forwarding or pausing. To deal with this issue, IDDL has developed a modified version of this extension that is more robust. Contact Robert Fentress for details. To learn more about accessibility and Macromedia products, visit Macromedia's Accessibility Resource Center.
Last Updated: May 15, 2006 11:57 AM
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