How Do I Validate My Site for Accessibility?

Validating a site is fairly similar to editing a piece of writing or an essay. The more you delay it the more work and effort you will have to make to improve it. As a site develops you are advised to validate it often. With validations done often developers and web designers can deal with accessibility issues without letting them create bigger problems for the site.

You must have automated and manual checks both in the validation process for accessibility. Automated tools work similar to a spell checker and search for prominent accessibility problems of a page. The manual tools on the other hand serve to deal with the issues related to continuity and flow of the content of a site. Validation for accessibility is handled expertly with Macromedia Dreamweaver 8. Reporting tools for accessibility and valid code help immediately recognize issues on a single page, many pages and even a whole site. Dreamweaver 8 works quite systematically. It checks the chosen pages for compatibility with Section 508 standards or W3C Web Accessibility Initiative Guidelines before showing up a list of problems. This result list then facilitates the process of fixing the areas in need of repair.

• Using Automated Checking Tools

• Validating Dynamic Pages

• Performing Manual Validation

Using Automated Checking Tools

You can conveniently use any of the free online validation tools to begin validating your site for accessibility. A good depiction of accessibility problems can be achieved with the help of the tools provided by these online checking resources. Watchfire Corporation offers Bobby which is one of the excellent and widely used accessibility validation tools.

Bobby

On Bobby all you have to do is enter the URL of the page which you have to check in the form on the Bobby page ((bobby.watchfire.com/bobby/html/en/index.jsp).

You will receive the results comprising of a list of primary problems with your page. Bobby can comfortably report missing alternatives, text descriptions, missing frame titles or lost Cascading Style Sheets. More complex issues such as tables showing data and alt text cannot be detected by Bobby tools because it was not designed to read problems related to such issues. Bobby is the best option because it is simple and easy to utilize.

LIFT Online

UsableNet, specializing in web usability technology has offered a strong online tool to help validate the accessibility of your pages. This is LIFT online – a tool that analyzes five pages free of charge. The rest of the services are fee-based. This tool is designed to help you get a complete picture of the overall problems the web developer or designer needs to take care of. LIFT can detect where the objects like spacer images need some particular alt type of alternative text. It can locate the table used for data and analyze its markup properly. A page with more general usability rules can also be spotted by LIFT. General usability rules are not the ones faced by people with any sort of impairments but they are common usability problems among all web users.

Accessibility Report for Macromedia Dreamweaver 8

Strong validation tools are offered mostly by application-based tools, such as the Accessibility Report for Macromedia Dreamweaver 8. Dreamweaver 8 has a checking criteria covering from separate pages to the whole site using a customizable range of accessibility guidelines. Comprehensively scoped tests are offered by the Accessibility Report in Dreamweaver 8. The authoring environment of Dreamweaver 8 assists it to help point out to a web developer or designer the problem areas on a page awaiting solutions. The Reference panel has detail of the Section 508 standards and W3C Guidelines which are a plus.

HTML and CSS Validator

Advanced users may find HTML Validator and CSS Validator from W3C quite valuable. Instead of checking for accessibility problems these validators check for the appropriate use of HTML and CSS. All developers and designers who are well acquainted with coding in HTML and CSS and do not know much of the techniques for accessibility might find it beneficial. An incorrect coding can easily be recognized by the HTML and CSS validators and they can conveniently provide a solution for that.

Validating Dynamic Pages

Validating dynamic pages can be quite an issue during the process of repair and validation. You must keep this in mind that checking a dynamic page is not very different from testing a static page, except for the fact that the output of the page will be covered by the test only. The page itself will not be covered. If you try to make adjustments it will be quite similar to making HTML changes. Tools to check dynamic code are also available and many web developers and designers have felt comfortable using static validators for their dynamic pages, such as the Accessibility Report in Macromedia Dreamweaver 8.

Dynamic design techniques for accessibility are not easy in comparison to the static. They are designed to improve user’s experience of the page and not otherwise.

Performing Manual Validation

A wide variety of problems in the website or application are checked by manual validation. Three checks should be included in manual validation. Considerably you should have complex evaluation of your pages, however, these three checks presented here suggest some fast and easy ways to check the accessibility of your site.

Firstly, you must assess the page with a text browser or a screen reader. Free demonstration versions of screen readers are given by manufacturers you can give one a try. Generally screen readers are not easy to use. IBM Home Page Reader is easy to use for the people who are not suffering from any sort of visual disability. IBM Home Page reader has a panel which shows the text read to the user. Following the contents of a page is made easy by such a visual display. Do not mistake it for a screen reader only because IBM Home Page reader is also a speech browser. It can be added in Macromedia Dreamweaver 8 as a preview browser and can be turned off once the analysis is done.

You must also check whether the content of a page being read is continuous. Check the alt text which carries cues related to the text displayed by the screen reader. Check for mistakes, for instance, an image used as a link should not have the word ‘link’ attached in the alt text. The user will be informed by the screen reader that it is a link. The word ‘link’ is unnecessary there.

Secondly, sounds posted on the site should be taken care of. If a specific content is conveyed through the sound then you have to ensure it is also available without sound. The audio in longer audio tracks has to be captioned.

Thirdly, try not to touch the mouse while using the page. Tab key can help you navigate on the page and access links and make objects on it. Tab order should follow a reasonable sequence on your page. Make all areas of your site accessible to your users. Avoid using pop-up menus and plug-ins because they might make it difficult for users to access all areas of your site easily.