Accessing Accessibility Tools

Last week I went to download the latest version of Bobby, an IBM tool that tests web pages to ensure they meet accessibility guidelines set by the W3C’s Web Access Initiative and Section 508 from the U.S. Federal Government. To my dismay, IBM has stopped offerring this tool for free, as of February 1, 2008. Going forward, IBM will be incorporating Bobby’s functionality into the product IBM Rational Policy Tester Accessibility Edition solution (previously known as WebXM Accessibility Module).

I realize that, as designers, we need to do more than scan our code to ensure our pages meet federal guidelines; we need to test pages with screen readers and ideally conduct usability tests with visually impaired users. But Bobby was a handy tool for taking a first pass at accessibility and identifying key problems. It has been the tool of choice for every company I have ever worked for or with on a web project. What tools should we turn to now that Bobby is no longer Freeware?

Ensuring that your site is accessible is not just a nice to have. No doubt many of you have followed the landmark accessibility lawsuit regarding Target.com where a federal district court judge declared:

1. That the case is a class action lawsuit under the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA), and
2. That sites like Target.com that provide offshoot services to physical stores must legally be accessible.

This groundbreaking ruling encourages all of us to reexamine how well our sites (especially those with brick and mortar accompaniments) work with screen readers. (You can read more about the Target.com case on the Disability Rights Advocates website.)

I dug around on the Internet tonight in search of alternatives to Bobby. I learned these types of tools are called “automated accessibility validation tools”, in case that ever helps you on your own Google quest. I discovered a fantastic list on the W3C that lists what it boasts is the “Complete List of Web Accessibility Evaluation Tools”.

The tools listed on the W3C page do a lot more than just scan your code for compliance. Here are a few examples of free tools:

AccessColor from AccessKeys uses a color brightness formula to test the contrast between colors on the page to ensure that visually impaired users don’t have issues distinguishing between the foreground and background.

The ccPlayer by the National Center for Accessible Media can be embedded in web pages to show captions along with Flash files so screen readers can read along.

Complex Table Mark-up (com tab) Toolbar from Vision Australia is a Freeware add on to add-on to FireFox. This toolbar helps you quickly identify tables that do not have proper tagging for screen readers, such as headers, and helps you create the necessary mark-up.

See the complete list of accessibility tools at the W3C.

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