Testing for Accessibility Sandra Clark Sr. Software Developer The Constella Group

Types of Disabilities Accessible web sites are not only for blind people. Inability to use a mouse Arthritis Can’t use hands Cognitive ADHD Blind Vision Issues Color Blindness Focus Issues Dyslexia Deaf/Hard of Hearing

Testing for Accessibility So many types of issues require different solutions. How to test to everything? Follow Standards and Guidelines WCAG 1.0 WCAG 2.0 (Still in the proposal stage) Section 508 (Federal Sites)

Accessibility Evaluation Human Testing performed by an actual person Quality of results depends on the knowledge and experience of the tester. Computer Often very fast and efficient Can run completely automated Not everything can be computationally tested. Many accessibility items require human evaluation. Computer Aided Individual assisted by a computer process.

Automated Testing Certain software claims to test for accessibility. Can be useful to point out areas but its dangerous to rely on. Very few areas of accessibility are totally objective. Can use automated tools for specific points, but don’t think that’s all there is to it.

Accessibility is Subjective Why can’t we use automated tools? Consider an image <img src=“3women.html” alt=“three women” />

Best Accessibility Testing Tool? YOU!

What makes a good tester Attention to Detail Not part of the original team. Knowledgeable about HTML JavaScript CSS Flash Action Script

Testing Tools Best Testing tool is a source code editor. Computer Aided Tester Wave 4 Toolbar http://www.wave.webaim.org/index.jsp Web Developer Toolbar for Firefox (http:// www.chrispederick.com) Color Tester (for color blind) http://vischeck.com/vischeck/vischeckURL.php Color Contrast Analyzer http://www.alphaworks.ibm.com/tech/adesigner (Windows) http://www.accesskeys.org/tools/color-contrast.html (online) Photosensitivity Epilepsy Analysis Tool http://trace.wisc.edu/peat/ List of Testing Tools available http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/tools/complete

Wave 4 Toolbar Computer/Human Aided Testing Browser Toolbar – Firefox Can test Intranets, password protected sites. Aids in testing Ajax Sites.

WebDeveloper Toolbar Most useful toolbar for testing Aids in testing many areas of accessibility Images – Alt Text Forms – ID Easily Disable JavaScript and/or CSS

Screen Readers - Windows Needs time to get good with them. Jaws Demo http://www.freedomscientific.com/fs_products/software_jaws80fea.asp#download Window-eyes Demo http://www.gwmicro.com/Developers/ Both Jaws and Window-Eyes have 40 and 30 minute demo programs (respectively). Both programs need a reboot of your computer to continue. Useful in a Virtual Machine. NVDA (NonVisual Desktop Access) Open Source for Windows http://www.nvda-project.org/

Screen Readers - Others ORCA – (Sun) Linux and Solaris Runs under GNOME http://live.gnome.org/Orca Voice Over (Apple) Bundled with Max OSX http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/voiceover/

Testing PDF Adobe Acrobat Professional has a reading mode. Use that and the included accessibility checker. Best Accessibility in PDF’s is achieved from Good source. Remember Garbage In, Garbage Out

Testing Flash/Flex No tool exists that helps with testing. Flash/Flex is only accessible within Internet Explorer. Gecko Browsers and Opera should support the keyboard browsing. Ask 2 questions before starting to test Flash/Flex Applications Is the applications accessibility set to enabled? Flash/Flex applications are not enabled by default. Are the components being used the standard ones supported by Adobe? These items are able to be made accessible. If the components are custom built, are they also accessible?

How to know what to Test All the guidelines are fairly vague and especially for someone new, its hard to know what it all means. In 2006, a consortium of 23 EU countries collaborated on a methodology to standardize testing. Consists of a variety of Test Cases under WCAG 1.0 (Priority 1 and 2). Covers most of Section 508 http://www.wabcluster.org/index.html

140 Pages???? Relax Two excel templates for testing One for WCAG 1.0 (P1 and P2) One for Section 508 Both based on the wabcluster methodology SMART Specific Measurable Accessibility that is Realistic and Testable.

Excel Templates can be downloaded from shayna.com http://www.shayna.com/docs/accessibilityauditTemplates.zip Section 508 Template WCAG 1.0 (P1 and P2) Template

What about Priority 3? WCAG 1.0 Priority 3 contains the guidelines to help make web pages more accessible to specific disabilities. Some of the these priorities actually can inhibit accessibility for certain groups. Case in point. 9.5 Provide keyboard shortcuts to important links (including those in client-side image maps), form controls, and groups of form controls. With the exception of just a few keys. Any accesskey that is defined within a web page, is going to conflict with a screen reader application which is totally keyboard dependent.

Future of Accessibility IS BRIGHT WCAG 2.0 makes it easier to include Ajax/Flash features Section 508 Refresh takes Ajax/RIA’s into account Dojo – An Accessible JavaScript Toolkit ARIA – The Accessible Rich Internet Applications Standards Mostly supported in FireFox 2.0 Supported fully in FireFox 3.0

Questions? slclark@shayna.com http://www.shayna.com