Digital Accessibility (a11y) Toolkit

Ensuring your digital content is accessible means that everyone, including people with disabilities, can easily use and interact with it. We urge all staff to follow accessibility best practices in their work. This dedication is crucial for creating an inclusive online environment that complies with federal regulations of Section 508 and the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA standards.

Below, you'll find a list of tools designed to help you evaluate your content. These tools are organized by function, making it simple to find the right one for your needs.

Document Checkers:

To ensure digital documents are accessible to all users, the following tools can help identify and resolve accessibility issues such as missing alt text, color contrast, and heading structure issues.

Microsoft Office Accessibility Checker: A built-in tool for Microsoft Office applications that evaluates documents, spreadsheets, and presentations for accessibility issues. It provides recommendations for fixes and is available on Windows, Mac, and web versions of Office.
Adobe Acrobat Pro Accessibility Checker: Integrated into Adobe Acrobat Pro, this tool focuses on PDF accessibility. It provides an overview of potential errors in PDFs and is considered an industry standard for PDF accessibility checking.
CommonLook PDF: Works in conjunction with Adobe Acrobat Pro, specializing in identifying and resolving PDF accessibility issues. It offers advanced features for PDF remediation and is designed to enhance Acrobat's capabilities.
Code Mantra's Accessibility InSight: Code Mantra offers an intuitive platform for remediating documents, ensuring compliance with accessibility standards. With no specialized coding skills required, users can make their documents accessible.
Grackle Docs: An add-on for Google Workspace that extends the accessibility of Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides. It automatically checks documents and advises on improvements, offering features like PDF/UA output and table tagging.

Website Tools:

Multiple Issue Checkers:

These tools look at a range of accessibility issues, like color contrast, alt text, and screen reader compatibility.

Silktide Accessibility: This free Chrome extension checks for many different accessibility issues according to web standards (WCAG 2.1).
Siteimprove Accessibility Checker: This free Chrome extension helps find problems with web content that doesn’t meet accessibility standards (WCAG 2.1).
WAVE (Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool): This tool highlights accessibility problems on your webpage by showing them directly on the screen.
axe DevTools: A browser extension for Chrome and Firefox that finds accessibility issues and explains how to fix them.

Color Contrast Checkers:

These tools check if the contrast between text and background colors is high enough for everyone to read.

Colour Contrast Analyzer (CCA): Compares text and background colors to make sure the contrast is good enough for people to read easily.
Adobe Acrobat Color Contrast Checker:Adobe's Color Contrast Analyzer helps users easily check color contrast ratios to ensure accessibility compliance. With an intuitive interface, anyone can assess and adjust color combinations for optimal readability. This tool is free to use and simplifies the process of meeting accessibility guidelines.
Accessible Colors: Helps you adjust color combinations to meet the contrast requirements for web accessibility.

Developer Tools:

These tools are more advanced and give developers detailed information about accessibility issues in the website’s code.

ANDI (Accessible Name & Description Inspector): A tool developed by the Department of Defence that checks interactive elements (like forms and buttons) to ensure they are labeled properly for screen readers.
Lighthouse: Built into Chrome, this tool checks your website for performance, accessibility, and SEO all at once.

Screen Readers:

Screen readers are used by people with visual impairments to read out website content. These tools help you test if your website works well with screen readers.

NVDA (NonVisual Desktop Access): A free screen reader for Windows, great for testing how your website is read out loud to users.
VoiceOver (Built into macOS): A screen reader built into macOS that helps you test how your website works for visually impaired users on Apple devices.
JAWS (Job Access With Speech): Although not fully free, JAWS offers a trial version for testing screen reader compatibility on Windows.

Captioning:

These tools help you add captions to videos, making them accessible for people who are deaf or hard of hearing.

Microsoft Stream: Automatically generates captions for videos uploaded to Microsoft Stream, with options for editing the captions.
YUJA: A tool for creating automatic captions for videos, often used in educational settings.

Other Accessibility Tools:

These tools help with specific accessibility needs like keyboard navigation or simulating different disabilities.

Userway: This page provides a comprehensive list of disability simulators for various conditions including vision impairments, deafness, and color blindness. These tools are designed to help website owners and developers understand how users with disabilities experience their content, ultimately aiding in improving web accessibility.
Funkify: A Chrome extension that simulates different disabilities, allowing users to experience the web from various perspectives. It helps web developers and designers understand how people with impairments such as color blindness, dyslexia, or low vision navigate online content.

Federal Resources:

Check out all the criteria required to meet digital accessibility compliance.

VCSU A11y Resources:

Check out these resources we've put together to help you make your content more accessible.

New to WCAG? That's OK! Check out this short YouTube video from Silktide:

For more information or to schedule training, please contact:

Debbie Dramstad

Certified Professional in Accessibility Core Competencies (CPACC)

Web Accessibility and Applications Specialist

Technology Services

debra.dramstad@vcsu.edu

[Updated, August 2024]