Easy Web Accessibility Testing Tools

The previous sections in this book have introduced specific accessibility issues that you should watch for in common OER formats such as Pressbooks and H5P, as well as online videos that are commonly embedded within OER. As discussed, some accessibility issues can be identified with a visual inspection. For issues like page and document structure, alternate text, some colour contrast issues, the use of font and styles rather than headings, and lists that aren’t really lists, you’ll need a tool to help you.

There are many automated web accessibility testing tools available with varying degrees of accuracy and coverage. They will be introduced here in general terms, and you can experiment with them to find which ones work most effectively for you.

What can automated testing tools check for?

Using automated tools to assess web accessibility does not take much technical knowledge, but one often must have some understanding of web accessibility to be able to interpret the reports these tools generate. This is why we tackled a condensed list of what to watch for first.

Automated accessibility checkers are a must in your Web Accessibility Auditing Toolkit, though it is important to understand their limitations. Think of an automated accessibility checker like a spell checker in a word processor. Though a good start for identifying misspelled words, a person must still read through the text to ensure words have been used correctly (e.g., where “there” is used in place of “their”). For now, human judgement must also be involved for any potential barriers that involve assessing meaning. For example, automated checkers can identify ambiguous phrases like “click here” or “this link” used as link text, but a person needs to determine whether this text accurately describes the link’s destination or function. Similarly, a person must decide whether alt text or a long description for an image accurately describes the meaningful information in the image, something automated checkers cannot currently do.

Regardless of the features automated checkers have, you cannot rely on them to find all potential barriers in web content. A human being must also be a part of the checking process and make decisions on potential issues, particularly when meaning is involved.

An easy tool to start with: WAVE accessibility checker

WAVE is an automated checker that can be added to your browser as a free extension/plugin.

WAVE produces a report by reproducing the page that was reviewed, inserting a variety of icons into the content to identify errors (known problems) and alerts (potential problems), as well as the accessibility features that are present. Clicking on any of the icons will provide a brief description and a link to additional information.

Other Types of Accessibility Testing Tools

In addition to the typical web accessibility checkers, there are a variety of other tools you can use to test specific aspects of accessibility. We’ve started with just a visual inspection and the WAVE tool in order to avoid being very overwhelmed. When you’re ready, you can dig deeper into web accessibility by reviewing the following sections in the Professional Web Accessibility Auditing Made Easy OER.

Colour Contrast Checkers: Colour contrast checkers can be used to determine whether colour being used in web content provides enough contrast to be readable for those with low vision or colour blindness. These tools take two colour codes (e.g., #ffffff for white, #000000 for black) and use a contrast algorithm to produce a colour contrast ratio. Many colour testing tools can be found on the Web, others can be installed as a plugin for a browser, and still others are built into web accessibility checkers.

Readability Testing Tools: There are also a variety of readability testing tools that can be used to determine the level of education one might require to effectively understand the text in web content. These tools run a series of algorithms that take characteristics of text like the length of words, the density of longer words, the length of sentences, the number of clauses in sentences, etc., and generate a score. For public web content the recommended reading level is about grade 9, or lower-level high school.

Attribution & References

Except where otherwise noted, Easy Web Accessibility Testing Tools by Jen Booth has been adapted from:

• “Automated Web Accessibility Testing“, “Limitations of Automated Web Accessibility Checkers“, “WAVE accessibility evaluation tool” In Professional Web Accessibility Auditing Made Easy by Digital Education Strategies, The Chang School, CC BY-SA 4.0

Adaptation notes

Small sections from each of the source pages were combined to create a simple starting point for accessibility checking.