The intermediate evaluations are based on evaluating products or services that are web-based such as websites or web applications. These evaluations can be conducted by those who have a general understanding of the accessibility rules and best practices of the web.
WAVE Web Accessibility Tool
WAVE is one of the most popular tools developed to evaluate web pages for accessibility. The WAVE tool comes in two forms: as a website and as a toolbar that can be embedded in the Firefox and Chrome browsers. WAVE is intended to provide an overall summary of what can be potential accessibility problems on your online web product/ service. It is not a full compliance evaluation tool.
WAVE website
To Access the WAVE Website Please visit: http://wave.webaim.org/. From the Website simply type in the address of the page you are evaluating. WAVE will generate a report outlining all potential accessibility gaps in the product.
WAVE Toolbar for Firefox and Chrome
The WAVE toolbar for Firefox and Chrome is a browser plugin to evaluate the accessibility of a page you are currently residing on. To download the WAVE toolbar, visit UDC's Testing and Learning Tools page.
WAVE toolbar Compatibility Problems with Firefox
Please be aware that the WAVE toolbar is currently not compatible with the latest version of Firefox (Version 43). To use WAVE toolbar on the latest versions of Firefox, you will need to update the Firefox Configuration Editor. Please visit Mozilla Support for assistance.
WAVE Report
When the WAVE tool is scanned, an icons report will be generated that identifies potential accessibility errors or issues in each area of the page. If you are using the WAVE Webpage or the WAVE toolbar in the Chrome browser, a summarized side panel will also appear that provides detailed information about the errors found. The panel options include the Summary, Details, Documentation, and Outline tabs. Understanding the panel information is critical to understanding the results in the report.
Summary Tab
The summary tab provides a brief review of potential errors or alerts that WAVE has found. The summary tab also has a brief statement of the other panel options.
Details Tab
The Details tab can provide you with a list of accessibility errors that may be present on the page you are evaluating. Selecting any icon in the details tab will guide you to the direct area where the accessibility problem may be present.
Documentation Tab
The documentation tab conveys an icon index. These icons represent all the possible errors, alerts, features, and elements that WAVE can identify. Selecting any of these icons will provide a detailed overview of what the icon represents, why it is important, methods to fix the problem and resources on standards and guidelines.
Outline Tab
The Outline tab provides a general view of the web page structure in an outline form. If there are any problems with the structure, WAVE will provide an error or alert icon next to the text heading.
Additional Features
The WAVE tool can also produce a No Styles report to identify potential errors within the Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and a Contrast report view to identifying color contrast issues. Also, the WAVE tool can also filter results to allow a full accessibility review or a review based on WCAG 2.0 AA, WCAG 2.0 A or Section 508 only.
Compliance Deputy
Compliance deputy is a newly developed browser-based solution that allows developers and content creators to evaluate and repair accessibility errors before publishing them. Cryptzone developed compliance Deputy in collaboration with the CSU ATI and the Universal Design Center. It measures compliance using the CSU ATI Accessibility Requirements
(DOCX) and the UDC Web Accessibility Criteria. It is supported by browsers IE 9.0 and above, Chrome 40.0 and above and Safari 7.0 and above.
To download Compliance Deputy, please visit UDC's Testing and Learning Tools page.
Additional Evaluation Tools
Additional accessibility evaluation tools such as plugins, extensions, and standalone applications are available to be used in multiple browsers and applications. Some of these tools evaluate multiple accessibility criteria while others target selection criteria.
Common tools to evaluate multiple criteria
- Web Accessibility Toolbar for IE
- Evaluation Tool
- Juicy Studio Accessibility Toolbar
- Web Developer Extension
Common Tools to evaluate for color issues
- Colour Contrast Analyzer
- Peguinium (Color grayscale)
To download these and other tools, please visit the UDC's Testing and Learning Tools page