Accessibility Resources For You
This resource list is not an evaluation review, nor a complete and definitive list of all tools. The information can change at any time. Recommendations are welcome. I hope you find these web based resources helpful in your pursuit for greater inclusive accessibility.
Web Accessibility is the deficit gap between the Disability of the user and the System capabilities. The goal is to bridge the Accessibility Gap, through Universal Design, that will create the best possible interoperability of System components to achieve the desired User experience. Accessibility is a measurement of Productivity; Products and Services that enable people to be productive and satisfied, with or without a disability.
See the WCAG Document Index for a complete list of WCAG document resources
Web Accessibility Best Practice Information
- W3C/WAI Web Accessibility Laws & Policies Guide
- W3C/WAI Essential Web Accessibility Components document showing how Web accessibility depends on several components working together
- W3C/WAI resource describing tools and approaches that people with different disabilities use and the design barriers they encounter on the Web
- Mobile Web Best Practices (MWBP) Accessibility Guidelines - From WCAG 2.0 to MWBP
- Wayfind G3ICT White Paper: Accelerating the adoption of accessible indoor audio navigation with a standard user interface
- Wayfind Open Standard, Version 1.1, December 1, 2017
- Making Ontario Accessible - information about Accessibility Laws and Standards, and AODA reporting requirements
- Government of Canada Standard on Web Accessibility: Specifications accessibility standard requirement guidelines
- Information and Communications Technology Council (ICTC) Of Canada
- Learn about accessibility testing methods and tools for conformance with the U.S. Section 508 Standards
- Americans with disabilities Act (ADA) connection to professionals, services and goods directory
- The U.S. Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010 (CVAA)
- Vision Australia Accessibility Support Services, a partnership between people who are blind, sighted or have low vision
- NVISION Eye Centers: Navigating the Internet for the Visually Impaired
- The BBC Standards and Guidelines for Mobile Accessibility, a set of technology best practices intended as a standard
- IBM Tools and guidance: Solutions and best practices that help ensure web and mobile applications conform to industry accessibility standards
- Enterprise Accessibility Training Modules - Freedom Scientific and IBM Partnership
- White Paper: Solving Web Accessibility - Leaving No One Behind, by 3Play Media
- Resilient Web Design, by Jeremy Keith
- KSS Documented Styles Guide With An Accessibility Twist, Carie Fisher
- Basic screen reader commands for accessibility testing, By Leonie Watson, The Paciello Group
- RAMP IT UP! Action-based guide for building accessible websites, by Taliesin L. Smith
- Facebook Accessibility. Learn about the built-in features and technologies that help people with disabilities
- iOS App VoiceOver Accessibility Teaching and Testing Plan, AppleVis
- Design Research Portal (DRP): Universal Design, Marcio Dupont
- Website Planet: Website Accessibility Made Easy, Your Ultimate Guide, Mark Holden
- Empowerment Zone - Helping individuals and communities achieve self actualization and full citizenship
- Fuzzy Math: Web Accessibility Checklist for Developers and Designers
- Web axe: Listing of books on web accessibility
- Digital Accessibility Centre (DAC): Easy to use web accessibility maintenance tool and support package
- Microsoft Windows Accessibility:
Inclusive Design: Embracing human diversity and Designing for inclusivity
Technology for Everyone
Documentation in Accessible Formats for Microsoft Products
Keyboard Shortcuts for Microsoft Products
The Ultimate Guide to Windows 10 Keyboard Shortcuts
Web Accessibility Toolkits And Reusable Components
- W3C ARIA Authoring Practices guide to understanding how to make widgets, navigation, and behaviors accessible
- ARIA Landmarks Example
- GPII Developer Space: Resources for developing accessible technologies
- Web Experience Toolkit (WET) Working examples, a collaborative open source project led by the Government of Canada
- Vision Australia Web Developer Tools For Accessibility
- HTML5 Accessibility Support is a work in progress for developers
- Queen's University How-to Accessibility Hub: A series of How-to Guides to create an accessible learning environment
- WebAIM Utah State University mission is to empower organizations to make their web content accessible to people with disabilities
- AcceDe Web Accessibility practice Guidelines, a joint initiative to create practical tools to make WCAG easier to understand and implement
- The ARIA Role Conformance Matrices
- ACCDC, a scalable, cross-browser and cross-platform compatible Dynamic Content Management System that automates the rendering of dynamic content
- The Accessibility Tree: A Training Guide for Advanced Web Development
- OCAD Inclusive Design Research Centre: Fluid Project to designs user interfaces, builds Web tools, and teaches inclusive design
- OCAD Inclusive Design Research Centre: Office document project, creating accessible documents and choosing accessible applications
- PPT2HTML for Customized PowerPoint to HTML is a suite of plugins for Powerpoint document conversions
- Sub-titling text add-in for Microsoft PowerPoint (STAMP)
- YouDescribe: A free YouTube audio description tool, a Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute project
- VEED.IO: An Automated Video Caption Generator
- CADET: Caption And Description Editing Tool - The National Center for Accessible Media at WGBH (NCAM)
- Amara Editor: A free caption and subtitle editor, a project of the Participatory Culture Foundation (PCF) nonprofit
- Dijit Accessibility Statement, The Dojo Toolkit - Reference Guide
- Zurb Foundation for Sites: An advanced accessible and responsive front-end framework
- Java AccessBridge (JAB), enabling and Testing Java Access Bridge
- Java Software Applications Accessibility Guidelines, Lawrence Najjar
- Open Acessibility Everywhere Groundwork, Infrastructure, Standards (AEGIS) Based on a holistic User Centered Design
- Drupal Accessibility, an inclusive community committed to making an accessible tool for building websites
- Learn how to keep a WordPress theme accessible, Sandy Feldman
- How to use accessibility tools effectively if you're a WordPress developer, Amanda Rush
- High Contrast Admin, adds admin color schemes for the visually impaired, Robert Chapin
- Game accessibility guidelines for inclusive game design
- Chrome DevTools Accessibility Reference for Google Developers
- IntelliJ IDEA: an Integrated Development Environment with screen reader capability on Windows
- Discover508 SharePoint Accessibility Solution for use with SharePoint and SharePoint Online (O-365)
- Using the Web Speech API to simulate CSS Speech support
- Objpad: An NVDA screen reader add-on with quick commands to manage objects on the screen
- Vox Product Accessibility Guidelines
- MathJax, an open-source JavaScript display engine for LaTeX, MathML, and AsciiMath notation that works in all modern browsers
- More Accessibility Resources by Christophe Strobbe (GitHub)
- The GitHub A11Y Project: Accessibility Resources
Web Accessibility Evaluation Tools
- Plug-ins for Mozilla Products:
Firebug for Firefox Add-On
Fangs Screen Reader Emulator for Firefox, Peter Krantz
a11y-outline, a screen reader shortcut key simulator for testers, by xim
WCAG Contrast Checker for Firefox, Rumoroso
Colorzilla for Firefox
Opquast Desktop, more than 450 tests (UX, SEO, accessibility, performance) on webpages being browsed
Enable keyboard navigation of ARIA Landmarks for Firefox
HeadingsMap Page Structure Checker for Firefox
AInspector WCAG Firefox Quantum, Microsoft object Add-ons
Deque axe Developer Tools Add-ons for Firefox
Web Developer extension, adds various tools to the Chrome, Firefox and Opera browsers, and runs on Windows, macOS and Linux platforms)
F123 Access is a web-browser Mozilla Firefox browser extension to reformat website pages for blind people
W15yQC - Web Accessibility Quick Check Firefox Extension by Brian Richwine
Visual ARIA Firefox Add-on by Deafinitive
- Plug-ins for Google Products:
Google Chrome - The Fast, Simple and Secure Browser from Google
The Paciello Group: ARC Accessibility Toolkit to aid developers in identifying accessibility problems and features
Accessibility Scanner: Google open source Android Accessibility Test Framework
Lighthouse Chrome DevTool: An open-source automated tool for improving the quality of web pages
Grackle Docs Chrome DevTool: Automatically check Google Docs against accessibility standards and create PDF
Disability Simulator: Funkify Chrome extension
Visual ARIA Chrome Extension: Available on Chrome, Laurence Lewis
Enable Chrome Accessibility Experiment: GitHub, marcy sutton
Navigate Chrome DevTools With Assistive Technology for Web Developers, by Rob Dodson
- Plug-ins for Apple Products:
An Accessibility Toolbar menu of accessibility testing tools for macOS Safari, Paul J. Adam
Sim Daltonism: The color blindness simulator tool, Michel Fortin
NAB/UBKAccessibilityKit GitHub: An iOS framework to help with accessibility development and testing
- Plug-ins for Microsoft Products:
Web Accessibility Internet Explorer Toolbar, Paciello Group
SharePoint Color Palette Tool from the Official Microsoft Download Center
Microsoft: Accessibility Insights for Web developers, two free tools built on Deque's open source axe technology, by Keith Ballinger
- Comparing peer accessibility ratings in evaluation: A project that will document and compare differences in current evaluation practices of experts
- Ace by DAISY, A free open source accessibility checking tool to assist in the evaluation of conformance to the EPUB Accessibility Specification
- HTML_CodeSniffer JavaScript client-side HTML source code checker to detect WCAG violations
- tota11y: A single JavaScript file, an accessibility visualization toolkit, Khan Academy
- The Visual ARIA BookMarkLet Aid For Developers, WhatSock
- IBM Equal Access Toolkit, Tools that plug directly into your existing workflow
- IBM ACTF aDesigner, free open source disability simulator and accessibility test tool
- Deque: axe Accessibility Testing Tools and Software
- Deque: Linter Automated Source Code Accessibility Checker on GitHub
- WorldSpace Attest Mobile for iOS: The Solution For Native Mobile Accessibility Testing
- WebAIM WAVE Web Page Accessibility Testing Tool
- WebAIM iOS VoiceOver Web Accessibility Evaluation
- WebAIM Color Contrast Checker
- Tenon.io - Reliable and accurate automated accessibility testing coverage for a wide array of accessibility best practices
- Inclusive Design Institute web accessibility checker
- Tanaguru Accessibility testing - Automated, reliable and efficient
- The Tanaguru Contrast-Finder finds correct color contrasts for web accessibility
- Jxnblk: Colorable is a tool to help select color combinations
- Color Safe Checker
- Colour Contrast Analyser (CCA), legibility of text and contrast of visual elements, Paciello Group
- ColorBlind Web Page Filters for color blind anomalies
- The Colour Contrast Check, Jonathan Snook
- Juicy Studio: Luminosity Colour Contrast Ratio Analyser
- Color Contrast Spectrum Tester, Joseph Dolson
- Color contrast comparison tool, Joseph Dolson
- Check My Colours: Colour contrast foreground and background colour combinations checker of all DOM elements, Giovanni Scala
- Color Tutorial Demonstration, Tom Jewett
- EvalAccess: For evaluating WCAG web accessibility, University of the Basque Country
- The Government of Canada PWGSC WPSS validation tool
- US Government Guidance Mobile Product Accessibility Testing Resources
- Total Validator: Web Accessibility Validation tool
- PowerMapper: Web Accessibility SortSite Tools
- PowerMapper Software: Assistive technology compatibility tests, January 2020
- PowerMapper Software: PDFs Screen reader compatibility, January 2020
- PowerMapper Software: Screen reader reliability, January 2020
- Accessibility Management Platform (AMP), Level Access (formerly SSB BART Group)
- UsableNet: An automated accessibility testing tool
- Web Governance Suite, Siteimprove
- Discover Accessibility Scanner: SharePoint website accessibility conformance checker, Discover Technologies
- The Accessibility Statement Generator, nomensa Humanising Technology
- PDF Tool Box: Converting tagged PDF files into HTML, Callas Software
- PDF Accessibility Software Services, Net Centric CommonLook
- Authoring Techniques for Accessible Office Documents, Inclusive Design Research Centre (IDRC)
- Verifying App Accessibility with VoiceOver on iOS Devices, Apple Support
- Tips For Accessibility Testing Of iOS Apps, Pat's Tapestry
- The Hemingway Editor readability checker, Adam & Ben Long
- WCAG-EM Report Tool: W3C-WAI Website Accessibility Evaluation Report Generator
- More Web Accessibility Evaluation Tools Provided By The W3C-WAI
- How and Where To Report Accessibility Bugs, CSUN2016
User Agent Tools
- WebAIM: Screen Reader User Survey #8 Results
- Freedom Scientific, JAWS Screen Reader
- J-Dictate, Turning Thoughts into Text: A productivity tool from Hartgen Consultancy
- Dolphin Computer Access: Screen Reader and Magnification Software
- NonVisual Desktop Access (NVDA) free screen reader
- NVDA Community Add-ons: Additional downloadable packages to be installed to enhance existing functionality or add additional features
- WebbIE, the free web browser for blind people with little or no sight
- ChromeVox free Screen Reader
- metalmouth: A simplified open source screen-reader application available on Chrome, Evaluera Ltd
- Google Accessibility Products
- Windows 10 Narrator screen reader, Microsoft
- Use dictation to convert spoken words into text, instead of typing, on your Windows 10 PC, Microsoft
- Use color filters in Windows 10, Microsoft
- Tobii Eye Tracker high-quality computer Access for you, Microsoft
- Apple VoiceOver screen reader for iOS devices
- Voice Dream Reader: Configurable screen layout to suit reading styles, audio and/or visual (web pages, PDF, ePub, DAISY, Word, and Text files)
- sitecues from Ai Squared, a secure cloud-based SaaS solution with zoom and speech built right into the website
- AI Squared, Zoomtext magnifier for low vision users
- DeskTopZoom: A free zoom/magnify program with lots of options
- MagWin USB Screen Magnifier/Reader: Portable and will install on any Windows compatible computer with no software installation required
- ALT Accelerator for Increasing Screen Reader Productivity, U-R-Able
- BlindSquare: The most popular and accessible iOS GPS guidance system, MIPsoft
- ReadSpeaker: Text-to-Speech Solutions
- Microsoft Word to Markdown Converter: Ben Balter
- Learn more about adapting your computer:
BBC: How-To Guides for adapting your computer setup based on disability
AbilityNet: How To Adapt Your Computer, Laptop Or Smartphone
Get started with Narrator, a screen-reading app built into Windows 10
Downloadable Accessibility Demonstration Examples
- Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) Demo:
The Before and After Demonstration is a multi-page resource that shows an inaccessible website and a retrofitted version of this same website. Each web page includes inline annotations that can be activated to highlight some of the key accessibility barriers or repairs. Each web page is also accompanied by an evaluation report to inform the developers on the level of conformance to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).
- Accessible jQuery-UI Components Demo (The Paciello Group:
This page contains some interactive controls that you would normally only find in desktop applications. Examples of such controls are tab lists, menu bars, sliders, and tree views. These controls are often operated using the arrow keys, which means your screen reader must temporarily switch off virtual navigation mode in order to interact with them. Some screen readers will automatically switch between modes depending on the control's type, while others require you to manually turn virtual mode off.
- DOJO Toolkit Demos:
Dojo saves you time and scales with your development process, using web standards as its platform. It's the toolkit experienced developers turn to for building high quality desktop and mobile web applications.