Accessibility tools

Tools recommended for testing during your development

While going through the accessibility principles (Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, and Robust) the following tools can be used to perform website accessibility checks.

1. Install the Web Developer extension on Chrome or Firefox to check the pages without CSS, JavaScript and easily see alt texts throughout.
2. Use the W3C HTML Validator to validate the code.
3. Test the general accessibility of pages either by using the WAVE toolbar or going to the online version.
4. Use a tool to select a color palette with sufficient contrast in accordance with WCAG  and check WCAG colour contrast conformance with the  Color Contrast Analyzer 
5. Test with a screen reader. Either JAWS (Job Access with Speech) or the following free tools: NVDA screen reader, or VoiceOver on Safari.

Here is what we will be testing first when we receive your site:

1. Site is keyboard accessible
2. All interactive elements are clearly visible when focused to
3. Site is adequately responsive
4. Site was tested and works consistently on a Mac using Safari,
   Firefox, and Chrome
5. Site was tested and works consistently on a Windows machine using
   Edge, Firefox, and Chrome
6. Site degrades well when JavaScript and CSS fail to load or are
   simply unavailable
7. Markup conveys meaning and structure

Once these first checks have been done, we will be doing a full assessment and going through the WCAG 2.1 AA requirements quick check list for a full evaluation.

For more information, consult the full Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.1).