--On Thursday, June 22, 2006 4:15 AM +0200 emf wrote:

If you know of a way that I can actually test JAWS or another screen reader, I would be grateful for the pointer.

David Andrews already mentioned the demo versions of JAWS and Window-Eyes [1]. Thank you Dave for offering to help test! Dave can provide valuable insights and expertise. Human Evaluation is very important [2]. Ethan please do download and try a screen reader. But like Dave said, it is best for inexperienced users not make design decisions based on their experiences with screen readers. It’s just too different from someone who uses the technology on a daily basis, because they have to.

Home Page Reader [3] is also a good tool for web developers and designers who are looking to try out a speaking browser. It will give you somewhat of an idea of how the blind or visually impaired would experience your pages. It presents a web page in two different views. It places the graphics view, a true rendering of the Web page, in the upper portion of the program window. Then, it shows a text view of the Web page in a window below that graphics view. Again, you'll gain an appreciation for what a blind user would hear when listening to your Web page. There is a free 30 day free demo available. There is also a tutorial on Testing Web accessibility with Home Page Reader available [4]

One of the tools that I have my students use is to test forms is the WAVE. [5] It will spot violations like missing labels, labels not associated with inputs, empty labels, etc. and notify you with icons. [6]

Cynthia [7] is also one online tool that every web developer should be familiar with. In the hands of someone trained to do accessibility checks, it's really no better or worse than any of the other tools. Cynthia analyzes web pages and checks for a set of accessibility problems that can be checked for automatically. Although it is a very limited program, it is also a good program. It can help with the checking process. The rest needs to depend upon human judgement.

There's a great little Colour Contrast Analyser Firefox Extension [8] by Gez Lemon I have found useful lately. It saves time and helps take the guesswork out of determining accessible color combinations. It can go through a page and check (give you pass or fail) on luminosity contrast ratios, difference in brightness, and difference in color.

Many, many more helpful accessibility tools exist. To get an idea of the number visit the Tool Section of the Web Design Reference. [9]

All the best, Laura

[1] http://tinyurl.com/e9bno [2]http://webaim.org/articles/process/human.php [3] http://www-3.ibm.com/able/solution_offerings/hpr.html [4] http://www-3.ibm.com/able/guidelines/web/webhprtest.html [5] http://www.wave.webaim.org/wave/index.jsp [6] http://www.wave.webaim.org/wave/explanation.htm (Scroll down to the forms section) [7] http://www.contentquality.com/ [8] http://tinyurl.com/awlqm [9] http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/tools

Laura L. Carlson Information Technology Systems and Services University of Minnesota Duluth Duluth, MN 55812-3009 http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/webdesign/