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Accessibility Tools & Resources

Understanding Accessibility

The Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) is committed to providing content on the VDOE website that is accessible to all. As of January 18, 2018, All new content on the VDOE website must meet W3C’s WCAG 2.0 Level AA compliance. In addition, to remain on the VDOE website, older, relevant web content must be remediated to meet W3C’s WCAG 2.0 Level AA compliance no later than January 18, 2019. Any web content that is not compliant on that date is subject for removal from the VDOE website.

• WebAIM – Information, training, resources, guidelines and standards for Web accessibility and disability access to the Web.
  • WebAIM: Introduction to Web Accessibility
• World Wide Web Consortium Web Accessibility Initiative – Strategies, guidelines, resources to make the Web accessible to people with disabilities.
  • Essential Components of Web Accessibility – Introduction to the relationships and interdependencies of the components used to make accessible content
  • Web Accessibility First Aid: Approaches for Interim Repairs – First steps for getting started planninga direct approach to start with the most critical violations
  • Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Overview – The WCAG documents explain how to make web content more accessible to people with disabilities
  • How to Meet WCAG 2.0 – A quick reference to the guidelines' descriptions, techniques and failures
• Accessible University mock site – This fictional university's webpage is designed to demonstrate a variety of common web design problems that result in visitors with disabilities being unable to access the content or features of a web page.
• The World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) WCAG to Non-web Information and Communication Technology
  

Microsoft Office Suite

• VDOE Checklists & Guidance
  • Word Document
  • PowerPoint Presentation
  • Excel Spreadsheet
• Use the Accessibility Checker on your Windows Desktop to Find Accessibility Issues
• Rules for the Microsoft Accessibility Checker
• Document Accessibility Toolbar (DAT)

PDF

• VDOE Checklists & Guidance: PDF
• Accessibility PDF Check
• Adobe: Create & Verify PDF Accessibility (Acrobat Pro DC)

Video

• Video & Accessibility
• WebAIM WCAG 2.0 Checklist-This is a PDF document. (PDF)
• Best Practices for Transcripts

Web Pages

• Penn State's Accessibility Guide – Includes many of the techniques one can use to build more accessible Web sites. 
• WebAIM: WCAG 2.0 Checklist for HTML documents
• The A11Y Project checklist - A beginner's guide to web accessibility
• WebAIM: Accessibility Evaluation Tools
• W3C provides an extensive list of web accessibility evaluation tools including:
  • AXE Plugin by Deque Systems
  • WAVE – Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool
  • WAVE Evaluation Tool Chrome Extension
  • Web Developer Toolbar for Firefox
• Readability Testing - these mathematical algorithms are a beginning for evaluating content to measure how easy it is to read

General

• Virginia Disability Services Agencies Web Accessibility Resources
• IT Accessibility and Website Standards

Use of Color

• Use of Color: Understanding WCAG Success Criterion 1.4.1
• Contrast (Minimum): Understanding WCAG Success Criterion 1.4.3
• WebAim: Visual Disabilities: Color-blindness
• The A11Y Project: What is Color Contrast?
• Jim Thatcher's Web Accessibility Course Section on Color
• Understanding WCAG 2 Contrast and Color Requirements
• Color Chek for ADA image compliance by Off-Site Services SHARE - For images and graphics, Color Chek is a free online tool that allows you to quickly select foreground and background colors and validates contrast on selected colors in accordance with ADA requirements
• DAT Toolbar Color Contrast Checker: For text only, in the Inspect Group Box of the DAT Toolbar, find and easily fix color contrast violations
• The Paciello Group Colour Contrast Analyser - This tool provides two useful core functionalities:
  1. a pass/fail assessment against WCAG 2.0 color contrast success criteria
  2. a simulation of certain visual conditions, including dichromatic color-blindness and cataracts, to demonstrate how your web content appears to people with less than 20/20 vision
• WebAIM: Color Contrast Checker - Browser interface to enter a foreground and background color in RGB hexadecimal format or choose a color using the color picker. Easily use the Lightness slider to adjust the selected color
• WAVE Accessibility Evaluation Tool – Allows you to evaluate web content for accessibility issues directly within your browser
• Wave Browser Extension for Chrome or Mozilla, allows you to evaluate web content for accessibility issues directly within your browser
• Document Accessibility Toolbar (DAT) – Microsoft ribbon toolbar that includes a color contrast analysis tool
• Accessible Color Palette Builder - A browser-based app to help designers build accessible color palettes

Alternative Text for Images & Objects

• Penn State: ALT Text Basics
• WebAIM: Images
• WebAIM: Alternative Text
• WebAIM: Alt Text Blunders
• Microsoft: Add Alternative Text

Screen Reader

• JAWS Screen Reader
• NVDA Screen Reader
• WebAIM: Testing with Screen Readers
• WebAIM: Testing with the NVDA Screen Reader

Keyboard Accessibility

• WebAIM: Keyboard Accessibility
• University of Washington: Accessible with Keyboard

 

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