Webstandards, Accessibility and Usability at Penn State

Suggested Testing Protocol

1. Make sure that all content is available in screen reader or text only mode.
   See Screen Reader Testing
2. Make sure your page is legible in different color modes and has sufficient contrast between text and background.
   See Color Testing Details
3. If you use style sheets, then make sure the content is usable with style sheets turned off.See Style Sheet Testing Details
4. Make sure the page zooms well by going to your browser then the View menu and selecting a Text Size option. See Zoom Testing Details
5. You can run the site through accessibility reporting services to see if you have missed any issues. See Accessibility Report Details
6. Solicit feedback from multiple users.

Key Tools

1. Illinois iCITA Firefox Accessibility Extension
2. Web AIM Accessibility Checker
3. Accessibility Testing with Opera Browser
4. Fangs Screen Reader Emulator for Firefox
5. Luminosity Colour Contrast Ratio Analyser
6. Wickline Color Filter
7. LIFT Plug In
8. Cynthia Says

Other Resources

1. Detailed Testing Protocol
2. About Accessibility Reporting Tools
3. Sample Accessibility Reports

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Detailed Testing Protocol

This protocol gives a list of the general types of audiences you are testing for and some methods for testing at each stage.

A. Screen Reader Testing

Use one or more of the following options as needed.

1. Use the online WebAIM Wave report to locate ALT tags, HTML headings and other hidden tags. Posts alerts for possible missing elements in red or yellow icons.
2. Illinois iCITA Firefox Accessibility Extension and use the Hide Text Equivalents to show ALT tags
   . In the Style menu, un-check Author CSS to disable stylesheets
3. Install Fangs Screen Reader Emulator for Firefox. To view a sample page in screen reader mode, go to Tools » Fangs. It does not read text aloud, but displays content from any Web page in screen reader format (no line breaks, headers/tables announced).
4. The best results occur if you can install demo versions of different screen readers. Some demos like JAWS work for only limited stretches of time but can be re-used as needed. See the WebAIM Using Jaws page for details on how to test with JAWS.
5. Computers with screen readers are available at the Penn State Libraries and in some labs designed for users with disabilities. See the Assistive Tech page for details.
6. Test in the Opera browser with accessibility utilities.
7. View the page on the Yellow Pipe Lynx Text Browser Similator. Although not the same experience as a screen, this tool will show you generally what a screen reader will see and allows you to quickly spot missing ALT and TITLE tags.

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B. Color Testing

1. Test color contrast at the Juicy Studio Luminosity Colour Contrast Ratio Analyser or WebAIM Color Contrast Checker
2. Install and use the Color Contrast Analyzer published by Juicy Studio.
3. Use a color blindness simulator from the list on the color blindness page.
4. Photoshop CS4 includes a color blindeness view in its Proof menu.
5. View your page or images in grayscale.It's not as effective as a color blindness simulator, but will catch most problems.
6. In a pinch you can print your page (with HTML backgrounds) on a black and white printer to simulate grayscale.
   

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C. Style Sheet Tests

1. Illinois iCITA Firefox Accessibility Extension. In the Style menu, un-check Author CSS to disable stylesheets

2. Download the Opera browser which allows you to toogle between Author Mode (with stylesheets) and User Mode (custom or no stylesheet). See the WebAim Opera article for more details.

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D. Zoom Testing

1. It's especially important to test documents on Internet Explorer for Windows version 6since it has the most issues with zooming. To test whether the code has disabled zooming, go to View then Text Size then Largest. If the text does not appear to change size, then the the coders have specified absolute font sizes and disabled zooming.

2. Open Firefox or Opera and zoom to at least 200%. To zoom in Firefox, go to View then Zoom In about 4 times. To zoom in Opera, click on the magnify drop-down menu to the right of the URL address bar and type or choose "200%".
   

E. Accessibility Reports

See the section below for detailed information about accessing and evaluating accessibility reports.

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Accessibility Reports

A variety of organizations and companies have developed tools to "scan" Web pages and see if they are accessible or not. Although these tools can catch some errors like missing ALT or TH tags, they cannot catch all errors. You must still use the manual checks above to determine that all accessibility requirements have been met.

Common Reports

Some common reports include:

• LIFT - Can be used as a Dreamweaver plug in or via a remote site from NNg.
• Cynthia Says - a classic reporting tool.
• WebAIM Wave report - a visual representation of page structure. Icons colored red or yellow are indications of problem areas.
• The Illinois iCITA FAE evaluator is well regarded. Reports can also be accessed from the Firefox Accessibility Toolbar.
• Dreamweaver from Adobe includes an accessibility report tool in its Site » Reports menu.

Lists of Manual Checks

For errors that cannot be caught automatically, a list of manual checks, is generated. Therefore a completly Section 508 compliant site could still generate a list of items to check depending on the reporting tool - this is perfectly normal.

Limits of Accessibility Reports

Below are some advantages and limits of accessibility reporting tools.
(Chart provided by the University Libraries)

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