As you probably know like PDF accessibility and PDF remediation, web accessibility evaluation is needed by every website owner, and the main goal is for that website to automatically be accessible and user-friendly to people with disabilities.
If you want to make sure that your website meets certain web accessibility standards, looking for a web accessibility check feature is usually a good place to start. As you may know, website accessibility is a set that includes website usability, which basically means that besides accessibility evaluation, your website needs to be usable, too.
If you do a Google search for “web content accessibility tools” you will likely see a lot of results and plenty of useful tools you can use. In today’s article, we are covering some of the tools that are commonly used for an accessibility check – and what you need to know before using each testing tool.
But first, let’s touch on the topic of website accessibility from the aspect of these testing tools.
How Do These Tools Conform To The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines?
Below, we will be listing some of the best web page accessibility tools. You should keep in mind that all of them are used to evaluate your website against accessibility guidelines (including the WCAG 1.0, Section 508, RGAA in France, Stanca Act in Italy, etc.) through scans. Most of them are tools that can be opened as URLs in a browser, but some of them allow you to upload your HTML file or pass your HTML code.. These are not web browser plugins, though – they work without downloading or installing anything to use them.
What’s The Best Web Accessibility Checker?
Here is the list of website accessibility evaluation tools that can help you scan and detect any potential accessibility issues and give you a detailed accessibility check with information on potential broken links, errors, information mishaps, contrast issues, and more on each of your pages.
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Accessibility Checker by Intent-Based
First on our list is a product that was created in 2020 by Intent-Based as an online web-based audit tool that does a full accessibility check on your site to find any potential accessibility issues and errors. Every potential issue comes with a detailed explanation of what is it, how it affects users with disabilities, and how to solve it.
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AChecker – Accessibility Checker
Achecker was developed in 2009, this free tool gives you web page accessibility evaluation via URL. You can alternatively upload HTML files and select which guidelines to evaluate them against when creating optimized content for people with disabilities. The list of options includes HTML Validator, BITV, Section 508, Stanca Act, WCAG 1.0, and 2.0.
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Cynthia Says
Cynthia Says is a website accessibility evaluation tool that can be used for free to identify errors in your content that go against the S. 508 standards or WCAG compliance. The latest version lets you check for issues in your design that are related to the WCAG guidelines.
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FAE – Functional Accessibility Evaluator
FAE is another program with a great interface and menu, plus a helpful support team behind it. You can check various web page links and test the code for free. The results are divided into five main categories (Navigation and Orientation, Text Equivalents, Scripting, Styling, and HTML Standards) and the insights presented for each URL let you focus on the best way to test and fix issues on each of your web pages.
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WAVE – Web Accessibility Versatile Evaluator
The wave icon is associated with this unique accessibility tool, which can scan any URL, and give you a detailed report on whether your site is accessible or not. Many websites work with WAVE as their go-to data and accessibility checker, and the best thing about it is that WAVE is completely free to test and use on different websites.
We hope that this group of tools helped you identify some background accessibility issues in your image files, code, app, or business website. Continuous monitoring and running of tests in the background is the only way to ensure full compliance on every page.
PDF accessibility is also important as web accessibility and can’t be ignored to help people with disabilities and avoid any legal issues. Browse our website for details or contact us if you need services for PDF document accessibility and PDF document remediation.
For a full website evaluation for ADA website compliance, you may run a free scan.
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The ADA prohibits any private businesses that provide goods or services to the public, referred to as “public accommodations,” from discriminating against those with disabilities. Federal courts have ruled that the ADA includes websites in the definition of public accommodation. As such, websites must offer auxiliary aids and services to low-vision, hearing-impaired, and physically disabled persons, in the same way a business facility must offer wheelchair ramps, braille signage, and sign language interpreters, among other forms of assistance.
All websites must be properly coded for use by electronic screen readers that read aloud to sight-impaired users the visual elements of a webpage. Additionally, all live and pre-recorded audio content must have synchronous captioning for hearing-impaired users.
Websites must accommodate hundreds of keyboard combinations, such as Ctrl + P to print, that people with disabilities depend on to navigate the Internet.
Litigation continues to increase substantially. All business and governmental entities are potential targets for lawsuits and demand letters. Recent actions by the Department of Justice targeting businesses with inaccessible websites will likely create a dramatic increase of litigation risk.
Big box retailer Target Corp. was ordered to pay $6 million – plus $3.7 million more in legal costs – to settle a landmark class action suit brought by the National Federation of the Blind. Other recent defendants in these cases have included McDonald’s, Carnival Cruise Lines, Netflix, Harvard University, Foot Locker, and the National Basketball Association (NBA). Along with these large companies, thousands of small businesses have been subject to ADA website litigation.
Defendants in ADA lawsuits typically pay plaintiff's legal fees, their own legal fees for defending the litigation, and potential additional costs. In all, the average cost can range from tens of thousands of dollars, to above six figures. There are also high intangible costs, such as added stress, time and human capital, as well as reputational damage. Furthermore, if the remediation is incomplete, copycat suits and serial filers can follow, meaning double or triple the outlay. It's vital to implement a long-term strategy for ensuring your website is accessible and legally compliant.