This is a collection of (mostly automated) accessibility checkers that we recommend and/or have found useful, in collaboration with human oversight.

Documentation (Websites, Documents, Slides, Posters)

As part of the Accessible Communication competency, you are expected to make the documentation you create accessible, including the running project doc, your project website and the poster. For checking your website, see Websites and apps below.

• Microsoft accessibility checker (Word, PowerPoint, Excel): built in. How to use it. As a UW student, Microsoft products are freely available at Microsoft 365 through UW IT.
• Grackle (Google Docs, Slides, and Sheets): Google documents do not have a built in checker, but Grackle is a plugin provided by the UW Accessible Technology instructions. Google does provide some guidance on how to make your document, presentation, or spreadsheet more accessible.

We do not recommend using PDFs or teach how to make them accessible in this class.

Websites and apps

As part of the Accessible Implementation competency and the accessibility audit, you will need to make your website/app accessible.

• Beginners’ guide to accessibility testing appt.org walks through testing without tools, text resizing, contrast, and screen readers.
• WCAG A good entry point is the WCAG beginners’ guide. You will need to use the full guidelines as a reference
• axe DevTools: a browser extension that runs automated testing on a page (you can also run it in a testing script)
• MagentaA11y: test steps for checking common components with a keyboard and a screen reader.
• WAVE: WebAIM is a web interface to an accessibility checker.
• Figma: if you design in Figma, the GitHub Annotation Toolkit helps you annotate designs with accessibility information (labels, roles, reading order, etc.) for whoever implements them.
• HTML validator: the W3C Markup Validator catches invalid markup.
• Keyboard only: unplug or ignore the mouse, then try to reach and use everything with Tab, Shift+Tab, Enter, Space, and the arrow keys. No tool replaces this.

Screen readers

You will need to test your project with a screen reader (the audit assignment has the full instructions).

• Android: TalkBack
• iPhone and iPad: VoiceOver for iOS
• Mac: VoiceOver for macOS
• Windows: Narrator, or NVDA

Color and contrast

• WebAIM Contrast Checker

Mobile apps

• Android: Use the Google Accessibility Scanner and the Android Accessibility Suite. There is a tutorial on installing and using the scanner.
• iOS and macOS: the Accessibility Inspector. See Apple’s guide to performing accessibility audits.

Something missing?

Suggest things on the [Class discussion]https://edstem.org/us/courses/107577/discussion/) and we’ll add them!