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Welcome to the eighth and final part of LSNTAP's web accessibility series! In this video, I'll
just go over a few tools that can help you check your site's accessibility for free on
the web. A good general checker to get you started
is called WAVE. It's released by WebAIM, a great resource for all things related to accessibility,
and you can find it at wave.webaim.org. Entering your site's URL in the checker will show you
a marked-up version of your site, with differently colored icons on potential problem areas and
further descriptions for each in the sidebar. WAVE also links to WebAIM's Color Contrast
Checker, which is a great tool specific to color issues. It's also available separately
at webaim.org/resources/contrastchecker/ and will tell you the ratio of contrast between
two colors, which you can also lighten and darken to maximize contrast.
Checkmycolours.com, spelled with a British "u" in color, will also indicate all the color
combinations on your site which are adequate, and which ones aren't. It checks not only
contrast ratio, but also brightness and color difference, and shows what the sample looks
like in the center column. A final color resource for now is at colorfilter.wickline.org.
It's a colorblindness simulator -- enter your URL and select a type of color blindness (protanopia,
or red/green color blindness, is most common and so is a good choice), and it will return
an image of your page through a filter that simulates the way a color blind person would
see it. If you can still read it and make out images, you're in good shape. Another
good way to check for colorblind accessibility is simply to convert your page to or print
it in black and white -- if it's still legible, you should be in the clear!
For readability issues, check out read-able.com. Just entering the URL of your site will give
you a simple estimate of your site's reading level, in grade-level terms. Remember, you
want to be at an eighth-grade level or below. If your reading level is too high, check out
writeclearly.org, a resource put together by Legal Assistance of Western New York. This
site is specific to legal services organizations and has some great tips and tutorials, and
even a tool on the home page to help pinpoint elements of legalese so you can remove them.
Finally, get some practice with a screen reader and check out how accessible your site is
to someone using one with WebAnywhere or WebAIM's Screen Reader Simulation. WebAnywhere is available
at webanywhere.cs.washington.edu. It allows you to hear any site read out loud with a
screen reader. Just click "Try WebAnywhere Now!," enter a URL, and you can hear this
robot voice read your site aloud, the way someone with a screen reader would experience
it. Press tab or "find next" to move through the site.
Alternately, you can practice using a screen reader to accomplish tasks using WebAIM's
Screen Reader Simulation at webaim.org/simulations/screenreader. Clicking "Open the WebAIM Screen Reader Simulation"
will take you to a list of keyboard commands and tasks. The audio will walk you through
the site, and you have to use the keyboard to accomplish the listed tasks, such as finding
a phone number. You can't see the page at all, so it's a pretty good way to experience
what it's actually like to use a screen reader. I hope these tools help you to develop a more
accessible website! Thanks for watching, and check out LSNTAP.org for even more resources
and tools!