One of the best all around automated accessibility tools is the WAVE (Web Accessibility Versatile Evaluator). The WAVE was originally written by the late Dr. Len Kasday at Temple University and for over a decade has been further developed and improved by WebAIM.
The WAVE is designed to locate and identify accessibility problems within web pages, so that they can be repaired. It analyzes pages for issues, possible errors, features, semantic elements, and structural elements that can be checked for automatically. It provides a good first pass for checking web pages for accessibility. The WAVE requires a basic understanding of accessibility but it also helps you learn.
In this workshop we will take a look at submitting a page for the WAVE's evaluation, reading a WAVE report, checking problems, and strengths and limitations of automated tools.
Outcomes:
- Ability to submit a page for evaluation.
- Ability to read a WAVE report.
- Ability to find explanations of accessibility problems that require manual checking.
- Awareness of automated tool strengths and limitations.
Prerequisites:
- Experience with "graphical browsers" such as Firefox, Chrome, or Microsoft Internet Explorer.
- Completion of the Web Accessibility Overview workshop or the consent of the instructors.
- Familiarity with hand coding in Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) , if you would like to do an optional homework assignment.
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