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Tips to Test Your Web Site for Accessibility

How do you know if you have addressed as many areas of accessibility as possible? Self page-testing is one option.

Seven Easy Ways To Self-Test:

1. Turn off graphics and check that the "alt" attribute displayed makes the page usable.
2. Turn off sounds and make sure vital instructions are not lost.
3. Use the high contrast option to see if the page is still readable.
4. Use the largest font size supported by the browser to see if the page is legible.
5. Resize the browser window larger and smaller to see if the user can get to all of the information.
6. Navigate using the keyboard to test that TAB traverses all links.
7. Select all text and copy it to the clipboard, ensuring that it makes sense when pasted into a word processor. A page can be tested using an HTML validation service to determine if the web page source code conforms to one or several of the HTML specifications for accessibility. The validation service checks whatever URL is given for possible accessibility problems and determines what type of HTML specifications are needed. A validation service tells the designer where possible problems are and how to solve them. Several validation services are available.