<div dir="ltr"><div><font face="arial, sans-serif">Hi James,</font></div><div><br></div><div>Several years ago I was involved in developing the Web Accessibility Framework at my university. To make sure that we were embedding accessibility in all relevant processes, we looked at not only web development and publishing, but also multimedia development, content creation (including teaching content), project management, staff training (web publishing, PDF, MS Office apps, Blackboard), procurement (web apps, authoring tools) and recruitment. I don't have any surveys to share with you, but consider including those areas in your survey, and in the scope of the project.</div>
<div><br></div><div>One of the greatest struggles for achieving accessibility is dealing with inaccessible 3rd-party applications. If would be SO MUCH easier (and cheaper in the long run) if our institutions took more care in purchasing/leasing/commissioning standards-compliant, usable and accessible products. This would save us time (and time=money), and would send a message to the vendors that accessibility is worth investing in, since it could potentially give them an advantage over the competition. </div>
<div><br></div><div>When it comes to dealing with vendors, the trick is to:</div><div>- be specific about your requirements (even to the checkpoint level), </div><div>- be realistic in what you want (some compromises may be unavoidable), </div>
<div>- and verify any claims made by vendors (who will say anything you want to hear).</div><div><br></div><div>For the validation and evaluation tools, I would recommend the WAVE tool from WebAIM, which gives immediate and visual feedback. The latest version is online-only, which means you won't be able to test secure pages. However, the Firefox toolbar is still available for download.</div>
<div>WAVE online <a href="http://wave.webaim.org/">http://wave.webaim.org/</a></div><div>WAVE toolbar <a href="http://wave.webaim.org/toolbar/">http://wave.webaim.org/toolbar/</a></div><div><br></div><div>I also use Fangs, the screen reader emulator, when I don't need or want to use a screen reader. It's great for showing headings and link lists.</div>
<div>Fangs (Firefox): <a href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/fangs-screen-reader-emulator/">https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/fangs-screen-reader-emulator/</a></div><div><br></div><div>Hemingway is a handy tool for testing 'readability' of content</div>
<div><a href="http://www.hemingwayapp.com/">http://www.hemingwayapp.com/</a><br></div><div><br></div><div>Color Oracle is for simulating colour blindness</div><div><a href="http://colororacle.org/">http://colororacle.org/</a><br>
</div><div><br></div><div>Color Contrast Analyser is great for validating colours of text, backgrounds and images in any document.</div><div><a href="http://www.paciellogroup.com/resources/contrastAnalyser">http://www.paciellogroup.com/resources/contrastAnalyser</a><br>
</div><div><br></div><div>The Responsinator will show you how web pages look in a variety of mobile devices</div><div><a href="https://delicious.com/rmitaccessibility/tools">https://delicious.com/rmitaccessibility/tools</a><br>
</div><div><br></div><div>W3C's code validators</div><div><a href="http://www.w3.org/QA/Tools/">http://www.w3.org/QA/Tools/</a></div><div><br></div><div>Finally, ask your web developers to navigate and interact with their websites using keyboard only :-)</div>
<div><br></div><div>Most of these tools are great for quick, page-based tests, but you'll need other tools for more a comprehensive testing. Ideally, you'll need several toolkits to support different roles (e.g. content creator toolkit, web developer toolkit, multimedia developer toolkit, etc.). Of course, you'll also need to teach all staff about the limitations of those tools and how to use them wisely.</div>
<div><br></div><div>If you are considering an enterprise-wide testing tool, Karl Groves has some great advice:</div><div><br></div><div>Web Accessibility Testing: What Can be Tested and How<br></div><div><a href="http://www.karlgroves.com/2012/09/15/accessibility-testing-what-can-be-tested-and-how/">http://www.karlgroves.com/2012/09/15/accessibility-testing-what-can-be-tested-and-how/</a><br>
</div><div><br></div><div>Choosing an Automated Accessibility Testing Tool: 13 Questions you should ask<br></div><div><a href="http://www.karlgroves.com/2013/06/28/choosing-an-automated-accessibility-testing-tool-13-questions-you-should-ask/">http://www.karlgroves.com/2013/06/28/choosing-an-automated-accessibility-testing-tool-13-questions-you-should-ask/</a><br>
</div><div><br></div><div>Hope this helps. Good luck!</div><div><br></div><div>cheers</div><div>Iza</div><div><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><br></div><div>Iza Bartosiewicz<div>Library Website Coordinator</div>
<div>RMIT University</div><div><br></div><div>p: 99253103</div><div>e: <a href="mailto:iza.bartosiewicz@rmit.edu.au" target="_blank" onclick="window.open('https://mail.google.com/mail/?view=cm&tf=1&to=iza.bartosiewicz@rmit.edu.au&cc=&bcc=&su=&body=','_blank');return false;">iza.bartosiewicz@rmit.edu.au</a></div>
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"The world is a hellish place, and bad writing is destroying the quality of our suffering", Tom Waits</div></div>
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