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Web Accessibility Toolbar

Type: Page by page

Access: Downloadable toolbar for use with Internet Explorer

Cost: Free

Company: Vision Australia

URL: http://www.visionaustralia.org.au/ais/toolbar/

The Web Accessibility Toolbar is a downloadable toolbar for use with the browser Internet Explorer or Opera. It functions as a page-by-page accessibility evaluator, and can test many of the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines in addition to other features such as changing screen resolution. Errors are highlighted within the page itself.

Pros:

• Provides a quick overview of the accessibility of an entire page
• Available in a variety of languages
• Uses accesskeys for each function to allow for use via a keyboard
• Includes additional features such as the ability to resize the browser to other screen resolutions

Cons:

• Tests only one page at a time
• Cannot test some checkpoints
• Must select options again everytime you open a new web page
• Only works on Internet Explorer or Opera (the FireFox Web Developer Extension contains similar features and works on FireFox)

How to use the Web Accessibility Toolbar

The Web Accessibility Toolbar should only be used when you are testing a small number of pages. You will need to run tests on each page manually. Initially you will need to download the toolbar prior to any testing.

Download the toolbar

Downloading the Web Accessibility Toolbar is straightforward. You will need the following system requirements:

• Microsoft Windows (Version 98, 2000, NT or XP)
• Internet Explorer 5+ or Opera 8+ with Javascript enabled or

You can also download the Internet Explorer Web Accessibility Toolbar in a variety of languages:

• Chinese (Simplified);
• Chinese (Traditional);
• Danish;
• Dutch;
• French;
• German;
• Italian;
• Japanese;
• Korean;
• Portuguese (Brazilian);
• Spanish; and
• Swedish.

You can download the Internet Explorer Web Accessibility Toolbar or the Opera Web Accessibility Toolbar .

Running tests using the Web Accessibility Toolbar

Open Internet Explorer and select the "View" menu. Select the "Toolbars" option and then the "Accessibility Toolbar" option. The toolbar will appear under the address bar and any other toolbars you may have installed.

There are twelve menu items, each containing a number of tests. These twelve menu items are:

• AIS Web Accessibility Toolbar - This menu contains information about the toolbar itself, features, documentation and links to relevant information.
• Validate - This menu contains tests on the validity of the document, such as the HTML and CSS Validators and link checkers.
• Resize - This menu includes tests that resize the browser window to standard screen resolutions including the ability to resize the browser window to a custom size.
• CSS - This menu contains tests to turn off the style sheets or display the relevant style sheets.
• Images - This menu contains tests to show ALT attributes, image maps and list all images. Colour contains tests for colour contrast including luminosity, greyscale and various contrast tests from JuicyStudio and Vischeck.
• Structure - This menu contains a number of structure tests including headings, table headers and abbreviations.
• Tools - This menu contains links to common accessibility tools such as Juicy Studio’s Readability Test, The WAVE and Cynthia Says. This menu also contains a Simulations section which includes specific tests for disabilities such as Glaucoma and Diabetic Retinopathy, including standard simulations of a disabled mouse or plugins.
• Doc Info - This menu contains tests such as page weight, metadata information and link information.
• Source - This menu contains the ability to view the source as well as highlighting specific sections such as images, forms or deprecated HTML.
• IE options - This menu contains standard Internet Explorer options such as turning off images, JavaScript and other plugins as well as changing text size.
• Refs - This menu includes links to reference web sites such as W3C documents, usability and accessibility resources and language information.
• Magnify - This menu can magnify the browser window from 25% to 600%.

To run a test, select a particular menu, for example "Images" and then select the particular test you want to run, for example "Toggle Image/Alt".

The selected test will be run on the page itself. For instance the "Toggle Image/Alt" test will replace all images with their ALT attribute, for example:

eGovernment Resource Centre:

eGovernment Resource Centre with the "Toggle Image/Alt" test:

Deciding which tests to run

For more information on all the functions of the Web Accessibility Toolbar, see Toolbar functions page. The following table lists some recommended tests for particular W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines checkpoints.

 

Level A Checkpoint Tests to run using the Web Accessibility Toolbar

Level A Checkpoint	Menu	Test
1.1: testing ALT attributes of an image	Images	Toggle Image/Alt
1.1: identify any frames	Structure	Frame Borders
1.1: identify any downloadable files	Doc Info	List Downloadable Files
1.1: identify any multimedia files	Doc Info	Identify Multimedia Files
2.1: testing whether information has been provided without relying solely on colour	Images	Greyscale
4.1: determine whether the changes in the language have been identified	Doc Info	Show Lang Attributes
5.1: test whether table headers have been used	Structure	Show Table Headers, Simple Data Table, Complex Data Table
6.1: testing the site works with style sheets disabled	CSS	Disable CSS
6.3: identify the use of JavaScript	Structure	JavaScript / New Window Links
6.3: test whether the site can be used with Java, Flash and iframes disabled	Tools, Simulations	Disable Plugins
6.3:test whether the site can be used with JavaScript disabled	IE Options	Toggle JavaScript
6.3: identify any scripts	Doc Info	Identify Scripts
7.1: test that the screen does not flicker	Images	GIF Flicker Test
9.1: testing whether image maps are client-side or server-side	Images	Show Image Maps
12.1: test whether a frame has a title	Structure	Frame Name / Title

 

Level AA Checkpoint Tests to run using the Web Accessibility Toolbar

Level AA Checkpoint	Menu	Test
2.2: testing whether colour contrast is sufficient	Images	JuicyStudio, Vischeck
3.2: validating the HTML	Validate, W3C HTML Validator	Validate HTML
3.2: validating the CSS	Validate, W3C CSS Validator	Validate CSS
3.3: testing whether style sheets have been used for layout and presentation	CSS	Show Applied Styles, Show Style Sheet(s)
3.4: determine whether relative units have been used for style sheet property values	CSS	Show Style Sheet(s)
3.5: determine whether headings have been used and whether they have been nested	Structure	Headings, Heading structure
3.6: determine whether list markup has been used	Structure	List items
3.7: determine whether quotes have been marked up with Q and BLOCKQUOTE	Structure	Blockquote & Q
6.4: test whether device-dependent event handlers have been used	Structure	JavaScript / New Window Links, Event Handlers
10.1: identify any pop-ups	Structure	JavaScript / New Window Links
11.2: identify any deprecated HTML elements	Source	Deprecated HTML
12.3: determine whether FIELDSET has been used to break up a form	Structure	Fieldset / Labels
12.4: determine whether field labels have been explicitly associated with fields	Structure	Fieldset / Labels
13.1: test whether links have clearly identified targets	Doc Info	List Links
13.2: determine whether metadata has been included	Doc Info	Metadata Information

 

Level AAA Checkpoint Tests to run using the Web Accessibility Toolbar

Level AAA Checkpoint	Menu	Test
4.2: test whether acronym and abbreviation markup has been used	Structure	Acronyms/ Abbreviations
9.4: identify the tab order of the page	Structure	Show Tab Order
9.5: identify whether access keys (keyboard shortcuts) have been used	Structure	Access keys
10.3: test whether a table can be used if it is linearised	Structure	Linearise (Remove Tables)

Examples

The following are failures from random sites.

1. Missing ALT attributes

Test: Toggle Image/Alt

According to this error, the images on the right are missing ALT attributes. If any of the images in the page are missing ALT attributes then a dialog box also pops up and identifies the number of images missing ALT attributes.

2. Missing field label

Test: Fieldset / Labels

According to this error, the Search field does not have a field label. If there are no labels, fieldsets of legend elements in the page are missing ALT attributes then a dialog box also pops up.

3. Onmouseover

Test: Event Handlers

This image has an onmouseover. On testing the site this onmouseover changes the colour of the "Personal" section and creates a flyout menu. This menu cannot be activated via the keyboard and is therefore inaccessible.

4. Complex data tables

Test: Complex data table

According to the above test, the table includes a SUMMARY tag ("Schedule of events"), all table headers are marked up properly (eg. the code for cell Wed 15 Day 0 is "id=day20060315") and all data cells reference appropriate headers (eg. the headers referenced by the first data cell are "openingceremony" and "day20060315").

5. Displaying Headings

Test: Headings

According to the above test, all headings are marked up appropriately. Using the ‘Heading Structure’ test you can determine whether headings have been nested properly.

Further Information

Download the Web Accessibility Toolbar

• Download the Internet Explorer Web Accessibility Toolbar
• Download the Opera Web Accessibility Toolbar

Help using the Web Accessibility Toolbar

• Toolbar functions
• WebCredible – Using the Web Accessibility Toolbar
• WebAIM – Using the Web Accessibility Toolbar
• Web Accessibility Toolbar Blogspot

Last updated: 3 September 2010

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