Website Accessibility Evaluation Tools
A website accessibility evaluation tool is a digital tool you use to quickly scan a webpage or your website for accessibility issues and errors. The information provided can be used to bring your website in line with recognized accessibility standards, like the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act. Accessible websites provide a better experience not only for the disabled, but also helps create a better experience on mobile devices. It can even boost your search engine optimization.
Accessibility Tools Used at UNI
We employ a number of tools at UNI to evaluate web accessibility, each with its own strengths. Editoria11y is embedded into each Drupal webpage in the UNI website. It shows results inline, automatically with tips and alerts for issues a content author can fix. Siteimprove scans the entire UNI website, with reports provided by department, college or division. It does more comprehensive testing than Editoria11y, with results for both content editors and the IT-CS webteam. WAVE is the other major tool used by the webteam to check pages, and is the most commonly used accessibility checker for websites. Each tool is a key part of our accessibility review for the UNI website.
The tool all content editors will see is Editoria11y, which is embedded into every Drupal page while it's being created or edited to help content editors and developers identify common accessibility issues quickly. Editoria11y (editorial ally) shows results inline, automatically and exclusively checks for issues a content author can fix.
Siteimprove is our primary tool for checking the accessibility of every page on a site. The Siteimprove Website Accessibility Checker scans web pages for accessibility issues, and a report is sent to site content editors each week outlining errors (if any) on their site. Siteimprove also checks sites for broken links and misspelled words.
The WAVE accessibility checker is our final check for web pages. It's the tool most often used by regulators and others interested in checking on the accessibility of a web site. It checks one page at a time and can be used either through a web browser extension or by visiting the WebAim website.