Accessibility evaluation tools are programs or services that help determine whether a site’s content meets general guidelines.
These accessibility checker tools can reduce the time and effort required for such an assessment. Furthermore, if used correctly, they improve efficiency in detecting errors, preventing barriers, and optimizing the overall quality of a platform.
Despite their usefulness, it is always necessary to complement them with the analysis of a professional. Many of the actions require the judgment of a person, so they must be evaluated manually, through different techniques.
On the other hand, in some cases, the tools may not correctly identify the elements, giving incorrect results. The ease of access to the sites and their contents is essential for the success of the projects. And so, here we have selected 5 accessibility checker tools to assess the level of accessibility of a digital platform.
- Accessibility Developer Tools:
It is an extension for the Chrome browser that allows you to do a quick analysis while browsing the pages. Evaluate more than 17 parameters and create a report. In addition, it provides suggestions to correct the errors, with information such as the contrast of the colors and missing attributes. Accessibility Developers Tools are downloaded from the Google Chrome Extensions Store.
- AChecker:
Achcker or Accessibility Checker is an open-source tool developed by the Inclusive Design Research Center at the University of Toronto. The tool can parse a URL or an HTML document. Provides information on compatibility with different guidelines, such as Section 508, Stanca Act, WCAG 1.0, and WCAG 2.0, at all levels. The tool is free and used directly on the web at Achecker.ca.
- Accessible Email:
Email marketing campaigns also need to ensure a good level of accessibility to reach users. This tool allows you to analyze the HTML of an email and identify barriers. Generates a report that analyzes the titles, images, and links, providing recommendations to correct errors and complete missing information. To evaluate a campaign code, just copy and paste it into Accessible-email.org.
- Accessi:
The Accessi web accessibility checker is a free tool that you can use every day to ensure that your website is fully compliant with all accessibility standarts.
The process is very simple, all you need to do is enter the URL of your website, and that’s it. Accessi will prepare a report with everything you need to fix. All recommendations come with detailed explanations and examples to make it easier for you.
- Yoast SEO for readability:
Another important aspect is the ease of reading the texts on the screen. This is determined by the structure and length of sentences, phrases, and paragraphs.
If you work with WordPress, the Yoast plugin can help you improve the readability of your content. In its “Readability” tab, the tool evaluates these parameters and provides advice to improve them. The plugin can be downloaded at Yoast.com/wordpress/plugins/seo.
That’s it – These tools can be used at different stages of the development of a digital platform. They can also be applied multiple times to see how the changes are affected.
Depending on the characteristics of the project and its target audience, some accessibility checker tools will be more important than others. For this reason, it is important to study the users in the early stages, so it will be possible to focus the optimizations according to their needs.
