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Screen-friendly pageTesting Web Pages for IITAA Compliance
The type of testing that can be done to verify compliance with IITAA requirements will vary depending on the size of the contract and the impact the contract has on employees, students and the general public. The more people that will be using a web page or application the more accessibility verification and testing should applied to the products competing for the contract. The first level of accessibility testing is use automated tools to estimate the use of patterns of accessible markup used to create the web page. The second level is to perform some simple functional tests to look for basic accessibility features required by IITAA. The next level would be using external consultants skilled in accessible design to review the accessibility of the web site or application and/or to include people with disabilities from your campus to be part of the evaluation team and ideally do testing to confirm vendor claims of accessibility.
Automated Evaluation Tools
Automated tools can look for patterns of markup that indicate people are using html markup and can generate reports on the accessibility of web pages. Tools can be used by both developers and reviewers to provide a quick analysis of the accessibility features of a web page.
Usage: This can be used for all web resources that are considered for purchase.
Quick Manual Testing Techniques
The following techniques can be used to get an understanding of the functional accessibility features of web pages. By making sure all the major topics use heading markup, links make sense when read out of context, images have appropriate ALT text and pages can be viewed in high contrast settings will give a good functional understanding of accessibility.
- Use only the keyboard to access links, form controls and other interactive parts of the web page.
- Use the Opera browser header navigation feature to check to see if most pages have headers and headers are used to indicate the major topics on the web page.
- Use the Opera browser's list of links feature to see if links make sense when out of context with the text surrounding the content.
- Use the Opera Browser to toggle off images and enable ALT text to be rendered to make sure the web page is still usable and carries the same information when images cannot be viewed.
- Use the operating system high contrast mode to insure content is accessible and readable when high contrast setting are enabled
Usage: This technique should be used for all web resources that are considered for purchase that maybe used by the general public, staff, instructors and students.
External Evaluations
Independent audits for IITAA compliance can provide critical information for web sites and applications that are designed to be used by large groups of people on campus, especially web applicatoins that are used for communication and business administration.
Marucco, Stoddard, Ferenbach & Walsh, Inc. (MSF&W), Springfield, Illinois
Usage: This technique could be used for all web resources that are considered for purchase that will used by the general public, staff, instructors and students.
Testing with People with Disabilities
- Recruit faculty, staff and students to test web applications for accessibility as part of the RFP process
- Include people with disabilities as part of the group of people making purchasing decisions
Usage: This technique should be used for all web resources that are considered for purchase that will used by the general public, staff, instructors and students.