New Accessibility Checker

We've been working on a new web based accessibility checker that is now
ready for inspection:
http://checker.atrc.utoronto.ca

This is very much a work in progress and will be developed over the coming
months. The evaluations it produces are not yet valid so please regard its
reports with suspicion.

This tool implements the proposed common set of accessibility checks[1].

It's just a simple tool that we can use as a test platform for the WCAG2. We
expect that the tool will be complete when the WCAG2 is released so that
there will be a system to immediately test for compliance.

This tool produces a basic HTML report of accessibility problems and it also
produces EARL (Evaluation And Report Language)[2]

EARL is really meant for machines but if you'd like to see EARL instead of
HTML then here's now:
- Enter the URL you want to check and select the 'Check It' button.
- An HTML report will be displayed.
-  In the 'address' field of your browser, append the text "&output=earl"
then enter.

EARL Example:
http://checker.atrc.utoronto.ca/servlet/Checkacc?file=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aprompt.ca&output=earl

(Yes, the EARL still needs tweaking but I'm working on it.)

This tool uses 'decision files' to store user decisions about potential
accessibility problems. For example you can decide that an image does not
require a LONGDESC and this decision get stored. Next time the file is
evaluated the tool won't ask if the image requires a LONGDESC because you've
already decided it does not. Of course, the decision files are stored in
EARL format.

Just for fun, here's what is says about the WAI site:
http://checker.atrc.utoronto.ca/servlet/Checkacc?file=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3c.org%2Fwai

Here's our ATRC site:
http://checker.atrc.utoronto.ca/servlet/Checkacc?file=http%3A%2F%2Fatrc.utoronto.ca

Please take a look and let me know your comments.

Cheers,
Chris

[1] http://www.aprompt.ca/oac/
[2] http://www.w3.org/TR/EARL10/

Received on Wednesday, 4 February 2004 09:58:45 UTC