RE: Evaluations and Analysis of Current Versions of Section 508 Tools

I would also suggest looking at the 508 Suite produced by UsableNet that
works as a plugin for Macromedia's Dreamweaver. The plugin is free from
Macromedia (you have to register with them, and you need a copy of
Draeamweaver which isn't free to make it work).

There are a couple of people who have committed to work on evaluation of
these aginst the Authoring Tool Accessibiltiy Guidelines as part of their
participation in that working group, and results will be available as is all
the work of that group from http://www.w3.org/WAI/AU - the review work that
has been done so far is listed on the reviews pages at
http://www.w3.org/WAI/AU/reviews (by the way, we welcome additional material
there, subject to the reqirements listed on the page).

cheers

Charles McCN

On Thu, 26 Jul 2001, Michael R. Burks wrote:

  David,

  that is a good idea, the evaluation copy that I have does not do the Dlink,
  but I am pretty impressed with it none the less, I am hoping they will come
  out with some more tools as this one works pretty well.  It is kind of
  specialized, but you are correct it should be included.

  Sincerely,

  Mike Burks

  -----Original Message-----
  From: owner-sec508@trace.wisc.edu [mailto:owner-sec508@trace.wisc.edu]On
  Behalf Of David Poehlman
  Sent: Thursday, July 26, 2001 10:33 AM
  To: sec508@trace.wisc.edu; WAI IG
  Subject: Re: Evaluations and Analysis of Current Versions of Section 508
  Tools


  have you included corda?

  ----- Original Message -----
  From: "Michael R. Burks" <mburks952@worldnet.att.net>
  To: <sec508@trace.wisc.edu>; "WAI IG" <w3c-wai-ig@w3.org>
  Sent: Thursday, July 26, 2001 9:43 AM
  Subject: Evaluations and Analysis of Current Versions of Section 508
  Tools


  I apologize for the cross posting.

  Does anyone know it there is anyone who has done an analysis and
  evaluation
  of the Section 508 Tools available.

  I am working on one but cannot include them all because some at least as
  far
  as I know do not make evaluation copies available.

  I know of the following tools and have worked with the ones I have
  marked


  A-prompt - Free, I am just beginning to analyze it.
  SSB - I am working with an evaluation copy of the New Release - I must
  say
  things like the gray scale preview move it to the top of my list.
  Hiawatha Software - Just beginning to look at it, the reports look good
  but
  you can only run it 15 times so that is going to be a problem.
  New Coast Guard Tools - just got these today, they are free and look
  very
  good!  Below is what they are and how you can get them.

  1.    AccessibilityMonitor - monitors a website for newly posted
  non-compliant web pages and alerts webmasters responsible for the
  relevant
  content are - integrates with Outlook for email and tasking of web page
  corrections - includes an extensible set of compliance rules.  Some
  agencies
  seem to be taking the view that the purpose of 508 is to make all pages
  compliant - which is partly true; the law however applies to new or
  dynamic
  pages - thus this application is useful from a time management
  perspective...
  2.  PageWriter - uses same extensible rule checking engine - but is
  designed
  to be a Frontpage type tool for creating new web pages in a 508
  compliant
  fashion
  3. DirWriter - allows webmasters to quickly process 508 corrections
  accross
  domains/sites from one app.  The first two apps operate along a page-by
  page
  basis - but this one takes a more macro approach.

  Here's the link where you can download and evaluate these free tools:
  http://www.uscg.mil/legal/508/readme.htm

  Are there other tools that can be evaluated?  I know the Wave has been
  down
  for a long time, I wonder if it will ever come  back up.

  Any help on this project would be greatly appreciated.

  Sincerely,

  Mike Burks



-- 
Charles McCathieNevile    http://www.w3.org/People/Charles  phone: +61 409 134 136
W3C Web Accessibility Initiative     http://www.w3.org/WAI    fax: +1 617 258 5999
Location: 21 Mitchell street FOOTSCRAY Vic 3011, Australia
(or W3C INRIA, Route des Lucioles, BP 93, 06902 Sophia Antipolis Cedex, France)

Received on Friday, 27 July 2001 04:11:09 UTC