RE: Free, Multi-Platform Accessibility Analysis Tools

I think Dave is obviously correct that the best tool is Kynn's or Dave's
brain <grin/>, but I think it is important to use tools that are good.

They save a lot of time, making accessibility less expensive and more
available to all. There are things that are difficult to do at the moment (in
terms of making content accessible) but a lot of them could be made aesier
with decent tools. Especially in a course, I think it is important to
recognise that there are a variety of tools out there (much as I love TAW, I
would not like to see people equating "TAW found no problem" with "this page
is accessible", or even see people use TAW as their only tool), and that each
has particular strengths and weaknesses. It is important to know the tools
one is using, and to know how to assess a new tool that seems like it might
do a better job - if it does, then using it makes you more competitive, but
if it doesn't then spending time to learn it is wasted.

Assessing what a tool does can be complex, but is generally worthwhile,
because a good tool can save so much time for doing something else that was
previously in the too hard basket.

cheers

Charles

On Sun, 13 Jan 2002, David M. Clark wrote:

  Kynn,

  Yeah -- there is the best and only tool out there that is truly accurate
  and cross platform -- your brain.

  I say this only partly in jest. Especially in the context of a course,
  why push tools AT ALL?

Received on Monday, 14 January 2002 09:02:07 UTC