New versions of open source web accessibility tools AInspector for Firefox and FAE now available

New versions of AInspector<https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ainspector-wcag/> for Firefox and the Functional Accessibility Evaluator<https://fae.disability.illinois.edu> (FAE) are now available. These open source web accessibility evaluation and inspection tools were developed by the DRES Accessible IT Group<https://accessibleit.disability.illinois.edu/> at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Both new versions (AInspector 2.0 and FAE 2.3) utilize an updated version of the OpenA11y Evaluation Library 1.3<https://github.com/opena11y/evaluation-library> that supports the requirements of the ARIA 1.2<https://www.w3.org/TR/wai-aria-1.2/> and ARIA in HTML<https://www.w3.org/TR/html-aria/> specifications.

NOTE: Please feel free to share this information with anyone you think might be interested.

Open Source Tools (Free to use)

  *   AInspector for Firefox 2.0<https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ainspector-wcag/>: a browser extension for evaluating individual pages.
URL: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ainspector-wcag/
  *   Functional Accessibility Evaluator 2.3<https://fae.disability.illinois.edu>: a web application for evaluating pages in a website.
URL: https://fae.disability.illinois.edu

AInspector for Firefox 2.0
Importance of the Firefox Sidebar

The use of the Firefox Sidebar is an important feature not available in the Chrome browser. Once the sidebar is open, it remains open, automatically updating the evaluation as you select links or move to other tabs. The evaluation can optionally be delayed to allow you to change the state of a web application (e.g. open a menu) and get an evaluation on the new state of the page.

Major New Features

  *   Export button in all views (Summary, Rule Results, Element Results) for saving evaluation results in either CSV or JSON file formats.
  *   Element results view now provides significantly more detailed information on a particular element.
  *   Copy button for copying information in the Rule or Element views to the clipboard.
  *   Keyboard shortcuts for Back, View, Export, Rerun and Copy buttons.
  *   Text in the Rule or Element views is now "selectable" for copying to the clipboard.

Try them out and let us know what you think!

Other Changes

  *   Improved element highlight feature in Element Results view.
  *   Improved keyboard focus styling indicator to support high contrast modes.
  *   Renamed extension from "AInspector WCAG" to "AInspector for Firefox".
  *   Removed ARIA Transitional ruleset from the options, since the reduced requirements are no longer relevant to modern web design. This change simplifies the user interface.

Major Changes in the OpenA11y Evaluation Library 1.3

  1.  Added methods to the ElementResult object for use in AInspector Element Results view:
     *   getTagName
     *   getHTMLAttributes
     *   getAriaAttributes
     *   getAccessibleNameInfo
     *   getColorContrastInfo
     *   getVisibilityInfo
  2.  Added support for analyzing custom elements with "open" shadow DOM, along with SLOT element content.
  3.  Updated WIDGET 16 to only require manual checking of custom elements with closed shadow DOMs.
  4.  Fixed bugs with landmark rules related to header and footer elements.
  5.  Removed ROLE_* rules that evaluated ARIA role restrictions for certain HTML elements. The requirements are now part of the new HTML_3 rule which is more robust and is based on the ARIA in HTML specification requirements.


Jon Gunderson, Ph.D., CPWA (he/him/his)
Coordinator of Accessible IT Group
University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign
1207 S. Oak Street
Champaign, IL 61820

Phone: (217) 244-5870
E-mail: jongund@illinois.edu<mailto:jongund@illinois.edu?Subject=Re%3A%20Alternative%20date%20combobox%20grid%20date%20picker%20example%20for%20ARIA%20APG&In-Reply-To=%3CBYAPR11MB3413C2168E1DF82F6E4C7B2CC8BE0%40BYAPR11MB3413.namprd11.prod.outlook.com%3E&References=%3CBYAPR11MB3413C2168E1DF82F6E4C7B2CC8BE0%40BYAPR11MB3413.namprd11.prod.outlook.com%3E><mailto:jongund@illinois.edu<mailto:jongund@illinois.edu?Subject=Re%3A%20Alternative%20date%20combobox%20grid%20date%20picker%20example%20for%20ARIA%20APG&In-Reply-To=%3CBYAPR11MB3413C2168E1DF82F6E4C7B2CC8BE0%40BYAPR11MB3413.namprd11.prod.outlook.com%3E&References=%3CBYAPR11MB3413C2168E1DF82F6E4C7B2CC8BE0%40BYAPR11MB3413.namprd11.prod.outlook.com%3E>>
www: https://go.illinois.edu/jongund