EIR Accessibility Tools and Resources

There are many tools and resources that can help your agency achieve EIR accessibility, and we make some of those available to you here. We hope you will find them helpful. 

Development Tools and Resources 

Basics 

• ​​​US Web Design Standards V2.0 ​A design system for the federal government to make it easier to build accessible, mobile-friendly government websites for the American public. 
• Web Accessibility Evaluation Tools List 
• Texas Health and Human Services (HHS) Accessibility Center for Electronic Information Resources offers a one-stop shop for standards, guidelines, policy, and procedures relating to accessibility. 
• The federal government’s 508 Universe offers tools and resources to help implement Section 508 standards. 
• The aDesigner is a tool that Web authors can use to ensure that the webpages they create are accessible to individuals who are blind or visually impaired. 
• Accessify.com offers useful accessibility tools and wizards, including a quick page accessibility test, form builder, and YouTube caption creator.  
• Webaim.org features free accessibility tools and accessibility-related articles on topics such as HTML, rich media, and training. 
• The Web Accessibility Toolbar, provided by the Accessible Information Solutions (AIS) team of Vision Australia, streamlines the process of testing web pages for accessibility. 
• A guide to Accessibility and Digital Security.

Forms 

• Get detailed how-to information from Adobe.com on using Dreamweaver to create accessible forms. 
• Accessify.com’s quick form builder combines two older tools: the form builder and the form element generator. 

Glossary 

• The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has developed a comprehensive glossary and dictionary of all web-related terms. 

HTML 

• HTML5: This robust technical specification for web developers facilitates accessibility.  
• The Illinois Center for Information Technology and Web Accessibility provides a detailed list of HTML best practices for developing accessible sites. 

Multimedia 

• Texas Workforce Commission developed the following documents pertaining to the benefits of multimedia, who is affected by multimedia inaccessibility issues, and what techniques are important for ensuring accessibility compliance with state law and international standards: 
• Multimedia Accessibility – DOCX (81 KB) 
• Multimedia Checklist – Accessible Videos (recorded) - DOCX (36 KB) 
• Multimedia Checklist – Use of Video in Live Presentations - DOCX (35.3 KB) 
• Multimedia Checklist – Webinars (live) and Live Streams - DOCX (35.8 KB) 
• People with Disabilities Watch Videos Too – PPTX (6.98 MB) 
• WC3 presents FAQs on making multimedia accessible—it's easier than you might think.  
• The Audio Description Coalition has compiled Standards for Audio Description and a Code of Professional Conduct for Describers (requires free registration). 
• W3C has a summary of extended audio descriptions with examples, techniques, and related resources. 
• The Carl and Ruth Shapiro Family National Center for Accessible Media offers two versions of the Media Access Generator (MAGpie) for creating captions and audio descriptions for rich media. 
• Google has combined automatic speech recognition (ASR) technology with the YouTube caption system to offer automatic captions, or auto-caps for short. 

PDF 

• Review these best practices from Adobe.com on making accessible PDF files. 
• Here are step-by-step instructions for creating accessible PDF files from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 
• The Texas HHS Accessibility Center offers checklists for PDF documents and forms.  
• PAC provides the freeware program – PDF Accessibility Checker – as a fast way to test the accessibility of PDF files. 

Plain language 

• Go to PlainLanguage.gov for the benefits of plain language, examples of government documents in plain language, and a checklist to see if your document meets plain language standards. 
• The National Institutes of Health offers plain language online training. 

Tables 

• Comprehensive how-to articles on creating accessible tables in HTML from WebAIM. 
• Accessify.com’s quick table builder creates accessible tables using a wizard as a guide. 

Web applications 

• The Adobe Flash Platform is an integrated set of technologies that helps you create and deliver applications, content, and video. 
• The Dreamweaver Developer Center is a rich source for Dreamweaver CS4 users with tutorials, resources, and discussion forums. 
• The Web Developer extension for Firefox adds a menu and toolbar with various web developer tools. 
• Microsoft Visual Studio offers accessibility best practices. 

Testing Tools and Resources 

Accessibility 

• Cynthia Says! offers an online accessibility test that validates a single web page at a time. 
• The Illinois Center for IT and Web Accessibility offers a tool to evaluate the functional accessibility of a single web page. 
• Accessify.com’s Quick Page Accessibility Tester is a bookmarklet/favelet that gives a quick analysis of any web page. 
• The W3C Markup Validation Service checks the markup validity of Web documents in HTML, XHTML, SMIL, MathML, etc. 
• The W3C has compiled a complete list of web accessibility evaluation tools.   
• WAVE is a free web accessibility evaluation tool provided by WebAIM that provides feedback by showing the original web page with embedded icons and indicators that reveal the page’s accessibility. 

Colorblindness 

• Color Oracle is a free color blindness simulator for your computer. 
• Daltonize lets you check images or a web page for colorblind visibility. 

Checklists 

• The Texas Health and Human Services Commission developed a checklist for Section 508 accessibility - XLS (80KB) 
• The Section 508 checking tool compares your html code against the Section 508 checklist. 
• The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services offers these training modules for testing common documents for Section 508 compliance. 

Screen readers 

• Developed for computer users whose vision loss prevents them from seeing screen content, JAWS reads aloud what is on the computer screen. Check WebAIM for tips on using JAWS to evaluate web accessibility and a list of JAWS keyboard shortcuts, especially for new or occasional JAWS users. 
• VoiceOver is a built-in screen reader integrated into all Mac operating systems and products. 

Standards and guidelines 

• Section 508 requires federal agencies to make their electronic and information technology accessible to people with disabilities. Visit this site for detailed and summarized information on the Section 508 Standards. 
• All Texas state agencies and institutions of higher education are required to comply with Texas Administrative Codes 1 TAC 206 (State Websites) and 1 TAC 213 (Electronic and Information Resources). 
• The Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) develops guidelines widely regarded as the international standard for web accessibility including Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). 

Usability Tools and Resources 

• Developed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Usability.gov is a guide for developing usable and useful websites. 
• UsabilityFirst.com is an online guide to usability resources including a usability glossary. 
• Discover 508 for SharePoint is a product that improves usability and accessibility of SharePoint sites for blind and visually impaired users performing​​ core collaborative tasks, such as uploading documents, creating lists and libraries, managing users and groups, creating calendar events, editing Wiki content, etc. 
• Jakob Nielsen’s Usability Heuristics presents 10 general principles for user interface design. 

Management Tools and Resources 

• 2015 AccessU Presentation on Accessibility Strategy and Policy Driven Adoption for Accessibility  – PPTX (3 MB) – Presented at 2015 AccessU  
• EIR Accessibility Exception Request Template 1.0 - DOC (52.3 KB) 
• Accessibility Implementation Framework 2.0 – PPT (1.5 MB) 
• EIR Accessibility: A Risk-Based Approach to Software and Website Compliance - Dr. Milton Nielsen Texas State University (Webinar 4/12/2017) 
  • Presentation Recording  
  • PowerPoint Presentation PPTX (404 KB) 
• Rubric for Software and Websites XLSX (60 KB) 
• TSU Reporting Lines PDF (110 KB)