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Selected Accessibility Links

Gathered by P.J. Gardner

Last Update: May 17, 2010

This list contains a collection of web links and other resources of use to web professionals who are concerned about making web sites accessible to everyone. This list is not intended to be exhaustive and will continue to grow over time.

Choose from one of the following categories:

Note: All links on this page to web site resources open new windows.

  • For a more comprehensive list, visit WebAIM.

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)

If you are new to accessibility, start here for an introduction on Web accessibility:

Newcomers can start out with a good summary of the W3C content accessibility guidelines (the Guideline Set):

For a more comprehensive introduction, start by reading the overview of the three versions of the W3C accessibility curriculum (the Guideline Set, the Checkpoint Set, and the Example Set):

The Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) of the World Wide Web Consortium provides many additional resources, including their home page, the current version of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, and 10 quick tips for meeting the most important accessibility guidelines:

Use the following links to find out more ind depth information about the current Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 1.0) of the World Wide Web Consortium:

Use the following links to find out about the draft revision of Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0) of the World Wide Web Consortium, which is currently under development. WCAG 2.0 became a candidate recommendation on November 3, 2008:

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Governmental Standards

The U.S. federal government provides access to the Section 508 Electronic and Information Technology Accessibility Standards (including Section 1194.22, which focuses on web standards) and the official Section 508 web site:

Massachusetts state agencies have committed to their own standards for making web sites accessible, including a useful checklist:

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Web Accessibility Tutorials

Dive Into Accessibility provides a fabulous site for learning the details of coding accessible web sites:

The University of Texas at Austin provides a How-To section that demonstrates how various accessibility features sound to the JAWS screen reader.

A tutorial called "Web Accessibility for Section 508" is provided on the site created by Jim Thatcher, the lead author of the book called, "Constructing Accessible Web Sites":

WebAIM provides tutorials for coding accessibility for most web technologies:

The HTML guidelines provided by the Trace Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are useful to web designers (especially starting with item 8, "The global structure of an HTML document"):

This web accessibility guidelines checklist is used by the Accessibility and Usability Group at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT):

TechRepublic (formerly Builder.com) provides several good accessibility articles for web developers (search for "accessibility"):

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Accessibility Evaluation Tools

Cynthia Says, a single-page testing tool from HiSoftware, produces detailed reports and allows you to test for Section 508 or Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, as well as a wide variety of browsers:

WebAIM provides the WAVE accessibility tool, which provides very clear reports using icons:

Bobby, originally developed by CAST, was one of the first web accessibility evaluation tools. Bobby (an enterprise testing solution) and WebXACT (for single pages) were both formerly available through Watchfire, which was acquired by IBM. IBM now offers the IBM Rational Policy Tester, which has an enterprise component called the Rational Policy Tester Accessibility Edition.

CSE HTML Validator is a very thorough HTML and XHTML syntax checker that also tests for accessibility:

DJ Delorie provides a tool for viewing and testing your web site stripped down to text-only (may cause advertizing pop-ups):

The Web Accessibility Initative maintains a list of accessibility evaluation tools and provides suggestions on how to evaluate software for accessibility:

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Adaptive Technologies

Information about adaptive technologies gathered by the Accessibility and Usability Group at MIT:

The Boston-IA list of assistive technology links, based on the work of the Accessibility and Usability Group at MIT:

A list of resources provided for people with disabilities through the Northeastern University Library system:

Here you can get an overview of the types of assistive devices people use to access information electronically:

The University of Wisconsin-Madison provides videos and other multimedia examples to help Web developers experience adaptive technologies.

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Color Accessibility

A site that discusses safe color choices for all types of color deficiencies:

A site that demonstrates various types of color blindness:

A site that provides charts with side-by-side comparisons of the 256 Web Safe colors as seen by people with various types of colorblindness:

An excellent site that provides color tips especially for web designers:

An exhaustive list of resources about "Color Blindness and Color Deficiency", including links, definitions, and color blindness tests, for anyone who wants to investigate the topic of color accessibility in detail:

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Accessibility Organizations

WebAIM includes an incredible amount of useful information, including screen reader and low vision simulators:

The University of Texas at Austin provides an accessibility section with a wealth of information:

The Information Technology Technical Assistance and Training Center (ITTATC) has a stated goal of promoting accessibility through training and assistance for people with disabilities:

The Trace Research & Development Center of the College of Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison was a pioneer in the field of technology and disability, and is committed to the principles of universal design:

The AccessAbility Special Interest Group (SIG) of the Society of Technical Communications (STC) is located at:

Here is the link for "Achieve", the newsletter of the AccessAbility SIG:

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Technology Companies

The Adobe Accessibility Resource Center includes information about using Adobe and Macromedia products, including Adobe Acrobat, Dreamweaver, and Flash, to build accessible web sites, applications, and PDF files.

The Adobe Accessibility blog, which provides "Information and news about accessibility in Adobe products for people with disabilities, authors, and developers", maintained by Andrew Kirkpatrick, the Group Product Manager for Accessibility at Adobe Systems.

IBM provides an ever-growing wealth of accessibility information in its Human Ability and Accessibility Center, including information about the trial version of IBM Easy Web Browsing:

Microsoft provides an Accessibility section that includes, among other things, step-by-step tutorials to introduce some of the most common accessibility features of their Windows products:

HiSoftware is the creator of the Cynthia Says accessibility testing portal, as well as enterprise testing and monitoring solutions, including the HiSoftware Compliance Sheriff, AccVerify, and the Hi-Caption captioning tool:

Deque Systems offers enterprise and desktop versions of its Worldspace and Ramp evaluation software, as well as its Undoc document conversion tool:

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Accessibility Consultants

Mike Paciello and The Paciello Group (TPG) offer consulting services to help corporations, government agencies, and educational institutions make their communications accessible to all people, including those with disabilities:

Knowbility, a company headed by Sharron Rush of Austin, Texas, provides accessibility services and consulting for accessibility compliance. Knowbility is the producer of the Accessibility Internet Rally (AIR), a web accessibility awareness program offered in cities around Texas and the U.S.:

Debra Ruh and TecAccess offered IT accessibility and Section 508 compliance solutions through dynamic software development, testing and assessment, training, policy review, and consulting services. TecAccess was aquired by the SSB BART Group in 2011.

P.J. Gardner, founder of Boston-IA and principal of Gardner Information Design, Inc. (GIDI), provides Web accessibility consulting, Web site accessibility evaluations, accessible Web design, and accessibility training to professionals and organizations who want to make their Web sites and applications more accessible:

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Accessibility Icons

The W3C provides icons to indicate compliance with web content accessibility guidelines and use of valid cascading style sheets:

The WGBH NCAM project provides icons for accessible sites:

© 2003-2016 P.J. Gardner. All rights reserved.

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© 2003-2016 Gardner Information Design, Inc. All rights reserved.