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When to Use?
Explore different software tools designed to support accessibility in content creation.
Procedure
Manual Tools
These tools allow for manually testing your documents, webpage, etc.
- The Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool via WebAIM is a browser extension for Firefox and Chrome. It examines web pages for accessibility issues.
- aXe Accessibility Tool (Chrome, Firefox) will similarly examine a website's code to determine if there are issues with accessibility.
- The A11Y Project is an excellent beginner's guide to web accessibility.
- Microsoft includes accessibility checkers in their software.
- Apple's Voiceover tool built into their operating system can be used to review your content using audio playback.
- For Windows users, NVDA is a free screen reader can be downloaded and used to evaluate how your content works with a screen reader.
- Color Contrast Analyzer can verify if the colors selected are readable to everyone.
- WebAIM has a Section 508 Checklist for HTML.
Automated Tools
Recommended at GVSU
- Anthology Ally automatically checks content uploaded by faculty, while also providing tips and recommendations for addressing issues. It also automatically creates alternative formats supporting universal design for learning.
- Panopto supports video accessibility through automated captioning. Faculty can edit the captions for 100% accuracy.
Note: In addition to Blackboard Ally and Panopto, you may need to use additional tools when creating or linking to content outside of Blackboard to ensure all of your class files and web pages are accessible.
- Otter.ai is a tool that can transcribe and audio or video file.This tool can be useful for students or faculty that have a file with an audio track that needs to be converted into text.