Accessibility Testing

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act (Section 504) require entities to remove barriers that preclude people with disabilities from fully participating in its programs, services, and activities. Federal regulations implementing the ADA and Section 504, as well as UC policy, require websites and mobile applications to be readily accessible to people with disabilities, setting the minimum standard based on Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA success criteria.

Tools for testing accessibility are available for web and app developers, as well as employees who create electronic content in various forms. Below are a few of these tools to help identify accessibility barriers and suggested fixes to remove them. The A11y Project has a large list of accessibility tools and browser extensions. Most of the tools on this list are new to the UC Irvine community, so feel free to explore.

The resources below are provided for informational purposes and are not officially endorsed. Also, automated accessibility tools cannot detect 100% of digital accessibility barriers. Whenever possible, manually review information technology for accessibility.

Siteimprove Testing of Websites

Siteimprove is a cloud service that enables you to systematically review your sites for accessibility. Sites are crawled on a regular basis – every five days – and reports identifying accessibility errors and how to fix them are issued to the site owner.

The University of California has a systemwide license for use of Siteimprove without additional cost to units. Check out the Siteimprove page to get started.

Accessibility Checkers for Web Pages

A number of accessibility checkers are available as extensions to add to your web browser, many without any cost and that can be used on pages that are password-protected, locally stored, or highly dynamic. Several that are used by members of the UCI community include:

Depending on your role, you may find one more intuitive or informative than another. Download them from your browser’s web store or the company’s website. Additional web accessibility checkers are listed on the W3C Web Accessibility Evaluation Tools page.

YuJa Panorama

UC Irvine procured a site-wide license to use YuJa Panorama in Canvas as well as YuJa’s DocHub tool. Just log into UCI’s YuJa Panorama page through single sign-on (SSO).

  • Canvas: YuJa Panorama will automatically generate an Accessibility score for any courses and documents in Canvas. Check out the Accessibility Score report for elements that do not yet meet WCAG 2.1 AA success criteria and the applicable fix for the issue(s). In many instances, you can apply the fix directly in Canvas. Just be sure you download any fixed content, if you want to retain the accessible version outside of Canvas.
  • DocHub: Since PDFs are generally more difficult to make accessible, it is encouraged to use the original app version or convert the document into HTML. However, if you already have PDF documents, or feel the need to still produce a PDF document, then you can test PDF files using DocHub. Once you have logged into YuJa Panorama, select DocHub (at the upper left corner) → upload a PDF document → select “View” in the uploaded document’s menu → select “View” under the Accessibility Report. Review the Major and Minor issues and fix what you can in DocHub. For some issues, you may need to fix the issues in the original software that created the document, then PDF it again, upload, retest, and fix

In-app Accessibility Checkers

  • Microsoft Office applications have built-in accessibility checkers. Select Review (on the top bar) → Check Accessibility. A window pane will open that lists any accessibility errors it identifies, and you can click on the error item to open the location and box for fixing (if that is an option within the app) or explaining the issue (if it requires manual checking/fixing).
  • Adobe Acrobat Pro also has a built-in accessibility checker. Select All Tools (may need to select “View more”) → Prepare for accessibility → Check for accessibility.

Manual Testing

Since Auto-testing generally identifies only 30-40% of accessibilities issues, it is recommended to conduct manual testing of websites you develop, update or maintain. You can do so by using your keyboard and assistive technology or contract with a vendor that offers manual testing services. Such services should identify the issues on your web pages that do not meet WCAG 2.1 AA success criteria, explain what those issues are and how to resolve them. A few companies that offer manual testing services include the following:

To manually test on your own, check out the following resources:

If you have questions, feel free to email the ADA Coordinator.