IBM helps developers scan sites and apps for accessibility issues
Developers are aware that they need to make their websites and apps accessible to as many people as possible, but actually achieving this aim can be a tough task.
To mark the tenth anniversary of Global Accessibility Awareness Day, IBM is launching a new multi-scan report tool as an update to the Accessibility Checker, part of the company's Equal Access Toolkit.
The tool scans an entire site or app with simple page clicks and rolls up all results into a single Excel workbook that provides a summary of everything that was found. It offers the choice to evaluate a whole page, all occurrences of a single element, or just one component.
Results can be viewed by role, requirements, or rules or filter by violations, items needing review, recommendations or all of the above. It lets the developer select a scan result item and highlight where that issue is in the code and on the page so it’s possible to see what exactly is wrong in the code and on the screen at the same time. This reduces workloads dramatically by giving the ability to exercise the application and test dynamic states without forcing a page reload.
Si McAleer, program director, IBM Accessibility writes on the company's blog, "Our Accessibility Checker was IBM's attempt at putting action into accessibility awareness. We're pleased with how many developers are using our tool, and hope that this latest enhancement makes it even more useful for creating websites and applications that everyone can use."
The tool is available via GitHub or as a browser extension for Chrome or Firefox and there's a video demo below.
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