Vision Insight
Home MenuAccessibility
Services
Presentations
Blog Posts
Here are blog posts from the Vision blog:
- Almost Everything You Need to Know About Local Government Website Accessibility
- Why You Should Be Serious About Web Accessibility?
- An Introduction to Accessibility for Local Government
- A Video Introduction to Digital Accessibility for Local Government Websites
Other Resources
Here are some other accessibility resources:
- Digital Accessibility Checklist
- Website Accessibility Statement Template
- Press Release - How Vision Helped Customers with Website Accessibility
- Article - Rancho Cordova Launches Accessible Website
- Rancho Cordova - Notes on Accessibility Compliance (from Serafina)
Accessibility Checkers
Here are a few sites that will let you check individual web pages for accessibility for free:
Accessibility Resources
- W3C Accessibility Resources
- ADA Guidelines
- Section 508
- WebAIM
- 18F – U.S. Government Design Agency
- Citizens Online (UK)
Screen Readers
Screen readers are software programs that allow blind or visually impaired users to read the text that is displayed on the computer screen with a speech synthesizer or braille display. A screen reader is the interface between the computer's operating system, its applications, and the user. Here are a few of the leading screen readers in the marketplace:
JAWS – http://www.freedomscientific.com/Products/Blindness/JAWS
JAWS, Job Access With Speech, is the world's most popular screen reader, developed for computer users whose vision loss prevents them from seeing screen content or navigating with a mouse. JAWS provides speech and Braille output for the most popular computer applications on your PC.
JAWS offers a free trial. JAWS Home Edition is $895 and JAWS Professional is $1,095
NVDA - http://www.nvaccess.org/
NVDA (NonVisual Desktop Access) is a free “screen reader” which enables blind and vision impaired people to use computers. It reads the text on the screen in a computerised voice. You can control what is read to you by moving the cursor to the relevant area of text with a mouse or the arrows on your keyboard.
NVDA is open source software, which means the code is accessible to anyone. This enables translators and developers around the world to continually contribute to its expansion and improvement.
WebAnywhere - http://webanywhere.cs.washington.edu/
WebAnywhere is a web-based screen reader for the web. It requires no special software to be installed on the client machine and, therefore, enables blind people to access the web from any computer they happen to have access to that has a sound card. Visit wa.cs.washington.edu to access WebAnywhere directly. And, it's completely FREE to use!
WebAnywhere will run on any machine, even heavily locked-down public terminals, regardless of what operating system it is running and regardless of what browsers are installed. WebAnywhere does not seek to replace existing screen readers - it has some big limitations, namely that it will not provide access to desktop applications like word processors or spreadsheets.
Apple VoiceOver - http://www.apple.com/accessibility/osx/voiceover/ (for Mac users on OS X)
VoiceOver doesn’t just tell you what’s happening, it helps you make things happen. It tells you what’s on your screen, and walks you through actions like selecting a menu option or activating a button using your keyboard or trackpad. VoiceOver gives you complete control of your Mac, with no need to see the screen. And it’s already built in.