Accessibility Checkers

A word of caution on accessibility checkers. They catch some mistakes, but they cannot replace human review. For instance, they can check if you are using headers in the wrong order, but cannot check if you missed tagging a heading as such. If you find yourself bolding 1-3 words at the top of a paragraph or list, it is probably a heading and needs the appropriate tag. Definitely use checkers, but in addition to reviewing the content for accessibility.

Web page checkers

These evaluation tools or checkers help catch accessibility errors on your web pages.

• Accessibility Checker Organization
• WAVE Web Accessibility Tool - Get the browser extension!
• W3C Web Accessibility Evaluation Tools List

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Document Checkers

Unfortunately, there are no free document checkers. However, there are tools within Word, PowerPoint, and Acrobat for checking your documents for accessibility.

• Word and PowerPoint Accessibility Evaluation Checklist
• Create and verify PDF accessibility (Acrobat Pro)

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Open the Word Accessibility Checker

Word for Windows:

• Check document accessibility in Word video
• More step-by-step instructions at WebAIM: Word for Windows 2016 Using the Accessibility Checker

Word for Mac:

1. Select Tools > Check Accessibility.
2. Results will appear in a panel on the right with recommendations for corrections.

 

 

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Open the PowerPoint Accessibility Checker

PowerPoint Windows

1. Select File > Info.
2. Select Check for Issues dropdown.
3. Select Check Accessibility.

PowerPoint for Mac

1. Select the Review Tab.
2. Select Check accessibility.

 

Accessibility Pane

Errors appear in a panel on the right. The PowerPoint and Word panels are very similar. Open the error with the arrow on the left of the error. Clicking the object of the error will take you to the slide and highlight the issue. Information on correcting the issue will also appear in the panel.