There are many benefits to using an accessibility overlay tool on your website. Some of these benefits include making your website more accessible for people with disabilities, improving the usability of your website for all users, and helping you to comply with accessibility laws and regulations.
Here are some tips for choosing the right tool for your website.
- Look for a tool that is easy to install and use.
The best tool is one that you and your staff will use. Make sure the tool is easy to install and requires little or no training before starting using it.
- Look for a tool that fits your needs.
You may want an overlay, like WAVE (Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool), that will add an icon or other indicator on top of your page to show you that it is or isn’t accessible. You may want a checklist, like the one provided by WebAim, which provides bullet points of what needs to be checked for accessibility. Or you might want a more detailed report so you can fix any issues yourself.
- Look for support and documentation from the tool provider.
You will need support to help you if you run into problems or have questions. Make sure the tool provides easy-to-understand documentation and examples on how to use it. It will also help if the tool provider has an online community to get answers.
- Look for an enterprise-ready tool.
If your website gets more than 100,000 page views a month, you will want to find an accessibility overlay tool designed for larger websites. Ensure the tool provider has experience with large sites and knows what the issues are.
- Look for ways to test your website before and after using the tool.
You should test your site both before and after using the tool. Different tools have different ways of doing this, so you will need to make sure your tool can provide you with a before and after the report, or at least provide you with a list of changes it made to your website code.
- Look for a tool that guides fixing problems.
You will want to know what steps you need to take to fix the issues identified by the tool. Some providers provide step-by-step instructions with their tools, while others leave it up to you to figure out how to resolve the issues. For example, WAT (Web Accessibility Toolbar) provides detailed instructions about making changes to your code.
- Look for an easy tool for you to use with other tools.
Many other web accessibility evaluation tools, like HTML_CodeSniffer and Web Developer Checklist. If you use the same platform as the rest of these tools, you will have less of a learning curve.
- Look for an affordable tool that meets your budget constraints.
There are different pricing models available with the various tools, so make sure you choose one that fits your budget. For example, some tools provide free accounts to smaller websites, while larger websites must pay a subscription fee using a payment model like PayPerPageview, PayPerUser, or other models.
