A tool to evaluate universal Web accessibility

Abstract

The Web Accessibility Visual Evaluator (WAVE) is a tool that, in addition to performing automated checks, helps users perform the human judgments essential for evaluating if a web page is universally accessible to people with and without disabilities. For example, the WAVE (a) inserts the information accessed by people who are blind (e.g. alternative text, structural markup, reading order) into the representation seen by people who are sighted; (b) flags audio content requiring equivalents for people who are deaf; and (c) flags objects requiring continuous motor control that require equivalent discrete access for people with motor disabilities; thus helping the user evaluate whether access by people with and without disabilities is functionally equivalent.