Testing for web accessibility
Web accessibility has always been a requirement for UMaine websites, and Digital Communications has been increasing efforts to improve the accessibility of web content on umaine.edu. The term “accessibility” refers to our efforts to remove barriers that prevent access to websites by people who have a disability. This month, we discuss how you can test for web accessibility on your pages.
Monsido
The University of Maine System adopted Monsido as a service that provides insight into web pages across our campuses. Digital Communications offers training in the use of Monsido, and beginning October 1, 2019 you may set an appointment with us on any upcoming Friday to learn more about Monsido and review the reports for your website. This tool is a good way to identify accessibility issues that you should address, such as adding alt text to images.
WebAIM WAVE Accessibility Checker
WebAIM (Web Accessibility In Mind) has provided comprehensive web accessibility solutions since 1999, and their free online service is available to anyone for free use to evaluate a web page. Simply navigate to the WAVE web accessibility evaluation tool website, and enter your web page address.
WebAIM also provides WAVE browser extensions which can be used directly within the Chrome and Firefox browsers to run their web accessibility checkers more easily.
A note about automated checkers
Both Monsido and the WAVE service are automated checkers, and provide a good first pass to identify potential problems with your web page’s accessibility. These checkers can expose items that you should address, but may also identify issues that are outside of your control. Digital Communications routinely works to update our website and improve accessibility, with a focus on issues within the overall template used by umaine.edu.
Should you find an issue identified by a web accessibility checker and believe it is within the website template, please send us a note and we will look into the issue.
If you have any questions about web accessibility, or want to see us cover an accessibility topic in a future newsletter, please get in touch with us at um.weboffice@maine.edu.