[RTC List] Any Good Bobby Compliant Tools?

[Sean Ennis, ScanDoc]

I purchased the commercial version of Bobby a few 
years back from Watchfire.  Their site now goes 
to this IBM site, and here is the page regarding 
their accessibility testing tools:
http://www-01.ibm.com/software/rational/offerings/websecurity/webcompliance.html

Here is list of accessibility evaluation tools 
from W3C.org.  (Apparently its a little dated, as 
Bobby is still listed with an old URL.)
http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/tools/complete

Accessibility assessment software can speed up 
evaluating a website, however, I would advise 
that software alone will probably not be adequate 
for evaluating all but the simplest 
sites.  Usually the difficulty lies in 
translating the output into action for the web 
developers. Also, running tests with 
accessibility evaluation software is no 
substitute for website testing by real people 
using assistive technology, such as speech 
output, braille output, or voice 
recognition.  Often this is the next step after 
doing a "once over" with an assessment 
application, and any major problems have been remedied.
(The W3C website sums this up pretty well: 
http://www.w3.org/WAI/eval/selectingtools.html )

I have done accessibility assessments for HSU, UC 
Berkeley, City of Berkeley and others, and in 
each case, the reports from the accessibility 
tools were not much help without explanation from 
an AT or accessibility specialist and directed 
code changes for the development team.  Testing 
by people using AT provides far more information, 
and ultimately, real proof of a site's accessibility.

Sean Ennis


At 12:39 PM 10/3/2008, you wrote:

>Greetings all you soggy Humboldt techies !!
>
>A colleague of mine working as a court CIO has asked the following question:
>
>Any ideas on good Bobby Compliant Tool 
>software—either for licensing feees or open source?
>
>For those of you unfamiliar, Bobby was at one 
>time a freeware product available to help users 
>check to see if their websites were compliant 
>with Americans With Disabilities accessibility.
>
>Any assistance is appreciated. THANKS !!!
>
>Chris Crawford
><http://www.justiceserved.com>www.justiceserved.com
>
>
>
>
>
>
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