Digital Accessibility
Accessibility Testing Tools
The following tools can help you test the accessibility of your digital content and provide tips for remediating issues. Keep in mind that no automated testing tool is 100% accurate and accessibility issues can be missed.
General Tools
- TPGI Color Contrast Analyser is a tool you can download and use to determine if your content meets WCAG 2.1 AA color contrast requirements.
- Review the manual accessibility testing guide to learn about keyboard testing and evaluating your content.
- Additional accessibility evaluation tools, including screen readers, help with comprehensive accessibility testing.
Canvas
Use Anthology Ally to check your Canvas course for accessibility issues. Please note that some workarounds that appear to “fix” an issue identified by Anthology Ally are not accessible solutions. For example, replacing an inaccessible PDF file with a link to the same PDF file does not meet accessibility compliance. HTML versions of the PDF content are more accessible solutions, or you may need to remediate the PDF file.
Microsoft
- Use Microsoft’s accessibility assistant to help identify accessibility issues with your emails in Outlook, slides in PowerPoint, and documents in Word. Keep in mind that there are some accessibility problems an automated checker will fail to identify. For example, the accessibility checker may not identify if headings are assigned to the appropriate level, if text color or style is used exclusively to convey information, or if there are inaccuracies in alt text.
- Review CU Boulder’s guides on creating accessible emails, PowerPoint accessibility, and Word accessibility.
PDFs
- Use Adobe Acrobat Pro to evaluate the accessibility of your PDF file. Checking PDFs for accessibility is a helpful guide for Adobe Acrobat Pro's accessibility checker.
- Review CU Boulder’s guide to understanding PDF accessibility
- SensusAccess is a self-service tool that converts documents into a range of digitally accessible alternative formats. Please note that this tool may not work with all PDF files.
- Keep in mind that PDFs are difficult to make accessible. We recommend avoiding PDF files when possible. For example, formatting your content as an HTML webpage better supports accessibility.
Websites
- Siteimprove is a tool provided by the university that regularly crawls our pages and websites to detect issues that affect accessibility, content quality, search engine optimization, and more.
- WAVE tool is browser plugin that will run automatic accessibility evaluations of individual pages.
- Additional accessibility evaluation tools