Software Quality Assurance Stuff: Accessibility testing tools and resources

In simple words Accessibility testing is a type of testing to make sure that your site can be accessed and used by everyone including people with disabilities. For this purpose all such sites in the United States needs to follow the "Web-based Intranet and Internet Information and Applications (1194.22)" of section 508.

Another guide to making a site accessible is to follow the "Web Content Accessibility Guidelines"(WCAG) by W3C. WCAG 1.0 was published in 1999, WCAG 2.0 is the latest and it was published on 2008.

Before starting any accessibility testing my advice to you is to READ ALL THE STANDARDS THOROUGHLY. Believe me its worth it specially if this is the first time you are doing Accessibility testing. Another advice is when ever you come across a good site or resource make sure you bookmark it so that it can be accessed easily later on. (I recommend using Google Bookmarks).

Let me now share with you some of the useful resources I came across so that it will make life easy for you when you get to testing your site. If you do find this post useful please leave a comment.

Standards and Guidelines

Web-based Intranet and Internet Information and Applications (1194.22) - Section 508
Section 508 Standards Guide

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 1.0

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0
WCAG Examples

Techniques

HTML Techniques for WCAG 1.0

HTML Techniques for WCAG 2.0

Checklists