Digital Accessibility (a11y) Toolkit

We encourage all employees to follow VCSU's Core Topics of Accessibility to support a digital environment that is usable, inclusive, and welcoming to everyone.

Below, you'll find a list of tools designed to help you evaluate your content. These tools are organized by function, making it simple to find the right one for your needs.

Accessibility Checkers:

Document Checkers

Microsoft Office Accessibility Checker: A built-in tool for Microsoft Office that evaluates accessibility issues and provides recommendations. Available on Windows, Mac, and web.
Blackboard Ally Checker: Scans Ultra Documents for accessibility issues and provides guidance on how to fix them.
Adobe Acrobat Pro Accessibility Checker: Industry-standard tool for evaluating and remediating PDF accessibility issues.
PDF Accessibility Checker (PAC): A free globally used PDF accessibility checker that helps assess your documents and simplifies manual testing.

Multiple Issue Checkers

Silktide Accessibility Toolbar: Checks for a wide range of accessibility issues, including alt text, color contrast, and screen reader compatibility.

Color Contrast Checkers

Silktide Accessibility Toolbar: Includes a contrast checker with an eyedropper tool for WCAG compliance testing.
WebAIM Contrast Checker: Browser-based tool with a color picker for testing text/background contrast.
Colour Contrast Analyzer (CCA): Free tool for Windows and macOS. View the tutorial.

Tools and Guidelines:

Manual Testing Tools

ANDI (Accessible Name & Description Inspector): A manual evaluation tool for developers and testers to identify and interpret accessibility issues.

Screen Readers

NVDA (NonVisual Desktop Access): A free screen reader for Windows users.
VoiceOver: Built-in screen reader for macOS devices.

Captioning Tools

Microsoft Stream: Auto-generates video captions with editing options.
YUJA: A platform used in education to generate and manage video captions.
YouTube: Offers automatic captions with editing available in YouTube Studio.

OCR (Scanned PDF) Tools

ABBYY FineReader PDF: A tool for converting and editing scanned PDFs.
Adobe Acrobat Pro: Allows creation, editing, and accessibility remediation of PDFs.

Alt Text Generator

ASU Alt Text Generator: Helps craft meaningful image descriptions by guiding users through prompts about the image’s purpose and content.

Guidelines

Email Guidelines
PDF and Remediation
Social Media: coming soon!

Checklists

Core Topic Quick Tips.pdf: Download and print a quick checklist on Core Topics!
Blackboard Ultra
Word
Excel
PowerPoint
Email Checklist

Check out this quick video from Silktide for a beginner-friendly overview of WCAG:

For more information on digital accessibility, contact:

Debbie Dramstad

Certified Professional in Accessibility Core Competencies (CPACC)

Web Accessibility and Application Specialist | VCSU Technology Services

debra.dramstad@vcsu.edu