Search Engine Journal

Like I previously pointed out SEO and web accessibility should come hand in hand. So here is the collection of web accessibility tools that can be also effectively used for SEO purposes:

General page viewers and accessibility checkers:

1. Wave offers a graphical representation of found accessibility issues right on the web page:

2. Lynx Viewer shows a text-only version of the page for you to see if it contains sufficient information no matter what browser-enhanced functionality (e.g. CSS or JavaScript) is disabled;

3. Opera browser: see the guide on checking the page accessibility in Opera browser;

4. Functional Accessibility Evaluator: provides both summarized and extended accessibility report on:

• Navigation & Orientation;
• Text Equivalents;
• Scripting;
• Styling;
• HTML Standards

Table accessibility evaluators:

Table Linearizer to make sure all your page tables can be read in a linearized version.

Image accessibility evaluators:

1. Image Analyser: the width, height, alt, and longdesc attributes are examined for appropriate values;

2. Alt Text Checker shows the summary of image alt text used.

Color accessibility tools:

1. Color Contrast: evaluates color accessibility by analyzing the internal and external CSS of a web page to test the color contrast and color brightness between the text and background colors (based on W3C accessibility standards):

2. Accessibility Color Wheel allows to pick text and background colors and instantly evaluate the color combination accessibility.

3. ColorFilter - color blind web filter - shows how each page is seen by a color blind person.

Page link evaluator:

Link Context Checker shows information on any page anchor text usage.

FireFox accessibility extensions:

1. Web Developer FireFox extension allows to disable Javascript, CSS, linearize page, display form details, display alt attribute, etc:

2. Fangs - screen reader emulator - gives you an idea of how your page will be rendered by a screen reader and also provides a page outline based on

• H1-H6 elements;
• page link anchor text.

3. Firefox Accessibility Extension adds a handy toolbar that allows for both SEO and Accessibility evaluation options:

• An overview of page headings, forms, links, titles, navigation, frames, data tables, etc.
• Text equivalents for images, objects and abbreviations;
• Scripting information;
• Styles information;
• Page checking with keyword enhancements;
• Various validating options.

Disclaimer: Please don’t solely rely on information any tool reviewed here provides. I recommend running multiple tests before arriving at any conclusions (also please share your test results here if you please). I recommend to only use SEO tools as additional source of information. No tool should be used as your sole tool for Search Engine Optimization.