Testing product accessibility

The MSAA 2.0 Software Development Kit (SDK) includes several tools for verifying the MSAA compliance of your application. They include AccExplorer, Accessible Event Watcher, and Object Inspector. These tools are available on the Microsoft Web site at http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/default.aspx

To test the user experience of your application for those with disabilities directly, you can use various methods. For example, try using a text-only browser; enter input using only the keyboard; use the application with a screen reader such as JAWS, Window-Eyes, Hal, or Supernova.

Several commercial applications are also available for testing Web sites for compliance with Section 508 and the WCAG 1.0.

For more information

For a checklist for testing WCAG 1.0 compliance, see the appendix to the WCAG 1.0 on the W3C Web site at http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/WAI-WEBCONTENT-19990505/full-checklist. The W3C Web site also lists and evaluates tools for testing accessibility.