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Changelog: List of Web Accessibility Evaluation Tools

This page records change requests and changes made to the draft document List of Web Accessibility Evaluation Tools, which is part of the Evaluating Web Sites for Accessibility Resource Suite. Please send additions or corrections to wai-eo-editors@w3.org.

Last updated on $Date: 2006/03/30 15:18:35 $ by $Author: shadi $

on this page: about "Tools List" document | Review Notes | changes by date

About "Tools List" Document

Purpose of this document

To show the broad range of Web accessibility evaluation tools available, and enable comparison between tools; and to enable searching for tools that have specific characteristics.

Use cases for this document

going to list to select and purchase a given tool.
someone who is newer, wanting to see an overview of what is available
someone wanting to see if there are any tools in a specific language, or set of languages
someone who is told within their own organization that they need to make their own site accessible, and is linked directly to this page without any other context
someone going to the list, who is trying to assess the feasibility of a particular business approach, looking for a tool to assist a particular business case (e.g. it will speed up the development of particular business process)
someone who is already experienced, and they need a tool to help them w/ a specific problem they're having

Audience for this document

Primary audience: Web developers (designers, content authors, etc) who want to comply with Web accessibility standards
Secondary audiences: procurement officers, professional evaluators, and accessibility researchers who have precise requirments for tools or who want to compare tools

Approach

Provide different search capabilities to accommodate different user requirements
Cleary link to "Selecting Tools" document for information about usage of tools
Provide context information and internal links between all sub-pages for people who randomly land on any of them

Open Review Notes

Notes as of 10 March, 2006

From the review comments archived on the editors list.

investigate CSS issues including printing and unneccessary wrapping of columns
consider more compact display of search criteria on the results page (e.g. all languages on one line as opposed to separate lines)
reconsider order of search criteria on simple and advance search pages according to experience gained from using this tools search
investigate in-page navigation (especially through complete list), and possible link findings with summary/verbose display options recorded for future updates (below)
consider making "Submit Information" page more visible (for example by integrating into left navigation bar)
consider reqording "Getting Started" to "Introduction"
consider adding RSS feed to "About RSS" page
consider doing some simple usability testing to get feedback on the performance of the search

Notes on ideas for future updates:

consider adding an "OR combinations" option for broadening the search results
link from headings and/or terms (as appropriate) to the "selecting tools" document
link guidelines in "Checks for these guidelines" section to the "international policies" document
selected options should not disappear when going back to search page from search results
provide full-text search facility
provide summary/verbose formats for the search results (for example, display tool name only, etc)

Previous Changes to the Document

Notes as of 2 March, 2006

From the face-to-face discussions on the 2 March, 2006.

[done] add "W3C" (not WAI) to WCAG in Guidelines section: added "W3C" for better clarity (though it makes sentence even longer now)
[done] make sure thre results report is very clear about how the seslections have been combined: added message box at the top of the search results page with clear meta-information
[done] ensure that the language list matches the order on the W3C translations page: language is order by W3C policy: alphabetically in the roman script
[done] find better wording for "Online Services" and place it accordingly: split this category into "Free online checkers", "Hosted Services", and "Server Installation"
[done] check spelling of Free Ware, Share Ware, etc. should be one word?: changed to "Free Software" and dropped "Share Ware" (added "Enterprise")
[done] change long name to "Web Accessibility Evaluation Tools" and short name (for navigation) to "Tools Search": changed accordingly except in some places within the overview page to avoid confusion about being a definitive list of all tools

Comments from ERT WG on 22 February, 2006

The Evaluation Tools Task Force (ET TF) of the Evaluation and Repair Tools Working Group (ERT WG) met on Tuesday 21 February, 2006 to discuss the tools list. These comments were also discussed by ERT WG on Wednesday 22 February, 2006. Some of these comments had already been raised by EOWG on teleconference on the 17 February, 2006.

[done] consider ordering items by level of support (i.e. languages that are most frequently supported by tools should be further above): has been implemented selectively for some entries (eg. operating systems) but generally it would be confusing (eg. languages)
[done] revise "Checks for these guidelines" section and set a criteria for including or excluding guidelines in this list: guidelines has to have some sort of international, official, or governmental recognition
[done] "Evaluate multiples pages at the same time" is not a precise description for spiders/crawls a configurable set of Web pages: changed to "Supports automated checking of...Groups of Web pages or Web sites"
[done] "Evaluate password protected pages" is not a precise description for accesses restricted pages using authentication mechanisms: changed to "Supports automated checking of...Restricted or password protected pages"
[done] "Assists these usages" is not a clear heading for these items, consider using the term "User Interface" or similar: changed to "Assists manual evaluation by" and "Supports automated checking of"
[done] "Checks these Web formats" should not include PDF because it is a document format, also "Web formats" is very jargony: changed to "Checks the accessibility of"
[done] "Web based (remote) is not an operating system even though it has an implication on this section: is now a new sub-section of the "Type of tool" section
[done] "change "Development Environments" to "Runtime Environments": is now also a new sub-section of the "Type of tool" section
[done] add "Plugin" or "API" or similar, and include SQL there (rather than in "Produces reports in" section): added as a new sub-section of the "Type of tool" section
[done] consider changing "Produces reports in" to "Exports results in": changed to "Generates reports in"

Notes as of 17 February, 2006

From the teleconference discussions on the 17 February, 2006.

[done] term "national standard" is not precise (for example, JIS is "Japanese Industry Standard"): added better wording for each of the guidelines (and/or laws etc)
[done] consider clarifying the term "available licenses": changed to "License Types" for now
[done] disclaimer should indicate that the database fields are also supplied by the tool vendors (not predefined): also that the search criteria depend on the submission made by the tool vendors has been changed accordingly
[done] questions in "Perform these functions" section easy to understand but difficult to scan (verbose): changed to "Assists manual evaluation by" and "Supports automated checking of"
[done] consider linking guidelines in "Checks for these guidelines" section to international policies doc: moved to wish list for future updates
[done] consider clarifying the term "online reporting": changed to "on-line service" and is a sub-section of the "Type of tool" section
[done] consider clarifying the term "checks these Web formats": changed to "Checks the accessibility of"
[done] check keyboard use on form (especially that the "enter" key submits the form): "enter" button submits form in most browsers when the form (page) has the focus (exception: Opera 8.5 due to bug)
[done] change search functionality so that no selection yields no results: also added messages based on the number of criteria and the number of search results
[done] consider using OR rather than AND combinations for search criteria: implemented AND combination (to find exact match) for now, and added OR as a wish list item

Notes as of 3 February, 2006

From the teleconference discussions on the 3 February, 2006.

[done] replace drop-down menu items with checkboxes to provide better overview and simplify usage: both "simple" and "advanced" search now use checkboxes as opposed to drop-down menu boxes
[done] clarify terms - for example, is "language" the language of the tool interface or of the site?: sub-headings have been extended to better explain the meaning of the terms
[done] consider removing "Web technologies" from simple search (leaving two categories): replaced "Web technologies" with "overall functionality" and clarified questions
[done] consider shortening labels/legend or removing the fieldset construct: grouping of checkboxes id done using page headings rather than fieldsets

Notes as of 4 November, 2005

From the teleconference discussions on the 4 November, 2005.

[done] change doc title to "List of Web Accessibility Evaluation Tools": changed doc title to "List of Web Accessibility Evaluation Tools"
[done] change to "Simple Search - to find tools by language, Web format (for example, HTML or CSS), and operating system" or similar (is the eg needed?): changed to "to find tools by language, Web format (for example, HTML or CSS), and operating system"
[done] change to "Complete List - to show all tools in the list": changed to "Complete List - to show all tools in the list"
[done] change to "Link to document about how to suggest a tool and/or provide information about tools for the list.": changed to "Link to document about how to suggest a tool and/or provide information about tools for the list."
[done] link from headings (as appropriate) to the "selecting tools" doc: moved to wish list for future updates (above) because depedent on changes that need to be done on the "selecting tools" doc
[done] Shawn & Shadi to attempt reformating the selections along Judy's suggestion - making the choices more contextualised: simplified wording of selections and reformated (mainly by removing nested tables and adding more fieldsets)
[done] Shawn & Shadi to consider inlcuding the option of another search (not just from the LHS) when you get to the results page: added horizontal menu bar at the top of all pages to allow quick access to search pages
[done] subject to grammar, change to "Advanced Search - to find tools with many different criteria": changed to "to find tools using a detailed set of criteria"

Notes as of 28 October, 2005

[done] assume people may land anywhere in resource; distribute disclaimers throughout: prominent link to disclaimer (and warning) at the beginning of every sub-page
[done] check disclaimer text: all claims made by vendors, developers or users: added "vendors" to the list as suggested
[done] consider splitting apart the content of the disclaimer into a disclaimer (about vendor claims being posted on our site) and a warning (about eval tools not being silver bullets, etc): disclaimer only talks about claims on the site, a new "Getting Started" section warns about proper usage of tools
[done] try using a "Read this first" approach on the overview page, and then link to it from the other pages: using "Getting Started" with strong and emphasized phrases to highlight important messages
[done] consider where to place the full text of the disclaimer, maybe on the results page: it is on the "start page" of the tools list sub-suit
[done] make the sorting happen on the search results page: sorting according to "tool name", "tool vendor", or "release date" available

Notes as of 14 October, 2005

[done] provide more context about database, available tools, background, etc: brief description, disclaimer, and links to "selecting tools" is provided on each page
[done] provide a full-text search facility: added to possible future extensions, it is out of scope right now
[done] advanced search is overwhelming and complex: added links to enhance the in-page navigation
[done] list of tools should be available straight away, not only after submitting form: complete list is available directly from the left navigation bar and is linked from within the introduction of each document

Notes as of 7 October, 2005

[done] explain "22 September, 2005" is only place holder date: note (in blue) added to each entry that is fetched from the database
[done] move date away from title line into separate line: reformated each entry that is generated by the scripts
[done] move search form to be the "front page": had "search page" as start page on 14 October, 2005 but changed back again
[done] add a simple and advanced search options: "simple search" has preselected criteria and "advanced search" has all options
[done] drop extra results (tools not in database): only tools that match a search result are displayed but there is always a link to the complete list
[done] display search criteria within results: search criteria are displayed at the top of the list
[done] implement long/short views: added to possible future extensions, it is out of scope right now
[done] move introduction to filters page: introduction on start-page, then clear links from every sub-page to it
[done] extend disclaimer for results: disclaimer includes tool developers, users, and status of the document/database
[done] consider suplier (or similar) instead of vendor: vendor is the accepted term used elsewhere in WAI and W3C

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