4.4: AChecker Web Accessibility Checker

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Toolkit: Add the public version of AChecker Web Accessibility Checker to your Toolkit.

In the public version, you can set up an account and do your automated accessibility testing. See below for details on downloading and installing your own version.

Overview

Fun Fact! AChecker was originally developed as an Enabling Change project, the same fund that supported the development of the materials here.

First released in 2005, AChecker was created with the goal of providing an accessibility checking tool that was 100% transparent, interactive, customizable, and free. AChecker makes use of the Open Accessibility Checks (OAC), which is a collection of checks based on all web accessibility guidelines available globally. Currently, there are a total of 310 OAC checks employed by AChecker.

AChecker Features

AChecker has specific features for public users, registered users, administrators, and developers. To take advantage of these features, you should first create an account on the public AChecker site, if you are not planning to install a version of your own (see below). Follow the link you added to your Toolkit above, and click “Register” to create an account. Creating an account will allow you to save your accessibility reviews, and generate an AChecker seal for sites that pass its review.

AChecker screenshot

Figure: AChecker screenshot showing the main interface for conducting accessibility reviews

For more about using AChecker, watch the following video:

Video: Using AChecker to Test Web Accessibility

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A YouTube element has been excluded from this version of the text. You can view it online here: https://pressbooks.library.ryerson.ca/pwaa/?p=1311

Set Up Your Own AChecker

Technical

Download AChecker

Installation Instructions

Unzip the master.zip file downloaded from GitHub into a php-enabled, web-accessible directory.
Open the installer in your browsers at http://[yourserver.com]/AChecker/install
Follow the instructions provided by the installer.

Installing from GitHub or If You Plan to Contribute

If you are familiar with using GitHub, you can clone the most current source code from there. This version often has new features not available yet in the public site, or in the downloadable version of the software, though it may be less stable than the publicly-distributed version. If you would like to participate in AChecker’s development, or you would like to add your own accessibility checks, or perhaps fix a bug you’ve found, working from GitHub is the way to have your work added to the public source code.

AChecker Source Code