Highlights
- Includes simulation modes to present how Web pages might be viewed by users who are blind, color blind or have low vision
- Promotes early awareness of potential accessibility and usability issues
- Checks site for compliance against established accessibility guidelines
- Includes a site-wide analyzer with graphical features
Focus on usability
Certain types of Web content such as highly graphical material can make Web pages difficult to read and navigate for people with visual impairments-even for those who use screen readers or other assistive technology. IBM aDesigner is a simulation tool that helps Web designers identify these potential design issues. It enables Web designers to experience their site as a user who is blind, color blind or has low vision might experience it, allowing designers to focus on usability as well as accessibility.
Spot potential problems early
IBM aDesigner can evaluate Web page elements that may affect usability including color contrast, font size, alternate text for images and page links. IBM aDesigner is also a valuable test tool for compliance. With aDesigner, Web pages can be evaluated against established U.S. and Japanese accessibility guidelines, with possible violations reported and explained. This information gives Web designers immediate feedback, allowing them to address potential obstacles even before Web pages are published.
Simulate vision impairments
With aDesigner's simulation mode for low vision, Web designers can experience firsthand what people with weak eyesight or cataracts may see when visiting their Web pages. The simulator can make adjustments such as blurring or darkening the Web page's text and images to represent certain vision impairments.
IBM aDesigner can also simulate visual challenges associated with color blindness including adjusting images on the page, such as making red lines indistinguishable from green lines.
In this mode, aDesigner displays the original page next to the simulated page to better compare and contrast the views. aDesigner can synchronize the items in the problem list with the browser view position to help designers locate accessibility issues.
Technical Requirements
| Processor | 500 MHz processor |
| Memory | 256MB (512MB recommended) |
| Hard disk drive | 100MB of available space (200MB recommended) |
| Graphics | SVGA 800x600 or higher |
| Operating system | Microsoft® Windows® 2000 or XP |
| Internet | Internet service provider connection |
| Internet browser support | Microsoft Internet Explorer version 6.0 or higher |
| Multilanguage support | English and Japanese |
Identify usability issues for people who are blind
IBM aDesigner's simulation mode for users who are blind can help identify Web pages that are inaccessible and/or unusable to people who use screen readers to access Web content. To find potential problems, for instance, the simulator can calculate how long a screen reader will take to reach each element on a Web page. If problems are found, aDesigner will make recommendations that help increase usability.
IBM aDesigner also has effective features for checking the appropriateness of the alternative (alt) text associated with Web page images and image maps, which are read by screen readers. The tool can identify areas in which alt texts are not being used properly.
Site-wide analyzer
IBM aDesigner can evaluate an entire Web site by combining an aDesigner site crawling function and a site-wide analyzer. The analyzer summarizes the evaluation results of gathered pages to compute the overall rating of the whole Web site and provides a graphical representation of that site's statistics. Analysis results can be exported to text files and images, enabling smooth communication between administrators and designers.
The analyzer can even create a comparison graph of accessibility and usability ratings from different divisions or departments within an organization. Web auditors can use this function to identify problems within specific divisions or departments. Another graph has all of the pages' ratings gathered by the crawler, which helps users understand the characteristics of a site. The site-wide analyzer can also show a "history view" that allows Web auditors to easily review how a site's accessibility has progressed during development and to take necessary actions.
In addition, the tool has a problem analysis mode. In this mode, the problems detected by aDesigner are summarized and sorted in a problem table.
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