The best free accessibility checker

[Voice over]
Making your website accessible seems kind of overwhelming, doesn’t it?

[Visual]
Stacks of paper fill the screen. Music swells dramatically. Suddenly, the video pauses.

[Voice over]
But getting started is actually really simple and doesn’t cost you a thing.

[Visual]
The video rewinds, reversing all the overwhelming drama.

[Voice over]
All you need for now is the Silktide accessibility checker, which is completely free on the Chrome Store.

Now let’s open up a website we want to test, enable the extension, and run the accessibility checker.

[Visual]
The extension is enabled on a Fake University website. We click on the accessibility checker. It takes just a couple of seconds to scan the web page, and present a list of potential issues found.

[Voice over]
We’ve just tested this page for over 200 accessibility checks.

Taking a quick look here, we can change the way we view the website on different devices.

[Visual]
From a dropdown menu, we can change the webpage to be viewed on desktop or various mobile devices. We settle on the desktop view.

[Voice over]
We have our list of issues found on the page. We can organize them by automated and assisted checks. The automated checks are problems that a machine can identify, but assisted checks will require some human judgment. Finally, we can organize the checks by WCAG standard, including 2.2. Let’s look at an automated check under WCAG 2.1 AA: Text contrast.

[Visual]
Clicking the Text contrast check opens a new menu with a list of text contrast issues. Clicking on any of these issues causes them to be highlighted on the Fake University webpage itself.

[Voice over]
Here we’re told what the problem is, why it’s a problem, and how to fix it. Straight to the point, no technical jargon. In this case, the text is too hard to read and it fails the WCAG guidelines. We can either change the color contrast or try to compensate with a thicker font. Make a note of that, and move on to the next issue:

Link purpose.

This is about making sure that links are self-explanatory and not vague like, “Read more” or “Click here”. Again, we have issues highlighted across the page, information on why it matters, and how to make it better.

Make note of that, move on to the next issue… and that’s the accessibility checker. Simple, right?

But that’s not all.

Going back to the main menu, we’ve got a color contrast checker. You can see for yourself how readable your content is compared with the WCAG guidelines.

[Visual]
We select a color picker tool to pick a font color on the page, compared with the background color, and we’re told by the extension if the contrast meets WCAG standards.

[Voice over]
What about alt text? Screen reader users require alt text for images, describing what they are. This feature lays out every image on the page and warns you if they don’t have alt text. We have a fun video explaining what good old text looks like and when to avoid it completely.

[Visual]
The video is found within the extension menu itself, and expands when opened.

[Voice over]
The focus order feature is really cool. Some users will navigate your website without a mouse and instead use their keyboard or an accessible device, and this feature shows you the order in which elements are focused. If the order looks kind of all-over-the-place, that’s something to look into.

There’s also our headings checker. Are your headings in a logical order? And look out for those duplicated H1s.

Landmarks are a way of segmenting your web page into different areas. This is important for visitors with accessible technology, as it helps them find their way around. Silktide highlights the landmarks on a page so you can quickly know where they are.

Finally, we have simulations. You can gain a basic understanding of your visitors’ experience by simulating disabilities like dyslexia and visual impairments.

[Visual]
A quick montage. The dyslexia simulator disorganizes the words on the page, and the color blindness simulator affects the colors on the page.

[Voice over]
And with all our talk of screen readers, Silktide’s browser extension comes with its own screen reader. It’s no replacement for the real thing, but it’s a powerful tool for building empathy and ultimately helping you create a more inclusive website for your organization.

And that’s all you need to start making a positive change on your website.

We’re adding new features all the time.

But of course, that was just for one single page on your site. Silktide’s platform can cover your entire web estate much more quickly with even more checks.

[Visual]
Footage of the Silktide platform. We see it covers not only accessibility, but content, marketing, and user experience too. Many more issues are listed from these categories, including broken links, which we briefly see highlighted on a Fake University webpage.

[Voice over]
Speak to us today about how we can help your website be accessible to everyone.