Walk in Readers' Shoes for a Change
To deliver the most value to your entire audience, it's essential to know what it's like to use assistive tools to interact with the web. Being familiar with how they work will also be useful for reviewing your accessible designs.
Screen Readers
Each computer has built-in accessibility tools that can be enabled. Helpful ones to experience for yourself are VoiceOver (Mac) or Narrator (PC).
Feel what it's like to hear a web experience
Other popular ones include NVDA and Jaws.
Tab Key
Navigate without your mouse! Use the tab key on your keyboard to access links and content on web pages or your arrow keys to navigate pages. Mouses aren't for everyone, so consider this experience in your design, as well.
Online Evaluation Tools
There are free resources you can download to your browser to assist in checking for some of the critical factors regarding accessible design.
When you need to be thorough, consulting with a third-party specialist is always a good idea. Accessibility auditors are the true experts.
The Three Tools Shared Above Help Us to Check Foleon Docs to Ensure They Are Accessible
Both screen readers and Tab key function are helpful in understanding if a Foleon Doc is set up with the correct structure to experience the content as intended and expected.
We want to ensure that anything with links is triggered and targetable in the correct order. Online evaluation tools cannot do it all.
However, evaluation tools are not to be forgotten. They serve a great purpose in quickly scanning your Foleon Doc pages to uncover missing alt-text on images, links that need to be more descriptive, if color needs more contrast, or to ensure you are arranging content in a logical order.