Helpful Accessibility Tools and Resources

There are many tools to help you create accessible content and documents. This is just a selection of the best.

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Built-In Accessibility Checkers

Always use these! Catch accessibility errors before you publish or distribute digital content.

• Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, & Excel
• Brightspace LMS
• Modern Campus CMS (formerly Omni CMS)
• Adobe Acrobat Pro

PDF Accessibility Checkers

Always make your document as accessible as possible in the source program before exporting as a PDF.  It is much easier to make those changes in Word, PowerPoint, GoogleDocs & Slides, Canva, Illustrator, etc., than it is to remediate an inaccessible PDF.

• Accessibility tools included in Adobe Acrobat Pro
• PAC free download
• PAVE web-based PDF validator

Binghamton subscriptions

These tools are available for all faculty, staff, and students to use.

• Read & Write – a literacy support tool by TextHelp available as an installed desktop app or as a Chrome extension. Read & Write enables anyone to have information on a screen read to them the same way a screen reader works. It’s a great tool to check one’s own document accessibility.
• Equatio – TextHelp’s accessible math-authoring tool available as a Chrome extension.
• SensusAccess – on-demand file conversion to alternate formats like audio, ebook, etc. SensusAccess can create tagged PDFs, which are more accessible than untagged PDFs, but this tool alone cannot remediate a PDF fully.

Color and Contrast Tools

Check your colors for the required contrast ratio:

• WebAIM Contrast Checker – web-based contrast checker
• Colour Contrast Analyser (CCA) by TPGi – installed desktop app
• Brandwood Image Background Contrast Checker
• Venngage Accessible Palette Generator

View a page or image as people with different types of color vision deficiencies would see it, and correct for color:

• Coblis Color Blindness Simulator - upload an image or screenshot
• Toptal Colorblind Webpage Filter - enter a URL
• Vischeck Colorblindness Simulator and Corrector - upload an image or screenshot and correct it
• Visolve enhances colors for people with different types of color blindness (free download).

Web Page Accessibility Checkers

Check any webpage for accessibility compliance:

• WAVE by WebAIM includes browser extensions for Chrome, Firefox, and Edge. If using a different browser, try the single page checker: just paste in a URL.
• axe DevTools browser extension by Deque
• ARC Toolkit browser extension by TPGi

Reading Level Checkers

Keep your language simple and clear with these free checkers:

• Hemingway App
• Class Ace Reading Level Checker

Alt Text and Image Description Generator

Arizona State University’s AI image description utility analyzes user-uploaded images to produce robust alternative text descriptions. This tool can also analyze and extract embedded text (i.e., text that is not machine-readable) from slides and images. Always review AI-generated image descriptions for accuracy and the correct level of detail for your image.

Screen Readers

Try out one of these freely-available screen readers to learn how they work.

• Narrator for Windows
• NVDA free download (for Windows)
• VoiceOver for Mac

Additional Training Resources

• SUNY Universal Design for Learning course
• SUNY Access for All Webinar Series
• Deque University - accessibility courses through a SUNY subscription. See also the Deque Blog for a trove of helpful articles.
• The D2L Brightspace Community offers free training courses, community interest groups and discussions, and many knowledge base articles. To access the discussions and training courses, you must first create a free account. Get started at the Brightspace Accessibility Gateway.
• Teach Access – non-profit offering training and resources for educators to incorporate accessibility into their curricula.
• W3C Web Accessibility Initiative – offers tons of resources. Begin with their Accessibility Fundamentals.
• WebAIM – many useful articles and resources. WebAIM also offers training courses (for a fee).