Hi, Louisa,

All IMHO of course:

Bobby was the first and is the best-known. IMHO it tends to pull up
things which are not a problem, and is OK if the end-user knows HTML -
horrid if not. [but I have the old free version, dunno what
improvements - if any - have been made since].

A-Prompt has a wonderful help facility (easy to understand), it sits on
your desktop, and helps you fix many problems. It's not so hot on fixing
problems tables and forms. It's not integrated with your development
tool. It's not available for Apple Mac (last time I looked).

LIFT plugs into Dreamweaver or Front Page and is integrated, and it'll
work on a MAC too. However, it uses JavaScript and thus is interpreted
and thus slow. On the other hand it does have facilities for making
tables and complex tables and forms accessible. I think there might be a
stand-alone thingy too.

LIFT is "free" to HE institutions via CHEST - but you get a site license
for either FrontPage OR Dreamweaver - if you have users of both, you may
need to get the site license for the other (sigh). I'm sure you can
obtain a one-off license at reduced cost too.

Manufacturer: Ability Net
UK Distributer: Pugh Computers

Like many things, horses for courses:

Some of our web developers are "end-users" and A-Prompt is good for them
(better than Bobby by far). They tend not to use complex tables or
forms. Some of our web developers are "techies" and some of these use
complex tables and web forms. These may benefit from LiFT as well. Mind
you, I have LiFT and most of the time switch over to HTML view and edit
it there as it's quicker...

HTH,
Chris

--
Chris Beggs
Information and Training Officer
Computing Services
Haslegrave Building N3.18
Loughborough University
Ashby Road, Loughborough, Leicestershire
LE11 3TU
+44 (0)1509 22 ext 8438
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----- Original Message -----
From: "BEEBY, Louisa" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, October 27, 2003 4:54 PM
Subject: Accessibility Software


Hi,

I am just starting to set up a web accessibility study and am looking
for some advice.

According to the RNIB:
http://www.rnib.org.uk/xpedio/groups/public/documents/publicwebsite/publ
ic_tools.hcsp the
three main accessibility checking software tools are A-Prompt, Bobby and
Lift.

On initial inspection of Bobby and A-prompt, the latter appears to be
the most useful, it's free and unlike Bobby it offers a built-in repair
function.
Lift is an accessibility plug in for Dreamweaver or FrontPage but I
haven't had chance to try the demo of this yet so I don't know much
about it.

I am wondering if anyone on the list has experience good or bad of using
these accessibility tools and have any advice that they could share?


Many thanks


Louisa Beeby
Electronic Information Assistant
National Audit Office
157-197 Buckingham Palace Road
London, SW1W 9SP

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