Checking web accessibility with the content accessibility checker (CAC)

Abstract

The internet has become an indispensable tool for the access of in-formation. However, most websites are not sufficiently accessible for people with disabilities. Accessibility problems originate from either the underlying CMS systems or from content authors disregarding fundamental accessibility requirements. With the Content Accessibility Checker CAC we give a tool at hand to specifically red-flag possible accessibility issues to authors. The checking criteria form a subset of the WCAG 2.0 standard and are published as a checklist for authors and publishers. CAC is available as a browser plugin and is published as open source on github. It is based on JavaScript and can be ex-tended with specific checking rules. In checking mode it detects accessibility is-sues on a website, highlights it with an overlay in the web browser and gives hints and recommendations on improving web accessibility. © 2014 Springer International Publishing.