How to Start Using AccVerify: A Graphical Tutorial
To use AccVerify there are just three easy steps to keep in mind
- Open and configure AccVerify
- Choose files for evaluation
- Evaluate files and interpret the results
Open AccVerify
To open AccVerify go to:
Start, Programs, HiSoftware AccVerify, AccVerify Professional
Working in Project Mode
- Verify that the Project Mode is turned on.
- Go to Settings, Turn On Project Mode
Note: If Turn Off Project Mode appears in the list, Project Mode is active.
Set Up Reports Globally
To set up options globally for all future projects, make sure that you do not have an open project.
Confirm this by looking at the title of the page. The phrase
No Open Project should appear on the
top of the screen.
If the name of a project appears in the title of the page, select the project in the project frame of the left, right click on it and close the project.
Check for Skip Navigation & Plug-ins Globally
To configure AccVerify to check Skip Navigation and Plug-ins go to: Settings, Accessibility Rule Settings.
Rule Settings for Plug-ins
Look for rule 6.3.8. This rule requires plug-ins (e.g. readers) for files that you include on the web in formats such as: PDF, Word, Excel, PPT, MP3 and others. For a more complete list of files and plug-ins please visit http://www.cew.wisc.edu/accessibility/hisoftware/extensions.htm
The following is an example using PDF and Word documents.
- Under rule 6.3.8. click on green text box.
- Click on Edit to open the text box, and type in: .pdf+readstep2;.doc+microsoft.com
Note: AccVerify only allows a maximum of 255 characters in the text box of the accessibility rules setting. Therefore, choose only the type files that you have on your site.
A list including the most common files and video files is provided
here as a guide. Note that mp3 and wma files are left out the list.
.pdf+readstep2;.doc+microsoft.com;.xls+microsoft.com;.ppt+microsoft.com;
.mov+quicktime;.qt+quicktime;.rm+real.com;.ra+real.com;.ram+real.com;
.wmv+wimdowsmedia;.asx+windowsmedia;.asf+windowsmedia;
.mpeg+windowsmedia;mpg+windowsmedia;.avi+windowsmedia
Rule Settings for Skip Navigation
- Look for rule [o].
- Click on the green text box, click on Edit to open
- Click on the text box and type: skip navigation^main content and click OK.
Once you are done, click on OK to save your changes to the Accessibility Rule Settings.
Selecting the Type of Report 508 or W3C
Go to Settings, Report Settings under the Report Mode tab select the Section 508 Report Mode (US Only) and click on the Report Detail tab
Report on Failed Files Settings
On the Report Detail tab, check the following boxes only:
- Show only checkpoints that have a failure or warning result
- Show only the detail items I select in report options
- Locations of elements that Failed accessibility checks
Click Save, Yes, and OK to confirm changes have been made.
Setting Up a New Project
It is important to set up Website evaluations As Projects. This will create the necessary organization and allow you to seave your settings. In left frame titled Projects click the New button or click File, Project, New
In the New Project dialog box
- Enter a project name
- Choose the option Internet Based (Automated Crawler) which takes the information from the Internet (e.g. information that users see) and click on Save.
In the Project Settings box enter:
- In Domain, type the URL/address of the site including http://
- Check the Run accessibility checks when running verification box.
- Select Use default file types. If your website starts
on a page not included in the default list, then follow this example. If
you want to check the file http://www.cew.wisc.edu/accessibility/examples/aquaticArtsBad/Profpage.htm
In Domain enter: http://www.cew.wisc.edu/accessibility/examples/aquaticArtsBad/
In Start file enter: Profpage.htm - Set up each of the tabs on the lower part of the page as described below.
File Selection and Authentication Tabs
In the File Selection tab, check Start Automated Browse File Selection when the project is open and click on the Authentication Tab. Under the Authentication Tab, enter a username and password IF your page uses a login and password.
Browse Options Tab
In the Browse Options tab check:
- Host Only (Do not crawl external Links)
- Crawl as virtual sub-domain
- Treat links without extensions as directories
Uncheck:
- Ignore dynamic links (at least initially). Set up:
- Levels to crawl to a large number like 20 to make sure the program will verify all your pages and click on Exclude Directories tab.
Exclude Directories Tab
The Exclude Directories tab will only be used if you want to exclude some directories from a site. If you do not want to exclude any directories, then go to the Browser Emulation Tab. If you want to exclude a directory, type in the name of the folders you want to ignore. If you are doing a folder based search, click on Get Robots button and browse for the folders to exclude.
Browser Emulation Tab
As a default, AccVerify will act as the browser. Leave it as is and click Save. If you want AccVerify to identify itself as another browser, click on the down arrow of the text box. You might want to choose Internet Explorer 6.0 because it will display JavaScript or server side code. Click Save. AccVerify will confirm that settings were saved. Click OK.
Automated Web Browse Properties
The Automated Web Browse Properties dialog box will appear. This window displays the chosen options. Make additional changes if needed and click Start. AccVerify will start to scan the files in the URL based on the levels specified.
Running Automated Web Browse
In the Running Automated Web Browser dialog box, a Stop button will appear, for you to stop the evaluation at any time. When verification is done, the Stop button will change to a Close button. Click on Close.
Scanned Files
After the intial scanning is done, you will see the list of files in the Selected Files section of the screen. Click OK in the information window. This window tells you how many files were evaluated.
Save Scanned Files
To save a list of scanned files click Save List. In the Save As window type in the file name and click Save. Note: You can save your files in the List Temp folder "default folder".
Run AccVerify
Click on Verify
Running Verification Process
While the report is being generated, you will see the progress of the verification. Note: You can stop the process at any time by clicking on Stop.
AccVerify Reports
AccVerify generates several reports. Clicking on a specific report in the left frame will open the selected summary in the right frame.
Overall Summary
The Overall Summary report shows the total number and percentage of files that passed and failed. Note: This refers only to the automatic checks performed by AccVerify.
Summary Report
The Summary report provides information about the total files passed and failed. Of each of the 508 guidelines check points evaluated, it provides a graphic that show the number of problems found with each.
Statistics Summary
The Statistics Summary report shows lists of images, forms, tables, frames, objects, scripts, present on the site. The next report, Passed Files is usually not reviewed, since we are more interested in the pages that do not passed.
Failed Files Information
The Failed Files report identified in the left frame,will appear in the right frame. Click on a specific file name to display it. A verification checklist will appear showing which checkpoint of the Section 508 guidelines the page failed and in which line of html code the problem is. At the bottom of the report, html code will be displayed so you can identify the line of text that has the problem and fix it.
Site Quality Reports
- File Type Report shows a list of files by type. Links to those pages are also shown. This report is useful for checking accessibility by type of file, for adding captions to multimedia files, and for verifying that plug-ins are available.
- Link Phrase Report provides a list of files containing links labeled as “click here” or “more information” which are not accessible.
- Verify Data Table Report provides a list of files which contains data tables.
- Link Error Report displays a list of broken links.
- Max Size Report will show a list of files that exceed 100mb (default) per page.
- Repetitive Anchor provides a list of repetitive anchors that point to different directions and information on how many times an anchor text appears on the page.
- NOSCRIPT Missing Report gives information about web pages that do not have the noscript tag included when JavaScript code is used.
- TITLE Element Error Report provides a list of pages that share the same title. This can make the site difficult to navigate. It also shows pages that have no title.
To Revisit a Saved Project
Open AccVerify Professional by going to Start, Programs, HiSoftware AccVerify, AccVerify Professional. Choose the project from those listed in the left frame and double click on it. Or, Right click on the project name, choose Open Project from the options.
To Re-verify a Project
Click Cancel to revisit previously saved reports and other saved data from an earlier scan. Or, In the Automated Web Browse Properties click Start to run [Re-verify] again the site.
Click View Reports and the report will be display.