Are there tools or guides to help test how websites "appear" to people with disabilities ?
It is difficult to design something if you don't have an idea of what will be the outcome, but I wouldn't know which software is used by (e.g.) a blind user, let alone how I would use it.
There are lots of options for automated accessibility scans, but there are many common accessibility issues that aren't feasible to test for with automation.
My team at Microsoft recently open sourced a tool called Accessibility Insights (https://accessibilityinsights.io). The web version is a chromium extension that includes both automated scans and also a guided assessment option that leads you through how to test for and fix the stuff that has to be found manually. This is the tool Microsoft pushes its own teams to use as part of their release processes.
Simply try to browse the page without using mouse, just the tab key. The next step would be to use screen reader, NVDA[1] (Windows) or Apple VoiceOver (MacOS).
There are automated testing tools, but they don't cover the whole spectrum of problems. Nevertheless you can try
* Funkify (Chrome plugin, tries to emulate various disabilities)
* Lighthouse in Chrome Dev Tools also checks some accessibility rules
The full list of things that you need to take care of: https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG21/ (it's huge I know, it takes 5-7 days to test everything from this list)
Please do the tab test. Some of us do this even if we don't need accessibility tools, as it can be faster (those who create forms which cannot be tabbed through are evil).
Everything everyone else has said. However, if you don't have a budget for this, you can do a few basic things that will greatly improve the usability of your site.
First, can you navigate your entire site without using a mouse (including any widgets, forms, embeded stuff)? You should also have a "Skip to main content" button that is the first element you hit when you tab into your page.
Next, download the NVDA screen reader, which is free, turn off your monitor (or close your eyes), and navigate your site using it. I recommend using FireFox for this.
Finally, use a color contrast analyzer plugin for your browser to ensure you have enough contrast between all of you elements.
From there, you can review the WCAG 2.0 spec to get into the fine details. If you have the budget, hire a consultant/contractor. What I described above doesn't make your site pleasent to use for a disable person, just usable.
I couldn't find anything like it, which surprises me. It should be in the interest of companies selling screenreaders that the web is accessible with them. Creating a service where you can submit a link and it shows you a textual representation of how the screenreader sees the page would be immensely useful.
These scans are in my experience always just that: they read the source and match it against a set of common anti-patterns. I was talking about something that would tell me how common commercial screen readers interpret an arbitrary new construct. If you have a specific reference to something else, please send me a link!
Screen readers often cost significant amounts of money, and are not trivial to "just turn on".
