A-Prompt Project

Overview of A-Prompt

Many of us know Internet users who have disabilities and rely on an adaptive technology system in order to access web pages. Over the last few years the situation has improved considerably in terms of the web compatibility of access technologies such as screen readers, magnifiers, and alternative mouse systems. However, the web pages themselves need to be designed with a wide range of users in mind, and authors may also include HTML access features that optimize access to users with disabilities.

One strategy for increasing the accessibility of the millions of web pages designed each year is development of tools for checking and repairing HTML. The A-Prompt (Accessibility Prompt) Toolkit is a utility currently being developed to provide this important support for web authors. This initiative has been undertaken as a joint collaboration between the Adaptive Technology Resource Centre at the University of Toronto and the Trace Centre at the University of Wisconsin.

In its current format as a standalone for PC platform, the A-Prompt allows the author to select a file or for validation and repair, or select an single HTML element within a file. (Fig. 1)

Fig 1. Screen shot of File Selection

The tool may be customized to check for different conformance levels, based on the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0. If an accessibility problem is detected, A-Prompt displays the necessary dialogs and guides the user to fix the problem. Many repetitive tasks are automated, such as the addition of ALT-text or the replacement of server-side image maps with client-side image maps. (Fig. 2)

Fig. 2. Screen shot of ALT text prompt dialogue box.

When all potential problems have been resolved, the repaired HTML code is inserted into the document and a new version of the file may be saved to the author's hard drive. After a web page has been checked and repaired by A-Prompt it will be given a WAI Conformance ranking.

Continue to A-Prompt Quick Start Tutorial

A-Prompt Home | Adaptive Technology Resource Centre Last Modified June 19, 2001 by D.A.