Announcements
Subscription Service Suspended
Posted: 2021-04-28
The original purpose of the Functional Accessibility Evaluator (FAE) when it was released in 2004 was to raise awareness of web accessibility issues beyond the simple rules of ALT attribute on images and the labeling of form controls. For example, the structured use of headings was one of the original FAE rules. FAE went on from there to be the first website spidering tool to include at least one rule for every WCAG 2.0 Level A and AA requirement. The rules are based on HTML and ARIA Authoring Practices to encourage authors to learn more about accessibility requirements and best practices to promote not just technical accessibility, but also to improve the experience of using the web by people with disabilities.
FAE has been a labor of love for many people, but the web and web accessibility has significantly changed since it was first introduced, and this requires a pause to reflect on the future of FAE and the FAE service. The use of FAE has been declining over the past several years and there are limited resources to support updating FAE to comply with the latest web technologies and standards. To help us understand the current needs of designers, developers and accessibility testers we are restarting our Open Source Web Accessibility Tools User Group to learn more about what types of tools are needed to make web accessibility evaluation and inspection more robust and efficient.
More information on subscription suspension
Archived Announcements
| Posted | Topic | Announcement |
|---|---|---|
| 2021-05-04 | 12 May 2021 Open Source Web Accessibility Tools User Group Meeting |
More Information about Open Source Web Accessibility Tools User Group Date: 12 May 2021 Time: 3:00pm Central Time USA (Chicago Local Time) Join Zoom MeetingMeeting ID: 824 2198 0490 Password: 006276 One tap mobile:
Agenda
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| 2021-04-05 | Open Source Web Accessibility Tools User Group Meeting on 14 April 2021 |
Date: Wednesday, April 14th, 2021 Time: 1:00pm Central Time (Chicago Local Time) Agenda
......................................................................................................................................... Trouble Joining? Try Skype Web App Join by phone +1 217 332 6338,,4721483# (Site1-Dialin-region) English (United States) +1 312 994 8410,,4721483# (Site1-Dialin-region) English (United States) +1 888 983 3631,,4721483# (Site1-Dialin-region) English (United States) Find a local number Conference ID: 4721483 Forgot your dial-in PIN? |Help Using Chrome? Install the new plugin, if prompted, to join the meeting. [!OC([1033])!] ......................................................................................................................................... |
| 2020-09-24 | Information Accessibility Design and Policy (IADP) Online Professional Certificate |
Information Accessibility Design and Policy (IADP) Online Professional Certificate College of Applied Health Sciences University of Illinois More information, including registration for IADP Certificate Program First Course starts on 19 October, 2020 (Registration closes on 12 October @ noon Central Time). Overview The IADP program serves website/web application developers/designers, content creators in education and industry, information technology specialists, and disability service providers learn the principles of accessible information architecture and universal design used in education, healthcare, and employment settings. Students will also learn the federal and state legal mandates governing information accessibility and their relationship to the civil rights of people with disabilities, as well as technology accessibility standards, design techniques that adhere to those standards, and tools that support validation and evidence of compliance to those standards. The IADP professional certificate program consists of 3 online 8 week courses that can be completed in one academic year, and the certificate is available to undergraduate, graduate, degree or non-degree seeking students. Approved by the International Association of Accessibility Professionals (IAAP) for CAEC Professional Development Credit. |
| 2020-04-27 | CSV download of report view information now available |
A new feature has been added to allow users to download the information in the current report view in a CSV file format. Look for the "CSV" link next to the "Email Report" link to download a CSV file with the current report view information. Give it a try and let us know what you think. |
| 2020-01-13 | FAE will be unavailable on Friday, January 17th for upgrades and maintenance |
FAE will be updated to use Python 3.6 and Django 2.2 on Friday, January 17th. During this time FAE will be unavailable. |
| 2019-12-16 | Online Introduction to Web Accessibility Evaluation Training in January 2020 |
The University of Illinois is offering an introductory course in Web Accessibility where people can earn a Badge in January 2020. The Badging course is 6 hours of synchronous online training with hands-on activities. Web accessibility Evaluation for Technical Users (3-part course)
Please contact Christy Blew if you have any questions. NOTE: These courses are NOT for web, multimedia and software developers interested in learning how to build accessible websites, multimedia applications, or software. They are designed to help people develop basic skills in evaluating a website for accessibility features and issues. |
| 2019-05-29 | Online Introduction to Web Accessibility Evaluation Training in June |
The University of Illinois is offering two online introductory courses in Web Accessibility where people can earn badges. Each badging course is 6 hours of synchronous online training with hands-on activities during the courses. Web Accessibility Evaluation for Non-Technical Users
Web accessibility Evaluation for Technical Users
Please contact if you have any questions: NOTE: These courses are NOT for web, multimedia and software developers interested in learning how to build accessible websites, multimedia applications, or software. They are designed to help people develop basic skills in evaluating a website for accessibility features and issues. |
| 2018-11-13 | AInspector WCAG for Firefox now available! |
AInspector WCAG 0.94 beta is the replacement for Ainspector Sidebar for Firefox and works with the latest versions of Firefox (version 60.0+) to evaluate individual web pages for accessibility features based on WCAG 20 Level A and AA requirements. Get AInspector WCAG add-on For Firefox Two of the biggest changes in Ainspector WCAG from AInspector Sidebar are:
I encourage you to install and try out AInspector WCAG and report any problems that you or issues that you find to me (jongund@illinois.edu) or if you have a GitHub account, create a GitHub issue: |
| 2018-09-07 | FAE 2.0 available and update on AInspector Sidebar for Firefox |
If you have had problems using FAE 2.0 this past week (e.g. getting a error in processing message) the issue has been resolved, so please try to evaluate websites again. https://fae.disability.illinois.edu AInspector Sidebar is being updated to work with the latest version of Firefox, we hope to have it available in a few weeks if all goes well. We will announce the availability on this list. If you have an questions or problems, please use the contact form in FAE: https://fae.disability.illinois.edu/contact/ |
| 2018-07-16 | Server Maintenance Today at 4:30pm Central Time USA (Chicago Local Time) |
At 4:30 Central Time USA (Chicago Local Time) FAE will be off line for up to 2 hours to apply server maintenance patches. If ll goes well FAE will be available soon after the patching is complete. |
| 2018-04-27 | Updated version of AInspector Sidebar available for Firefox ESR version |
AInspector Sidebar is a free and open source based tool to evaluate web pages for WCAG 2.0 compliance using the ARIA 1.1 and HTML5 web standards. Version 1.1.2 of AInspector Sidebar for Firefox Extended Support Release (ESR) version is available and fixes the following issues:
AInspector Sidebar 1.1.2 update More information about AInspector Sidebar Reminder: AInspector Sidebar is not compatible with Firefox Quantum (the latest version of Firefox). It requires the installation of the current Firefox Extended Support Release (ESR), currently version 52.7.3. |
| 2018-04-04 | AInspector Sidebar and FAE 2.0 User Group meeting on April 12th |
For people who are new to AInspector Sidebar and/or FAE 2.0, have questions about how they work, or what reports are telling them, join us for an teleconference event to learn more about the tools and to ask questions of the developers. No agenda other than to respond to user questions. Date: Thursday, April 12th Time: 2:00pm Central Time (Chicago Local Time) Join online meeting using Skype for Business Join by phone:
Conference ID: 69107816 |
| 2018-03-15 | Online Web Accessibility Training from University of Illinois in April, May and June |
The University of Illinois Division of Disability Resources and Education Services (DRES) is offering another round of online badging training courses on web accessibility. Each badging course is 4-6 hours of synchronous online training with hands-on activities during the courses. Badges are earned by satisfactory completing the quizzes and homework assignments to demonstrate competency in a specific area of accessibility. Web Design: Landmarks, Headings, Page Titles and Navigation Web Design: Form Controls and Links Web Design: Introduction to Accessible Web Widgets with ARIA Web Accessibility Evaluation for Non-Technical Users Web accessibility Evaluation for Technical Users |
| 2018-03-12 | AInspector Sidebar and FAE 2.0 User Group meeting on March 15th |
For people who are new to AInspector Sidebar and/or FAE 2.0, have questions about how they work, or what reports are telling them, join us for an teleconference event to learn more about the tools and to ask questions of the developers. No agenda other than to respond to user questions. Date: Thursday, March 15th Time: 2:00pm Central Time (Chicago Local Time) Join online meeting using Skype for Business Join by phone:
Conference ID: 69107816 |
| 2017-12-07 | Seats available for online Web Accessibility Evaluation for Non-Technical Users Badge |
Please share this information about the online badging course Web Accessibility Evaluation for Non-Technical Users. There are a few seats left for this online training in January. More information at: https://www.disability.illinois.edu/academic-support/accessible-it-group/badging/waeb |
| 2017-11-10 | Move to ESR version of Firefox to continue to use AInspector Sidebar |
If you are using AInspector Sidebar you will need to switch to the ESR Version for Firefox. Next week Firefox will be releasing a new version of Firefox that is not compatible with AInspector Sidebar. Instructions for uninstalling your current version of Firefox and installing the ESR version Please share this message with other users you think need to know. Jon P.S. We are working on the next generation evaluation and inspection tools for Firefox and Chrome, but have nothing to share at this time. |
| 2017-11-07 | AInspector Sidebar and FAE 2.0 User Group meeting on November 9th |
For people who are new to AInspector Sidebar and/or FAE 2.0, have questions about how they work, or what reports are telling them, join us for an teleconference event to learn more about the tools and to ask questions of the developers. No agenda other than to respond to user questions. Date: Thursday, November 9th Time: 2:00pm Central Time (Chicago Local Time) Join online meeting using Skype for Business Join by phone:
Conference ID: 69107816 |
| 2017-10-18 | REMINDER: Registration ends soon for online web accessibility courses |
Please share this information about this online badging courses with people you know who may be interested in web accessibility training or you think would benefit. Web Design: Form Controls and Links November 1st, 2017 (Registration closes at noon on Friday, October 20th) Web Design: Introduction to Accessible Web Widgets with ARIA November 29th, 2017 (Registration closes at noon on Friday, November 15th) More information and registration links at: http://go.illinois.edu/a11y-badges |
| 2017-10-09 | AInspector Sidebar and FAE 2.0 User Group meeting on October 12th |
For people who are new to AInspector Sidebar and/or FAE 2.0, have questions about how they work, or what reports are telling them, join us for an teleconference event to learn more about the tools and to ask questions of the developers. No agenda other than to respond to user questions. Date: Thursday, October 12th Time: 2:00pm Central Time (Chicago Local Time) Join online meeting using Skype for Business Join by phone (217) 332-6338 or (312) 994-8410 or (888) 983-3631 Conference ID: 69107816 |
| 2017-09-25 | Online Web Accessibility Training from University of Illinois |
The University of Illinois has started a new training program in web accessibility where people can earn badges. Each badging course is 4-6 hours of synchronous online training with hands-on activities during the courses. Badges are earned by satisfactory completing the quizzes and homework assignments to demonstrate competency in a specific area of accessibility. Please share this information about this online badging courses with people you know who may be interested in web accessibility training or you think would benefit. Web Design: Landmarks, Headings, Page Titles and Navigation Web Design: Form Controls and Links Web Design: Introduction to Accessible Web Widgets with ARIA Web Accessibility Evaluation for Non-Technical Users (3-part course) Web accessibility Evaluation for Technical Users (3-part course) |
| 2017-09-08 | AInspector Sidebar and FAE 2.0 User Group meeting on September 14th |
For people who are new to AInspector Sidebar and/or FAE 2.0, have questions about how they work, or what reports are telling them, join us for an teleconference event to learn more about the tools and to ask questions of the developers. No agenda other than to respond to user questions. Date: Thursday, September 14th Time: 2:00pm Central Time (Chicago Local Time) Join online meeting using Skype for Business Join by phone (217) 332-6338 or (312) 994-8410 or (888) 983-3631 Conference ID: 69107816 |
| 2017-07-11 | AInspector Sidebar and FAE 2.0 User Group meeting on July 13th |
For people who are new to AInspector Sidebar and/or FAE 2.0, have questions about how they work, or what reports are telling them, join us for an teleconference event to learn more about the tools and to ask questions of the developers. No agenda other than to respond to user questions. Date: Thursday, July 13th Time: 2:00pm Central Time (Chicago Local Time) Join online meeting using Skype for Business: https://meet.illinois.edu/jongund/TS62HB5M Join by phone (217) 332-6338 or (312) 994-8410 or (888) 983-3631 Conference ID: 69107816 |
| 2017-06-19 | AInspector Sidebar 1.1.1 released for Firefox |
I am pleased to announce AInspector Sidebar 1.1.1 extension for Firefox is now available. An important feature of release 1.1.1 is fixing the “Inspect Element” feature that was broken by an undocumented change in a Firefox. The Inspect Element button now works as expected. Mozilla Add-ons page: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ainspector-sidebar/ Documentation: http://ainspector.github.io/ Additional changes in AInspector Sidebar 1.1 include updating the evaluation library to OpenAjax Version 1.1, the following is a summary: HTML Element Rule Changes:
Keyboard Rule Changes
Layout Rule Changes
Landmark Rule Changes
Widget Rule Changes
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| 2017-06-12 | AInspector Sidebar and FAE 2.0 User Group meeting on June 15th |
For people who are new to AInspector Sidebar and/or FAE 2.0, have questions about how they work, or what reports are telling them, join us for an teleconference event to learn more about the tools and to ask questions of the developers. No agenda other than to respond to user questions. Date: Thursday, June 14th Time: 2:00pm Central Time (Chicago Local Time) Join online meeting using Skype for Business: https://meet.illinois.edu/jongund/TS62HB5M Join by Phone Conference ID: 69107816 |
| 2017-05-05 | AInspector Sidebar and FAE 2.0 User Group meeting on May 11th |
For people who are new to AInspector Sidebar and/or FAE 2.0, have questions about how they work, or what reports are telling them, join us for an teleconference event to learn more about the tools and to ask questions of the developers. No agenda other than to respond to user questions. Date: Thursday, May 11th Time: 2:00pm Central Time (Chicago Local Time) Join online meeting using Skype for Business: https://meet.illinois.edu/jongund/TS62HB5M Join by Phone Conference ID: 69107816 |
| 2017-04-28 | Functional Accessibility Evaluator 2.04 Released |
Functional Accessibility Evaluator 2.04 Released Major changes: Updated to OpenAjax evaluation Library 1.1 Improvements in reporting of URLs analyzed and excluded, including information about non-HTML files linked to pages int he website. Follow the "URL Evaluation Information" link found near the top of the report. Please report any issues you find with the new version using the contact link. |
| 2017-04-11 | AInspector Sidebar and FAE 2.0 User Group meeting on April 13th |
For people who are new to AInspector Sidebar and/or FAE 2.0, have questions about how they work, or what reports are telling them, join us for an teleconference event to learn more about the tools and to ask questions of the developers. No agenda other than to respond to user questions. Date: Thursday, April 13th Time: 2:00pm Central Time (Chicago Local Time) Join online meeting using Skype for Business: https://meet.illinois.edu/jongund/TS62HB5M Join by Phone Conference ID: 69107816 |
| 2017-04-04 | Next Badging Course on Headings and Landmarks starts on May 17th |
Reminder new online courses designed to support the implementation of WCAG 2.0 level A and AA requirements using HTML5 and ARIA best practices start next week.
Web Design: Landmarks, Headings, Page Titles and Navigation More information and registration links at: |
| 2017-03-07 | AInspector Sidebar and FAE 2.0 User Group meeting on March 9th |
For people who are new to AInspector Sidebar and/or FAE 2.0, have questions about how they work, or what reports are telling them, join us for an teleconference event to learn more about the tools and to ask questions of the developers. No agenda other than to respond to user questions. Date: Thursday, March 9th Time: 2:00pm Central Time (Chicago Local Time) Join online meeting using Skype for Business: https://meet.illinois.edu/jongund/TS62HB5M Join by Phone Conference ID: 69107816 REMINDER: First web accessibility badge on "Form Controls and Links" is on April 12th, more information on all the badges can be found at: http://go.illinois.edu/a11y-badges |
| 2017-02-27 | Online Training: Form Controls and Links is on April 12th |
The DRES Accessible IT Group (AITG) of the University of Illinois is pleased to announce the offering of online web accessibility training starting in March. This is the same group that created and support FAE 2.0 and AInspector Sidebar tools. The training is based on the rule categories and rules used in these tools. The course will help you understand and implement the rules of the OpenAjax Evaluation Library for meeting W3C Web Content Accessibility Guideline 2.0 requirements. Details: http://go.illinois.edu/a11y-badges
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| 2017-02-07 | AInspector Sidebar and FAE 2.0 User Group meeting on February 9th |
For people who are new to AInspector Sidebar and/or FAE 2.0, have questions about how they work, or what reports are telling them, join us for an teleconference event to learn more about the tools and to ask questions of the developers. No agenda other than to respond to user questions. Date: Thursday, February 9th Time: 2:00pm Central Time (Chicago Local Time) Join online meeting using Skype for Business: https://meet.illinois.edu/jongund/HPHQQGYQ Join by Phone Conference ID: 6629250 |
| 2017-01-29 | Fixed problem with analyzing one page URLs with a path |
Version 2.0.3 fixed a problem with version 2.0.2. The problem was when the starting URL included a /path/ in addition to the domain information and resulted in the evaluation analyzing the page with just the domain and not the full starting URL. This resulted in one page evaluations analyzing the wrong page. This problem should be fixed now. If you have additional problems, please use the "Contact" option to raise the issue. Apologize for any inconveniences this issue may have caused. |
| 2017-01-19 | Updates to FAE 2.0 |
There have been some changes to the FAE 2.0 this week, in general the changes are:
More information on changes can be found: https://fae.disability.illinois.edu/abouts/versions/ |
| 2017-01-06 | AInspector Sidebar and FAE 2.0 User Group meeting on January 12th |
For people who are new to AInspector Sidebar and/or FAE 2.0, have questions about how they works, or what reports are telling them, join us for an teleconference event to learn more about the tools and to ask questions of the developers. No agenda other than to respond to user questions. Date: Thursday, January 12th Time: 2:00pm Central Time (Chicago Local Time) Join online meeting using Skype for Business: https://meet.illinois.edu/jongund/HPHQQGYQ Join by Phone
Conference ID: 6629250 |
| 2016-12-01 | AInspector Sidebar and FAE 2.0 Orientation and User Group meeting on December 8th |
For people who are new to AInspector Sidebar and FAE 2.0 or have questions about how it works or what reports are telling them, join us for an online event to learn more about the tools and to ask questions of the developers. Date: Thursday, December 8th Time: 2:00pm Central Time (Chicago Local Time) Skype Meeting Information This is an online meeting for Skype for Business, the professional meetings and communications app formerly known as Lync: Link: https://meet.illinois.edu/jongund/N372631R Join by phone:
Conference ID: 50760150 |