How to: Check Accessibility of Web Pages in Visual Web Developer
The Microsoft Visual Web Developer Web site development tool includes an accessibility validation tool that you can run to check the HTML markup in a page for conformance to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 (WCAG), priorities 1 and 2, and Section 508 accessibility guidelines. You can check individual pages with the tool, or you can configure your Web site to include an accessibility check each time the page or the Web site is built. For information about accessibility, see Accessibility Support in ASP.NET.
Note
The accessibility checking tool is not available in Visual Web Developer Express edition.
The results of the check are displayed in the Error List window as errors or warnings, depending on the accessibility issues that are identified by the tool.
The accessibility validation tool can check the markup in your pages to ensure that it includes (or does not include) certain elements and attributes that are recommended for accessibility. However, the tool cannot check accessibility of the following:
Colors.
The tool cannot check that you are using color schemes that are within recommended guidelines.
Dynamic content.
If your page creates markup at run time, the tool cannot check the final output of the page.
The accessibility validation tool checks only HTML markup. It does not check ASP.NET Web server controls, because markup is created dynamically by controls (therefore, the tool cannot check the validity of the markup). Also, controls do not have metadata for ASP.NET to create an accessibility schema.
To check accessibility of an individual page
In Visual Web Developer, open the page.
On the View menu, point to Other Windows, and then click Error List.
If you have a Web profile applied, the Error List menu item will be in the View menu.
On the Tools menu, click Check Accessibility.
The Accessibility Validation dialog box appears.
Select the check boxes for the type and level of accessibility checking that you want to perform, and then click Validate.
The results of the check are displayed in the Error List window.
To check pages or the Web site during build
In Solution Explorer, right-click the name of your Web site, and then click Property Pages.
Click Accessibility.
Select the check boxes for the type and level of accessibility checking that you want to perform, and then click Apply.
Click Build.
Select one or both of the following check boxes, depending on whether you want to check individual pages and/or the entire Web site when building the Web site:
Include accessibility validation when building page
Include accessibility validation when building web
Note
If you have build options to not build the Web site or page as a start action, no accessibility validation is performed.
Click OK.