[UACCESS-L] Announcing TestPage

[Jamal Mazrui <empower@smart.net>]

Now available at
http://EmpowermentZone.com/tpgsetup.exe

I have developed a Windows program for testing the usability of a web page
and generating a report as a text file.  It is meant to be especially easy
to use.  A further description from the documentation is pasted below.

Jamal

TestPage
Version 1.0
January 31, 2009
Copyright 2009 by Jamal Mazrui
GPL license

TestPage is a command-line utility and dialog interface for doing a
simple, automated test of a web page for problems related to accessibility
for users with disabilities, or to other aspects of HTML validity
according to standards of the World Wide Web Consortium, located at
http://w3.org

The command-line syntax is

TestPage.exe URLPath FilePath

The first parameter specifies the URL to test and the second parameter
specifies the file name of the resulting report.

The TestPage installer, tpgsetup.exe, creates a shortcut for launching an
input box that prompts for the URL to test, which is then passed onto the
command-line utility.  The default hotkey for invoking the input box is
Alt+Control+Shift+T.  This may be changed by modifying properties of the
TestPage shortcut on the Windows desktop.

The installer also creates a TestPage program group in the Windows Start
Menu, with options for launching the program, unstalling it, browsing
generated reports, or reading this documentation.  The default program
folder is
C:\Program Files\TestPage

The TestPage dialog is built with the VBScript language.  As a
convenience, if Internet Explorer is open, the URL of its web page is used
as the default value in the input box.  Also, the domain name of the URL
is used for the file name of the generated report, which is automatically
opened in the default text editor.

The command-line utility, which does the main work, is built with the Ruby
language and several related packages.  Subsequent sections of this
documentation provide more detail using excerpts from material on the web.

Please note that this program is only intended as a convenient, mechanized
test of web accessibility.  Hopefully, its ease of use will enable more
people to do accessibility checks and send them to web developers, as
appropriate.  In addition, since TestPage is open source, programmers are
encouraged to contribute improvements.  A list of more sophisticated and
effective evaluation tools is available at
http://www.w3.org/QA/Tools/