Using Deque Ramp Ascend
Evaluation and Analysis

Step #1: Set compliance level

Go to the Tools Menu (Alt+O) to set accessibility options and other preferences. Deque Ramp Ascend offers three choices from the Tools Menu under Accessibility Options:

• Section 508 (shortcut key = Alt+S) is the default choice)
• Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 (WCAG group, shortcut key = Alt+W).
• both Section 508 + WCAG, (shortcut key = Alt+G).

A slide bar lets you select Level A, Level AA or Level AAA when WCAG has been selected. You can do this by using the left and right arrow keys as well.

Step #2: Set analysis options

After setting the conformance level, you can review and change the settings based on which Deque Ramp Ascend performs its analysis. For instance, if you have selected Section 508 as the conformance level, the analysis tab lists the paragraphs (a) through (p) that make up the Standards. There is a checkbox for every paragraph - if it is unchecked, Deque Ramp Ascend will not test the web page for compliance against that paragraph. For example, if the site or folder you are evaluating does not have any multi-media content, you can make the analysis process more efficient by un-checking paragraph (b) which deals with multi-media content.

Additionally, some of the paragraphs have one or more checkboxes under them that are presented only if the checkbox for the paragraph is checked. These represent sub-choices for the tests you might like Deque Ramp Ascend to test for. For instance under Paragraph (a) that requires equivalent text to be defined for images, buttons and such non-text elements, two of the several options read as under:

• allow null for alt text (alt=""), and
• allow blank for alt text (alt=" ")

The former is checked by default but the second one is not. So if the alt for an image on the web page being tested has alt=" ", Deque Ramp Ascend will flag it as a violation. These choices are necessary because experts interpret the accessibility rules differently. These options are therefore very useful to control the evaluation process.

To summarize, if you do not want Deque Ramp Ascend to check for accessibility violations under specific paragraphs (of the Section 508 accessibility standards) or specific checkpoints (of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0), simply uncheck the corresponding boxes in the Tools Menu under the Analysis Tab of Accessibility Options.

Besides, there are buttons that let you:

• reset to the factory defaults (Alt+D),
• check all the checkboxes with a single button i.e. all paragraphs and the checkboxes under them (Alt+A),
• an OK button (Alt+O), and
• a Cancel button (Alt+C)

Step #3: Specify web page/site to analyze

Enter the URL of a web page you wish to check for accessibility in the URL edit box combo. The edit box can be accessed by using the shortcut key Alt+U as well. If it is a web page you had analyzed earlier, you can select it from the drop down list. The web page can also be on your local server. The file to be tested can be an HTML file or even an ASP or JSP or CFM file on the web or local web server. HTML files in any folder on your desktop too can be analyzed.

Step #4: Set link level for spidering a website

After entering the URL and setting or confirming the options, you are ready to run the accessibility analysis for a web page. Ensure that the link level is set to the default zero. Alt+K or shift+tab moves the focus to the link level combo if the focus is on the URL edit combo.

On the other hand, if you are analyzing a website, move to the Link Level combo (Alt+K is the short-cut key or press shift+tab after entering the URL). Change the link level to a number greater than zero (1 to 4 or All). A link level of 1 will make Deque Ramp Ascend evaluate the specified web page and all the pages that are the target of the links on that page, or in other words, links that are one level deep. A link level of 2 will make Deque Ramp Ascend evaluate all web pages that are two levels deep and so forth.

Restricting spidering to certain virtual folders

The Spidering Tab under the Accessibility Options lets you restrict the spidering to certain virtual directories on the website. For instance, let's say you wish to analyze all pages on http://abc.com that are within the products folder or services folder. You can accomplish this quite easily with Deque Ramp Ascend: just add these folder names to the list of directories to which Ramp should restrict its spidering to. Since spidering is only applicable to the HTTP or HTTPS protocols, you can only specify the directories you wish to include in your spidering as an URL.

Note: This feature works only when you are analyzing a live website and not a local folder on your computer.

Analyzing a folder locally

Select the Analyze Directory option in the File Menu (Alt+F, then I). Enter the name of the folder to be analyzed or browse to it using the browse button. The folder must be on your local machine. If you wish to include sub-folders in the analysis, then check the box before commencing the analysis. Deque Ramp Ascend will take quite a while to analyze a folder with many files in it. In such a case, it is a good idea to analyze the sub-folders separately. This makes the subsequent analysis-review and remediation processes easier to manage.

Step #5: Start the analysis

Note:If you plan to use Ramp Ascend to fix accessibility violations, you need to review the remediation options under the Remediation Tab of the Accessibility Options before you proceed to analyze the web content.

Click the Analyze button (Alt+Z) to start the analysis.

Deque Ramp Ascend will take a few moments to analyze a web page if a single page is being evaluated with link level set to zero. It will take quite a while to analyze a large website especially if the selected link level is high. The time depends on the number of pages,their sizes and the analysis options selected. Deque Ramp Ascend displays the page count and the progress with a "Please wait" message on the status bar during this process. Therefore, it is a good idea to analyze different sections of the website in chunks. This also makes the subsequent analysis-review and remediation processes easier to manage. Note that while spidering a website, Deque Ramp Ascend will ignore links whose domain is different from that of the URL specified.

The URLs will appear in the site explorer or navigation panel as soon as the accessibility evaluation is over. When you click on one of the URLs listed in the site explorer (or move to it with the right arrow) you will see the source code for the page and a listing of the violations if any. If you had turned on the Interactive Checks option, you will be presented with a list of questions that need to be answered before Deque Ramp Ascend is able to determine if any of them constitute an accessibility barrier.

Step #6: Review interactive checks

Once you have pulled in your web content, Ramp generates a list of violations and warnings. In the bottom left hand corner of the integrated workspace, you will also be provided a list of interactive checks that you must answer to complete the analysis of your files. In certain cases, human judgment is needed to determine if certain web content is accessible or not. Here are some examples:

• Deque Ramp Ascend can detect that color has been used in the content but cannot determine if it is being used exclusively to convey some meaning.
• Human judgment is needed to say whether a noscript attribute is needed to make a Javascript accessible.
• Deque Ramp Ascend can determine the difference between a layout table and a data table with a fair degree of reliability but needs human confirmation in some cases.

In such circumstances it poses specific questions to you - the human evaluator. Based on the answer, it determines if it is a barrier to accessibility and if so, adds a violation or warning to the list of the ones already detected by it.

It is recommended that you open the current file in a browser window as you answer the interactive checks. The checks correspond to source code that you may view in the Original Source Tab in the top right hand portion of the workspace. When you have cycled through all the interactive checks, select Done and then proceed to produce reports and fix your content. Note that you can hit the Done button even after answering some of the questions and leaving the rest unanswered if you are unsure. They will be marked with the default answer - Decide Later. To revise your answer for a question you have already answered, visit the Manage Menu - it will have a new menu item: Manage Interactive Questions. Selecting it will present the questions that are no longer in the Interactive Questions Panel.

Step #7: Review results - the Reports Menu

From the Reports Menu, you can generate several reports at the site level and at the individual file level. These address information needs of managers, content authors and accessibility reviewers. After generating a report you can print out the report, save it to a folder or view it in a browser. Reports can be generated at the "site" level (i.e. for all files analyzed in a site) or for an individual file. The focus has to be on the site in the Site Explorer Panel in order to generate site level reports. Three site level reports are featured here with brief descriptions against each of them. Equivalent reports are available for individual files and can be generated for the file that has focus in the site explorer panel.

1. Violations Where Found All Files

   This report summarizes the violations across the site and for every page that has violations. The count is broken down into count of violations that can be auto-fixed by Ramp Ascend and count of those that can be fixed through a wizard interface. The line numbers where the violations occur are listed at the file level. This overview of the accessibility barriers and the method of repair is of great use to a supervisor.

2. Violations Code All Files

   This report serves the needs of developers as it lists individual violations with line numbers and source code separately for every page analyzed. This report can be saved in XML format also.

3. Interactive Checks All Files

   This report lists the interactive checks separately for all the web pages analyzed. A summary showing the count against the different questions generated across the site is presented at the beginning of the report. The responses against every question are noted at the file level. This report can be generated irrespective of the status of the checkbox to display interactive checks in the view menu.

Step #8: Save your work

Deque Ramp Ascend lists the web page(s) analyzed in the site node panel under a site labeled "New Site" by default. You might instead like to assign the site a name that reflects the identity of the pages analyzed. You can do this while saving the site using the Save Site option in the File Menu. Alternatively, you could rename a site from the File Menu and then save it. The file is saved with a .ramp extension. The Open File option lets you access the contents of a saved file.