Starting well on design for accessibility: analysis of W3C's 167 accessibility evaluation tools for the design phase

Accessibility can be overlooked in the Design-phase in creating digital products. This can lead to increased costs when problems are discovered later in product development or deployment. Our work aimed to discover how well the 167 W3C accessibility evaluation tools support the Design-phase. Using Grounded Theory, we identified key characteristics of the tools and their support. We found that just 30 (18%) of the tools support the Design-phase; by contrast, 128 (76.5%) support the Later-phases. Of the 30 tools supporting the Design-phase, 25 (83%) support color checks but few support the other W3C basic design considerations. Our key contributions are: (1) our comprehensive study of the 167 W3C accessibility evaluation tools; (2) our insights about their support for the Design-phase; (3) recommendations for improved support for accessibility in the Design-phase.