Using Automated Tools to Improve Web Site Usage by Users with Diverse Abilities

The World Wide Web plays an important role in our society—enabling broader access to information and services than was previously available. However, Website usability and accessibility are still a problem. Numerous, automated, evaluation and transformation tools are available to help Web developers build better sites for users with diverse needs. A survey of these automated tools is presented in the context of the user abilities they support. Furthermore, the efficacy of a subset of these tools based on empirical studies is discussed, along with ways to improve existing tools and future research areas.