Skill Level: Appropriate for all
Web Audit helps site administrators and developers maintain their sites by running automatic audits to find problems with HTML markup, accessibility, UNL web standards, and broken links. It also provides a registry of sites at UNL, which can be used as a WHOIS service or as a source of role assignments that can be used by other systems like UNL Chat.
Why should I use Web Audit?
- To ensure a consistent experience: UNL’s web quality assurance effort provides developers with information needed to maintain a consistent, high-quality user experience for site visitors.
- To ensure device compatibility: By maintaining high compliance to international standards for code validity, unl.edu is usable on all modern, standards-compliant browsers.
- To do the right thing: The UNLedu Web Framework, as delivered to developers, is in compliance with current web accessibility standards and laws, and incorporates some technologies that provide additional benefit to persons using assistive technologies. The framework also incorporates integrations with UNL’s single sign-on service for authentication. By ensuring that your sites meet these international standards and laws, you will ensure that everyone has equal access to the information and services you provide.
- To make websites awesome: By using Web Audit, you will ensure that your site is of the highest quality. You will be notified when problems that could frustrate visitors arise.
Metrics
UNL Web Audit uses several metrics when scanning a site to find potential problems. Those metrics are:
- UNLedu Framework Checker: The UNLedu Framework Checker scans your site for issues relating to UNLedu specific web standards. Specifically, it checks for compliance with the framework Terms of Use and Standards Guide.
- Link Checker: The Link Checker scans your site for broken links. Broken links linclude 400 (page not found) and 500 (server) level errors, however redirects are also reported as notices because they can lead to 404s in the future. Often times all of your links will work when you first create a site, but over time the pages that you link to will move or be deleted.
- W3C Validator: The W3C Validator scans your site for errors HTML code. These errors can lead to problems such as undesirable styling and broken content.
- Accessibility Checker: The Accessibility Checker scans your site for accessibility problems. The problems that this metric finds can prevent visitors that use assistive technology or have varying levels of disabilities (such as motor control or visual impairments) from using your site.
How to get help
To get help with Web Audit, please ask your question in the WDN Chat.
Contributed By: IIM