Category Archives: W3C

Overview on How to Use the W3C Link Checker

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I thought I would write up how I’m checking broken or redirected links on my website. Or more importantly, on my list of places to eat at Gotta Eat Here.

For many years I have been using the W3C Link Checker to check one page/URL at a time for Gotta Eat Here or many on my website or slides.

The tool has a few options that you can play around with, but I leave them as the default. You can even check a box to save the options as a cookie, which I assume stores your choices if you decide to use them.

The one option I use would be the “Check linked documents recursively, recursion depth:”. That has an INPUT field of how many levels you want to go down in your website.

After entering a URL in the URL field, you can decide if you want to check more than one page or not. To do so, then check the “Check linked documents recursively, recursion depth:” field. NOTE – You can only check pages that are not behind a firewall.

I can’t remember exactly, but it used to let you check 200 or 250 pages at once time. This is great if you want to submit it and let it wander through your website looking for broken links.

I use that feature when I’m checking my entire website. You can also submit your website in chunks using the folder structure you have set up and start with them.

I haven’t paid attention if doing so will jump out of that folder. or not if links go to other places in your website. Here’s hoping there’s an option for that in the list of checkboxes.

How it works is the W3C Link Checker goes through all the links on a page. The tool will tell you if the link is broken or redirected, not allowed to be checked by tools like it, etc. An example would be Google maps does not let you check or Twitter, etc.

For the redirected links, it’s great to point out issues on your website. For example, that a Twitter link might still have the URL as HTTP instead of HTTPS.

I have found that most redirect issues are either the website is now using HTTPS, or they changed platforms. Meaning they switched to PHP from HTML or something like that. Or maybe the website in the case Gotta Eat Here the restaurants got better URLs. That is either shorter and easier to remember or got they got the .COM of what they used to have.

The W3C Link Checker gives you a summary of how long it took to check all the links on a given page or set of pages. The report lists the page(s) it’s processed and what it found. Then at the end, it has a total time to process is doing more than one page.

Using the W3C Link Checker is excellent for the Gotta Eat Here website. It allows me to check my list of restaurants, be that by city or state. The tool gives me an idea that the place might have closed during the pandemic if the URL is broken.

Your Website Needs Color and Contrast

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NOTE – I found this old blog post in my drafts, so I did some time editing it, link checking, etc., and hit publish of an old draft.

To Read Your Content

To allow people to read your content, you need to make sure to have the color contrast as high as possible. So people can read what you have written. It shouldn’t be so high that it bothers people with low vision. Were too much contrast makes it difficult for them to read.

Putting light text on pastel or light backgrounds is not good for some people. You also have to think about the different types of color deficiencies (colorblindness). Meaning you don’t want to have red text on a green background, etc.

A Useful Tool

Below are a few different tools I use to check color contrast. The color contrast tool I use the most is Jonathan Snook’s web-based “Colour Contrast Tool”.  It’s the tool I use to check color contrast for the development team at work or if I have chosen will work.

W3C Recommendation for Color Contrast

Here’s the W3C recommended values from the WCAG 2.0 – 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum) Level AA.

Following these guidelines ensures that foreground and background color combinations provide enough contrast. This pertains to those with color deficiencies. To pass your text and background need to have a color contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 or higher to pass.

How High Should Your Color Contrast Be

You also have to think about how the web page or application is going to be used. Now, if it a heat index application that is likely going to be used outdoors. You have to consider most high heat index days will probably be in bright sunlight. So blaring sunny will not work well with a contrast ratio that passes b a little bit.

Color Deficiency or Colorblindness

Another tool is the “Color Oracle.” It’s used to simulate different types of colorblindness. They have Windows, Mac, and Linux versions created by Bernhard Jenny, Oregon State University (programming), Nathaniel Vaughn Kelso, and Stamen Design, San Francisco (ideas, testing, and icon).  The application places a color overlay for your entire main screen. You can set up different PF or function keys to turn on and off different types of colorblindness masks easily.

Doing this allows you to check against the three main types of color blindness. About 10% of the population is colorblind. Most of them are males. The three main types of color blindness are:

  • Deuteranopia or deuteranomaly (a form of red/green color deficit) – 7.5% of all males.
  • Protanopia or protanomaly (another form of red/green color deficit) – 2.5% of all males.
  • Tritanopia (a blue/yellow deficit- very rare) – Less than 0.3% of women and men.

More Tools

Next is the full list of tools I would you for building websites. Your choice will depend on how you work and what’s best for you.

I hope these tools are helpful to you in checking for color contrast issues.

Additional Reading

For a more detailed look at color contrast, you need to read Todd Libby’s color contrast article called “Contrasting Accessibility with Color Contrast“. You should also follow him on Twitter at @ToddLibby.

Any Recommendations

If you have any other tools that you use and think I should checkout, please leave a comment, and I will give them a look.