HomeSite was originally created by the Allaire Corporation but is now owned by Macromedia. It is a text based authoring tool for Windows. It was launched as a Shareware product in 1996 and is reported to have more than 200,000 users it provides a wide range of accessibility features Details of the accessibility features that HomeSite contains are given below.
HomeSite is able to generate standards compliant HTML. It is unable to automatically generate the accessibility tags available in the HTML 4.01 specification. It also allows a web developer to enter HTML code that does not a meet the standard for the DOCTYPE. HomeSite allows a web developer to select a template and its corresponding DOCTYPE. A web developer can do this by going to tools and validate current document or validate current tag.
HomeSite does provide prompting for an alt text after an image tag is inserted but it does not provide prompting for any other accessibility features. However it does provides a specific area where web developer can enter accessibility features into the HTML. The majority of page elements e.g. images, tables and forms have an accessibility tab, which allows a web developer to add accessibility features for that particular page element e.g. an alt text for images.
A web developer can easily add an alt text for an image by selecting the HTML for the image and then right-clicking it and selecting validate current tag. A dialog box will then appear the web developer needs to select the accessibility tab. Once this is selected they will be able to enter an alt text for an image in the alt text field.
A web developer can assign cells as table headers can also use the scope attribute to define row and column headers in HomeSite. This can be done in a similar way to entering alt text for an image. The web developer needs to highlight the code in code view and then right-click and select validate current tag. A dialog box will then appear and the web developer will need to select the accessibility tab. They will then be able to enter a title for the table as well as assign headers and if necessary use the scope attribute.
A web developer is able to enter a title for a frame by highlight the frame tag in the HTML and then
right-clicking the mouse and selecting validate current tag. A dialog will then appear where the web
developer will need to select the accessibility tab. Here they will be able to enter a title for the
frame. However HomeSite does not support the NOFRAMES element. If a web developer wishes to use a
HomeSite does not provide a method that a web developer can use to test their page for accessibility. However there are of number tools available on the Internet that allow a web developer to test there pages for accessibility, these are discussed on the automated testing tools page. However it can validate HTML code against the DOCTYPE to check that it is standards compliant.
The HomeSite help files to provide web developers with information about how to make their web pages accessible to the blind and visually impaired. However all this does is direct the user to the W3C’s WCAG 1.0 standard.
More information about HomeSite can be found on the Macromedia HomeSite web page.