Tuesday, September 30, 2025

Setting up your Tier1 testing environment is a straightforward four-step process:

Choose a browser

The Tier1 Testing Protocol is designed to work well with Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge. You can use either or both of these, but their environments need to be set up separately.

Install the Siteimprove Accessibility Checker

Installing the Siteimprove Accessibility Checker is a similar process for both browsers:

  • Browse to the Siteimprove Accessibility Checker [Chrome] [Edge]
  • Use the GET button to add the extension to your browser
  • Pin the extension to your browser’s toolbar
    • Chrome
      • Enter chrome://extensions into the address bar
      • Locate the Siteimprove extension
      • Pin the extension to the toolbar
    • Edge
      • Enter edge://extensions into the address bar
      • Locate the Siteimprove extension
      • Pin the extension to the toolbar

Download the Tier1 Setup Package

The Tier1 setup package include two core components:

The Tier 1 testing Instrument is an Interactive Microsoft Excel workbook designed to guide testers through a rapid sequence of manual testing tasks for web content and applications. It Is not Intended to provide an In-depth analysis of a web site or application but to complement automated testing and provide a general sense of a system's accessibility.

Tler1 Bookmarks Is an HTML document containing bookmarks you import to your browser to support different testing tasks. The bookmarks generate overlays that help a tester to make a quick assessment of a website or application's accessibility. The bookmarks Include Easy Checks. a product of the World Wide Web Consonlum's Web Accessibility Initiative (W3C WAI), and Hawk Checks. developed at the University of Iowa.

Download the Tier1 Setup Package

Import accessibility bookmarks

Unzip the Tier1 Setup package to a folder of your choosing. The Excel Instrument is ready to use but you must first import the accessibility bookmarks to your browser.

  1. In your browser. use keyboard command SHIFT +CONTROL+O to open your bookmark manager.
    1. In Chrome: Open the three dots in Bookmarks and choose “Import Bookmarks"
    2. In Edge, open the three dots In Favorites and choose "Import Favorites·. In the Favorites window, select any of the Import Data options. Use the “Import From” dropdown to select "Favorites or Bookmarks HTML·file”.
  2. Browse to the folder where you placed Tier1_Bookmarks.html and select it
  3. The Tier 1 bookmarks are added to your Bookmarks tool bar.

When you've finished setting up your Tier 1 testing environment, you're ready to begin testing web content and applications.