Checklists and guidelines
Guidelines and checklists are an intermediate step on the path to full implementation of accredited standards. They are probably the most common solution available for making accessible interfaces and several guideline sets for designing usable and accessible interfaces for computers are freely available on the Internet. One of the most well known is the Web Accessibility Initiative. If used correctly, they should reduce the need for user trials, although it is unlikely that they will ever fully replace the need for user testing.
However, there is no guarantee that the assessor will interpret the checklist or guidelines correctly, and there is often no mechanism for double-checking. Guidelines and checklists are best viewed as a resource to dip into to answer specific questions rather than as the central core of the design and assessment processes.