Web Accessibility and Content Management Systems

Why and how to implement accessibility into Content Management System Development

Transcript

1. Web Accessibility and Content Management Systems By Nicolas Steenhout At Open Source Developers Conference 2008
2. Accessibility & CMS Nicolas Steenhout  Disability Advocate  Physical  Internet  Web Geek  1993  HTML 1  1996 – first awareness
3. Accessibility & CMS Analogies From “Real World”
4. Accessibility & CMS What is Web Accessibility?  Several meanings:  Able to get online  Site up and running  Etc  Accessibility is:  An accessible website is a site that people with disabilities can use.
5. Accessibility & CMS Who is Accessibility For?  Visual, Hearing, Physical, Sensory, Learning  Non-native language speakers  Alternate devices – Cellphones, PDAs  Search engines  Your server & bandwidth
6. Accessibility & CMS Legal Environment  Legislation in varying countries  §508 vs. WCAG vs. ???  Which sites do regulation apply to?  Sydney 2000 Olympics website  Target  Global situation
7. Accessibility & CMS Why Should We Care?  Increased target market (20%) for users  Getting into new markets for CMS (education, government, NGO)  Legality (who gets sued?)  Right thing to do – corporate responsibility
8. Accessibility & CMS Basic & Easy Access Checks  Visit site on text-only browser (Lynx)  Visit site on PDA or cell-phone  Navigate site with keyboard only  Turn CSS off  Turn images off  Turn Javascript off
9. Accessibility & CMS Accessibility & CMS – Front-end  Front-end should allow visitors to use the site.  CMS itself not accessible  Provide tools for site owners to make accessible front-end  Guideline – WCAG 1.0 or WCAG 2.0
10. Accessibility & CMS Accessibility & CMS – Back-end  People with disabilities may be content managers  Limiting markets  Guidelines WCAG & ATAG
11. Accessibility & CMS Accessibility & CMS – Fancy stuff  Graceful degradation  Progressive enhancement  WAI-Aria  Fancy stuff vs. Usability vs. Accessibility
12. Accessibility & CMS Guidelines – Be Aware  Guidelines not definite/complete  Some guidelines are old  Some guidelines not complete  Be all and end all?  Guidelines vs. Best Practices
13. Accessibility & CMS Implementation Scope  How much to implement?  Old code – Refactoring or rewrite?  New code – Planning  Feature creep
14. Accessibility & CMS Concerned Parties – Buy-in  Development team  Everyone on the same page  Knowledge  3rd Party developers  Buy-in to changes  Knowledge  Users  Push vs pull  Unobtrusive changes benefit those needing it
15. Accessibility & CMS Technical Know-how  Accessibility is specialist topic  Treating accessibility like usability – no-no  Basic skills for all  Mission critical issues
16. Accessibility & CMS Documenting Changes  Internal documentation  New developers  Revisiting changes down the track  Ongoing learning  External documentation  Track changes for users (themes/skins/etc)  Tutorials for adapting existing designs
17. Accessibility & CMS Trust  Lack of trust between team members  Accessibility is “fluff”  Code jockeys “don’t get it”  Planning  Communication
18. Accessibility & CMS Technological Conflicts  Using technology just because it exists  AJAX vs Accessibility  Priorities – how to decide?  Graceful degradation vs progressive enhancement
19. Accessibility & CMS Working with Old Code  Legacy code problematic  Organic growth  Bits of code left in – no one knows why  Code/database structure limiting expansion  Limit to how much improvement - rewrite
20. Accessibility & CMS Backward Compatibility  Demand for backward compatibility  Just *what* do users really want?  How long do we keep compatible?  Ability to upgrade easily
21. Accessibility & CMS Challenge, Questions, and Discussion  Implement 5 critical accessibility improvements on your site or project this month!  Please raise questions not addressed during presentation.  Nic is available to discuss further during conference, or by email (nic@accessibility.net.nz).