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Making Accessible Drupal Sites

Making Accessible Drupal Sites. Rick Ells UW Technology. About Drupal. Standards Based; xhtml, css, PHP Large user community Many templates to choose from Many modules to choose from. Drupal Is Cool. Centralized management Templates and modules Styles Scripting

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Making Accessible Drupal Sites

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  1. Making Accessible Drupal Sites Rick EllsUW Technology

  2. About Drupal • Standards Based; xhtml, css, PHP • Large user community • Many templates to choose from • Many modules to choose from

  3. Drupal Is Cool • Centralized management • Templates and modules • Styles • Scripting • Content creation, editing, and maintenance can be done without technical Web knowledge • Changes in styles, layout can be done across the site without content maintainers involvement

  4. …More Cool • Information management • Categories • Taxonomies • Keywords • Navigation structures generated for you • Easy to add Web2.0 features

  5. …Even More Cool • Authentication, roles • Workflow • Customization based on default designs, templates, styles • Intercepts, overrides, and subthemes

  6. Being Accessible WCAG 2.0 Guidelines • Perceivable • Operable • Understandable • Robust Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/

  7. Accessible Design Efficiency • Templates, stylesheets, modules can address many aspects of accessible design • Content authors and editors do not have to know as much about… • Skip to content • Font sizing • Color choices • Labeling, Alt texts • Semantic markup • Page layout

  8. Steps to Accessible Design • Install • Update • Select theme • Add modules • Build blocks • Apply your design

  9. 1. Install • Installing Drupalhttp://www.washington.edu/computing/web/publishing/drupal.html • SQL Databasehttp://www.washington.edu/computing/web/publishing/mysql.html

  10. 2. Update • Updates are essential • Each time the administrator logs in Drupal will display messages of needed updates • Do them promptly

  11. 3. Select Theme • Tables or tableless? • Tableless layouts best, especially if fluid • Controllable with CSS • Reading order can be independent of layout position • Fluid sizing allows scaling by user as needed • Table layout not so good • Imposes reading sequence • Presentation only somewhat controllable with CSS • Nested tables bad • Navigation nightmare • Many theme design philosophies

  12. Managing Themes

  13. Accessible Themes Box_grey Theme Blue Bars Theme Blue Lake Theme Celju Theme Clean Theme CWS Theme Flexible 2 Theme Genesis Theme Pluralism Theme Pixture Reloaded Theme Tendu Theme Zen Theme The Eleven Most Accessible Drupal 6 Themeshttp://openconcept.ca/blog/mgifford/function_assessment_of_valid_drupal_6_themes

  14. Theme Problems • Non-nested use of h-elements • One h1 per page; main topic • h2; subtopics • h3; subsubtopics, etc. • Inconsistencies among modules in how headings are done • Deeply nested tables • Not specifying default language

  15. 4. Add Modules • Hundreds of modules are available • Offer a wide range of functionality • Editors, games, feeds, tools • Most are standards compliant • Problem: Inconsistent implementations among modules • Frequently updated

  16. Managing Modules

  17. 5. Build Blocks • Blocks contain the code fragments for the different areas of your layout • Blocks are placed in page regions • Must be well-formed and strictly compliant to fit in context • Structured, semantic markup very desireable to get CSS to work • How you add things like “Skip to Content”

  18. Semantic Markup • Use elements according to their logical type • Make headings with h-elements, not big bold paragraphs • Properly nest h-elements • H1 is the main page topic, h2s are subtopics, h3s are subsubtopics, etc. • Choose a content editor that makes semantic markup possible, even if you have to go into html mode sometimes

  19. 6. Apply Your Design • Use subtheme, intercept, and override methods • Never modify original templates, stylesheets, • Customize templates • Customize CSS • Layout adjustments • Color scheme • Font size • Contrast

  20. Color Scheme • Color Selection: Consider the colorblind

  21. Color Scheme • Contrast: 5:1 or more for text:background contrast

  22. Maintaining Accessibility • Do • Validate all modifications - strictly compliant • Choose editor that makes semantic HTML • Consider content flow in page structure • Add aids such as “Skip to Content” • Use semantic markup • Use scripting libraries and methods that support accessibility

  23. Maintaining Accessibility • Don’t • Invent non-semantic elements (divs) when appropriate semantic elements are available • Used fixed sizes • Reduce contrast for artistic effect • Put essential content exclusively in media • Have visual media without captioning

  24. Drupal Accessibility Activity • Accessibility Grouphttp://groups.drupal.org/accessibility • The Eleven Most Accessible Drupal 6 Themeshttp://openconcept.ca/blog/mgifford/function_assessment_of_valid_drupal_6_themes • Accessibility Best Practices in Drupal Theminghttp://szeged2008.drupalcon.org/program/sessions/accessibility-best-practices-drupal-theming

  25. Evaluating Your Drupal Site • WAVEhttp://wave.webaim.org/ • Functional Accessibility Evaluatorhttp://fae.cita.uiuc.edu/ • WebAnywherehttp://wa.cs.washington.edu • Yellowpipe Lynx Viewerhttps://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1944 • Wickline Colorlabhttp://colorlab.wickline.org/colorblind/colorlab/ • Paciello Group Color Contrast Analyzerhttp://www.paciellogroup.com/resources/contrast-analyser.html

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