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Accessibility, Joomla! Markup languages and you. Joshue O Connor Senior A11y Consultant NCBI Centre for Inclusive Technology CFIT.ie @joshueoconnor. Complete The Jigsaw. The key to the web is it’s Universality. How to make this a reality?. Proper use of technology is key.
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Accessibility, Joomla! Markup languages and you Joshue O Connor Senior A11y Consultant NCBI Centre for Inclusive Technology CFIT.ie @joshueoconnor Complete The Jigsaw
Whats good about Joomla! and A11y • Simple • Relatively Accessible Backend • Able to combine CSS output with semantically well formed HTML
What can be improved? • Colour contrast in backend. • Make the Accessible Backend more accessible (use of ARIA/HTML5) • Use WYSIWYG that help you author accessible content
Hathors A11y Improvements to 1.6 • On all pages • Skip to Content • Status Module has text • Accessible Menu • Submenus Accessible (some require *core changes) • Toolbars in a list • Appropriate structural headers • Colors pass WCAG 2.0 AA tests
Hathors A11y Improvements to 1.6 • *Accordion panels can be opened by keyboard • *Titles on initial checkboxes in tabular data • WAI-ARIA Roles on structural segments • WAI-ARIA Property/States on Required & Read only form fields • *WAI-ARIA Property/States to flag invalid forms fields • *Removal of jump menu on the "number of pages to display" selection • On pages with template overrides • Appropriate structural headers • Labels for form fields • Titles on form fields for tabular data • Removal of various jump menus that jump you back to the top of the page • Removed tables that were only for layout • For more see http://community.joomla.org/gsoc2009/andrea-tarr.html
Beez A11y Template [Angie Radtke / Robert Deutz Go to http://www.joomla-beez.com/]
What can you do?? • Roll your own accessible template • Separation Anxiety: No Layout Tables (where possible but not a show stopper), use semantically correct HTML and CSS • Using Headings to communicate structure • Choose a suitable Colour Scheme • Ensure good Colour contrast (create a high colour contrast style switcher if possible)
What can you do?? • Markup lists, data tables, form controls correctly • Use alternate text to describe functional graphics – not what they look like • Use descriptive link text • Include the document type and size in an URL for a downloadable doc [PDF, 1.1 Mbs] • Use null alt=“” values for decorative images • Use the validator but remember that validation != a11y
Some useful tools.. • The WAVE Toolbar.. • http://wave.webaim.org/
More tools.. • Juicy Studio Colour Contrast Analyser • Juicystudio.com
Free Screen readers.. • NVDA • http://www.nvda-project.org/
Free Screen readers.. • ORCA • http://projects.gnome.org/orca/
A11y now and tomorrow • Follow best practice (Web Standards) • Explore WAI-ARIA [1] [2] • Start using HTML5 when, and as needed. • HTML 5 is NOT an a11y silver bullet • [1] http://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/aria • [2] http://dev.opera.com/articles/view/introduction-to-wai-aria/ • Use common sense as a guide • Get involved in the community • Use a WYSIWYG that supports a11y • Create accessible offline documents [PDF etc]
What is WAI-ARIA? • It was a bridging technology • Used to supply semantics to Web 2.0 type widgets • Allows you to describe the ‘role’, ‘state’ and ‘properties’ of custom components • WAI-ARIA is now a part of HTML 5 • Well worth exploring as it has a rich set of semantics • Good support in browsers and AT (getting better)
HTML 5 and a11y • More semantics • <div> type elements that you use now have elements like, <header>, <footer>, <nav> (no content element) • New APIs for client side processing • There are challenges for a11y such as <canvas> • Much best practice from HTML4/XHTML 1 can be used in HTML 5, but there is a learning curve • Not great AT support yet
THANKS! Questions, Brickbats etc? Please feel free to drop me a line.. Joshue O Connor Senior A11y Consultant NCBI Centre for Inclusive Technology CFIT.ie Twitter: @joshueoconnor