Giving Nested Layers the Fuseboot Accessibility and 508 easily with ColdFusion

1. www.asciences.com Voice 301.571.0240 Fax 301.571.0264 Giving Nested Layers the FusebootAccessibility and 508 easily with ColdFusion Sandra Clark Senior Software Developer Analytical Sciences, Inc. sclark@asciences.com Enhancing human health through innovative science, technology and knowledge solutions

2. Overview • Accessibility and Speech Browsers • 508 and WAI • Survey • Stop Designing for the Browser • The Good and the Bad of Fusebox • A Better Way • Exceptions to the Rule

3. Why are Accessible Web Sites Important • Accessible Web Sites are important for all types of web sites. • 15 – 30% of the general population have functional limitations that can affect their ability to use technology products (http://isoc.org/briefings/002) • Accessibility helps those who: • Cannot use a mouse (only have access to keyboards) • Are blind • Have other vision impairments • Are Deaf • Are Color Blind.

4. What is 508 and WAI • Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act Amendment of 1998 requires that US Federal Agencies and covered entities must make their electronic technology and information accessible to people with Disabilities • WAI (Web Accessibility Initiative) by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) • WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) • Deals with the authoring of web standards.

5. Other countries have or are adopting and require adherence to either the WCAG or something similar. The United States isn’t Alone • Australia (W3C WCAG) • Canada (W3C WCAG Priority 1 and 2 checkpoints) • EU (W3C WCAG Priority 1) • Belgium • Denmark • Finland • France (WC3 WCAG) • Germany • Greece • Japan • Ireland • Italy (WCAG) • Luxemburg • Netherlands • New Zealand • Portugal (WCAG) • Singapore • Spain (WCAG) • Sweden • United Kingdom (WCAG)

6. Survey • In December 2002, I surveyed the entry home pages of 204 Federal Cabinet and their Departments. • These are the entities REQUIRED to comply with Section 508 • Validated with a number of readers • Bobby (Online 508 and WAI Validator) • Simply Web 2000 (Free Speech Browser) • pw Web Speak (Free, discontinued Speech Browser) • IBM Home Page Reader (Speech Browser) • Lynx (Text Only Browser)

7. Survey Results • Out of 204 Web Sites Surveyed • Bobby Approved • 77 pages passed (38%) • Simply Web 2000 • 5 pages passed (2%) • pwWebSpeak • 50 pages passed (25%) • IBM Home Page Reader • 58 pages passed (28%) • Lynx • 182 pages passed (89%)

8. GUESS WHAT? • LYNX IS NOT A Speech Browser! • Having something readable in Lynx is not indicative that it will be readable in a Screen reader.

9. Validating Accessibility • Validating Accessibility is like Validating a Web Site. • Use Validation Testing • Bobby or UsableNet’s Lift • Different Speech Browsers • But who has the time and money to test to make sure it works everywhere? • This is what happens when people design sites for the letter of the law rather than the spirit.

10. Designing to the letter of the law • MEANS: • The HTML passes Bobby. • It works in the one screen reader you tested for and that’s the one you tell everyone to use. • If you get sued, you can point to the above two points and hope its enough for the judge.

11. Designing to the Spirit of the Law • MEANS • That the content of your web site or application can be read and understood no matter what type of browser is being used. • That all disabled persons have the same type of access to your web site as able bodied people. • You don’t have to worry about convincing a judge because there is no reason for a lawsuit based on accessibility issues.

12. How can we do that? • JavaScript is only used for nice-to-haves and the absence of it does not diminish the usability of your site. • This covers DHTML. If you must have a DHTML menu have a link at the top letting people use another menuing system. • Plug ins must be accessible or there must be equivalent content in an accessible format. • The most important thing we can do is:

13. Stop Designing to the Browser • Remember the browser wars? • Marquee and Blink? • I remember signing a petition asking Netscape and MS to make their browsers work with standards • They did (MS IE 6, Netscape 7 and Opera 6) are compliant. • Guess What? • We aren’t taking advantage of this • We still design for the browser. • DESIGN TO THE STANDARD

14. Design to the Standards • What "Standards"? • When we speak about "standards" for the Web, we mean: • Structural Languages • XHTML • Extensible Hypertext Markup Language 1.0 and 1.1 • http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1 • http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml11 • XML • Extensible Markup Language 1.0 • http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/REC-xml-20001006 • Presentation Languages • CSS • Cascading Style Sheets Levels 1 and 2 • http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-CSS1 • http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-CSS2 • as well as emerging standards, such as those for television and PDA based browsers.

15. Why design to the standard • “Designing and building with these standards simplifies and lowers the cost of production, while delivering sites that are accessible to more people and more types of Internet devices. Sites developed along these lines will continue to function correctly as traditional desktop browsers evolve, and as new Internet devices come to market.” • http://www.webstandards.org

16. Using Nested Tables for Layouts • Most of us use tables for layout. • This is not what tables in HTML were designed for • By using tables for layouts, we are not only limiting ourselves, but we are limiting the ways in which our work can be utilized. • Tables are limiting, the web is designed to be limitless.

17. Separating Content from Presentation • Content is the most important aspect of the web. • What you get is more important than how you see it. • Separating Content from Presentation gives you • Increased accessibility • Improved Performance • Easier initial work and easier maintenance.

18. CSS and Positioning • By using Cascading Style Sheets for positioning and design, we are truly separating content from presentation. • All Major Browsers (IE 6, Netscape 7, Opera 6) support CSS-2 (which includes Positioning). • XHTML requires CSS for all presentation in its strict format. • CSS-2 allows different style sheets to be employed for different media. • Change the way your page looks on a printer without changing the page.

19. Fusebox and Nested Layouts BAD • The Fusebox philosophy encourages separation of business logic from presentation logic which is good. • With CFMX, Macromedia is also encouraging separation of the two tiers with CFC’s. • However, Fusebox 3 incorporates Nested Layouts which by design encourages Nested Tables.

20. What's good about Fusebox • Everything BUT Nested Layouts!

21. Keeping the good, booting the bad • Don’t let Fusebox handle the layouts • Capture the layouts into Streams

22. Problems with this technique • Need to design your circuits with layout in mind rather than functionality. • It’s a kludge to get around an architectural problem rather than simply a solution. • The top level circuit can’t have any real code in it.

23. Finding a better way • Find a technique that • allows me to capture my output streams when I want to. • allows me to design my applications based on functionality rather than the output. • allows me to separate out my business logic from my presentation logic from my content. • THE SOLUTION WAS OUT THERE

24. FUSEQ! • Introduced by John Quarto-vonTivadar in May 2002 at CF North in Toronto. • A derivative of the Fusebox 3 core file which, while fully compliant with FB3, also has exciting and necessary enhancements which allow more flexibility in design. • Makes design patterns like MVC easy! • Fully allows for separating presentation and content which are necessary for fully accessible and compliant web sites.

25. What about Netscape 4? • Browser Statistics from thecounter.com shows that Netscape usage has gone from 5.4% usage in 11/2001 to 2.3% in 11/2002 • Netscape and MSIE 4 and older editions do not support CSS 2.

26. Browser Stats 11/2001 – 11/2002

27. What about Flash? • Macromedia is pushing CFMX and Flash MX as a Rich User Interface. • Flash MX does have some accessibility built in. • Flash Player 6 now uses the Microsoft Active Accessibility (MSAA) API to exchange information with a web browser that supports MSAA, which channels information to and from assistive technologies that support MSAA. • Today, the only screen reader that allows users to interact with Flash content is Windows-Eyes from GW Micro. • Objects that can’t be currently made accessible include: • invisible buttons and some specific form components: combo boxes, list boxes, and scroll bars.

28. Recommendations and Resources • Web Sites • http://www.webstandards.org • http://www.alistapart.com • http://www.glish.com • FuseQ • http://www.techspedition.org • 508 • http://www.access-board.gov/sec508/guide/index.htm • Bobby • http://bobby.watchfire.com/bobby/html/en/index.jsp

29. Recommendations and Resources • Books • Constructing Accessible Web Sites • Publisher – Glasshaus • Author: Jim Thatcher • Cascading Style Sheets: Separating Content from Presentation • Publisher – Glasshaus • Author: Owen Briggs • Core CSS • Publisher Prentice Hall • Author: Keith Schengili - Roberts