Using Hippo CMS to Manage Accessible Web Sites

Transcription

1 Using Hippo CMS to Manage Accessible Web Sites A whitepaper on WAI and section 508 compliance For many organizations compliance with accessibility guidelines, such as Section 508 in the United States, is not only a best-practice it s a legal requirement. With managing and delivering Web sites in a way that comply with (international) accessibility guidelines. Using Hippo CMS organizations can be assured that their Web sites will conform to any Web accessibility guidelines with which they want to comply. This short White Paper describes the capabilities, references and other information that organizations may need in order to be successful with Hippo and accessibility. Author: Robert Rose Get in touch with Hippo: info@onehippo.com North America: (toll free) Europe:

2 What is compliance? In 1994, the W3C (the World Wide Web Consortium) developed The Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) in order to provide some standards around the accessibility of Web content. These standards were developed especially but certainly not exclusively for people with visual disabilities. The ensuing guidelines for Web sites are the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and are a set of documents that explain how site developers/managers should make their Web sites and applications accessible to individuals with disabilities. In the United States, Congress passed an amendment to the Federal Rehabilitation Act (Section 508) in 1998 and declared that all Federal agencies must comply with accessibility guidelines for their Web sites and applications. This law applies to both any Federal agency, and any organizations that receive Federal money. What does compliance mean? There are detailed requirements contained in the WCAG and Section 508 compliance guidelines but for illustrative purposes, some of the larger issues include: Style sheets Web pages should be organized so that they are readable to browsers that cannot utilize a style sheet (e.g. screen readers). Forms must be accessible for assistive technology so that they may complete and submit forms. This is typically done by ensuring each field has a label tag. Plugins Any Web sites that require specific plugins, must provide a text based link to that required plugin. Color Any element of the design where meaning is conveyed by color should also be available to be conveyed to the user without the use color. In addition to these, we have also provided links at the end of this White Paper, to other resources, where you can review other elements of WCAG and accessibility requirements. But, really, the most important aspect of accessibility is empowering your audience with the ability to consume your content in whatever way, through whatever device they choose. 2 Page requirements Web pages must be readable by electronic screen readers. Image requirements Images must have alt tags (meta information) which will alternatively identify the image for screen readers. Table requirements If web designers utilize tables of information, alt tags must describe both column and row headers so that it can be readable and understandable without visual cues. This is why separation of design, and formatting and the management of content is so important and why Hippo CMS is a perfect solution for designing Web content platforms that will meet accessibility guidelines. A good Web Content Management solution is one that ensures that your audience will always have the easiest and fastest access to your content. Additionally, a good WCM solution is one that future-proofs your content for new guidelines as they emerge. Automatic scripting any scripted display and/or image mapping should offer textual based alternatives.

3 Hippo CMS and Web accessibility Hippo CMS is not only a complete solution for Web accessibility today but empowers your audience to consume content in any format that may become important in the future. Hippo CMS is architected to provide site managers and developers with the ability to create complex, interactive and highly visual sites while simultaneously delivering content that is completely accessible. numerous interfaces so that you can maintain creative freedom while complying with very tight compliance. Here are just some of the capabilities for using Hippo CMS for Web Accessibility: Context-aware server architecture Using the Context Aware Server, Hippo CMS can meet any accessibility requirement by managing and delivering content through multiple channels. Complete separation from content & presentation Hippo gives complete control over the ultimate page for Web sites meaning that declaring doctypes or other types of meta data to facilitate different types of electronic readers is very straightforward. Additionally, templates are completely separated from page content which enables developers and site managers to update any pages (or meta data such as doctype) and have those changes propagate throughout the entire repository without affecting delivery. for displaying information, Hippo CMS can provide complete control for adding alt tags for tables, images or any asset into the Web site. Additionally, Hippo CMS provides full access to every meta element of any page meaning that page authors can be required to insert meaningful page titles, or other elements that will make the content comply with accessibility requirements and are relying on assistive technology. Adding special CSS classes Using Hippo CMS you can produce your Web content platform through a number of looks through whatever channel you are publishing. Adding compliant CSS classes is a good best-practice and enables you to accomplish things such as: Font sizing providing for the ability for users to choose a font size that will better suit their visual capabilities. Color allowing for compliant color schemes for your Web site so that color-blind individuals are not dependent on color for navigational methods. Image replacement allowing for image replacement with textual or other replacements if need be. 3 Make up content for correct pronunciation in Spanish, French, etc. using speech making Within Hippo CMS there is the possibility to add meta data to specific wording or terms which should be pronounced in a different dialect. In other words, English words originating from another source language will be pronounced in the correct way. A clear example is the word apartheid, which is Dutch and should be pronounced by the speech reader as such. Full control over meta fields While CSS has become the standard method for laying out pages if designers/developers are utilizing tables

4 Conclusion If you re the one responsible for ensuring that your Web site meets accessibility guidelines you know that it s a delicate balance to meet the creative, branding and technology needs of your various audiences. But whether you re designing a site where the main audience is visually or otherwise impaired or whether this is just a small portion of your audience - there should be two main components to your strategy: Technology the Web content management solution you choose should not only stay out of the way of your compliance needs but should also help facilitate the process. Your WCMS should provide for checkpoints such as automatically checking for alt tags before publishing, or forcing good standards in your workflow. And it should ease the burden of adding new styles or channels as new compliance methods and practices emerge. Hippo CMS can be extraordinarily helpful in helping you succeed in Web accessibility. In the end, this not only gives you piece of mind it can provide a competitive advantage for your organization and empower all new audiences with your content. Resources Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) WAVE Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool 4 Process adding in editorial and strategic checkpoints into how your content performs over time. This means making sure that the process you have in place is being followed and that best-practices (outside of technology) are being put in. A good WCMS can aid in this review by providing reporting mechanisms that will show you the meaningful titles that are being utilized and how and where content is being managed by channel. W3C Checklist for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines: Section508.Gov the Policy Deploying these processes can, no doubt, be complex. Hippo CMS removes much of that complexity by both adding capabilities and flexibility to your content management and delivery process and facilitating the workflow to provide insight into how you re performing over time. It doesn t matter if your organization is well down the path of providing Web accessibility, or if you re just starting to look at this issue because the law now requires you to add it.

5 About Hippo At Hippo, we believe, digital is here to make our lives a little bit better. Hippo sets the standard for how organizations can bring real-time relevance to their audience and is the foundation for personalized communication across all channels: mobile, social and web. Our purpose is to facilitate innovation so our customers can create digital miracles. We serve our customers, by creating a platform that is fun to use, easy to implement and open for innovation. Hippo CMS is a powerful, enterprise-class foundation to deliver outstanding Customer Experiences based on Enterprise Agility and Innovation Power. Hippo CMS is open source, 100% Java and convinces with its lean product architecture that is built for uptime, security and performance. Our dedicated, Certified Partner Network delivers Hippo Awesomeness around the globe to our valued customers. Hippo is proud to serve organizations such as Disney, British Telecom, Dolce & Gabbana, Max Bahr, the Dutch Police, Thomson Reuters and Crédit Agricole. Hippo is headquartered in Amsterdam, The Netherlands and Boston, USA. Curious for more? Visit 5