Grouper Developers Forum

[Tom Barton <>]

Mike, thanks a bunch for that info. I had no idea UIUC has such an
active accessibility program. -Tom

On 10/26/2011 3:13 PM, Michael A. Grady wrote:
> Sounds like you might have things well in hand; getting accessibility folks 
> directly involved is best,  who can provide guidance on design principles 
> and frameworks to use.
>
> I can point to a few resources though, which we've taken some advantage of 
> in our work on the DMP Tool ( https://dmp.cdlib.org , of course a much 
> simpler service than group management!).
>
> First, Illinois has some expertise in accessible web design in a group at 
> DRES ( http://www.disability.illinois.edu/ ):
>
>   http://www.cita.uiuc.edu/
>
> They've created a couple of tools for evaluating functional accessibility, 
> one a web site you to and fill in a url to test (but doesn't work with 
> https and authenticated pages), and one a Firefox extension that adds an 
> Accessibility menu drop-down to Firefox (not sure if it works with the 
> latest and greatest Firefox versions or not). Those tools are undergoing 
> some new work to include WCAG 2.0 ruleset support.
> Firefox extension:  http://firefox.cita.illinois.edu/
>
> They do have a lot of info, and examples around, ARIA at:
>
>  http://test.cita.illinois.edu/aria/
>  http://oaa-accessibility.org/
>
> and Illinois is a participating member of the Open AJAX Alliance 
> Accessibility Tools Task Force:
>
>  http://www.openajax.org/member/wiki/Accessibility
>
> Another tool which looks to already have support for WCAG 2.0 is AChecker:
>
>   http://atutor.ca/achecker/
>
> On Oct 26, 2011, at 9:27 AM, Tom Barton wrote:
>
>> Keith, thanks for the tip. Yes, if that wouldn't overload your agenda, I
>> think it'd be great to have a couple of grouper devs join that 
>> conversation.
>>
>> Tom
>>
>> On 10/26/2011 9:17 AM, Keith Hazelton wrote:
>>> For other reasons some of us (COmanage) are looking forward to a chat
>>> with Colin Clark mid-November.  He's lead software architect at:
>>>
>>> http://idrc.ocad.ca/
>>>
>>> where Fluid activity is strong.  Perhaps a shared AdobeConnect session
>>> with him?
>>>
>>>            --Keith
>>> ______________________
>>> On Wed, 2011-10-26 at 08:10 -0500, Thomas Barton wrote:
>>>> Thanks Gary. One organization that might offer us the service of
>>>> helping our accessibility conformance is Fluid. If not today, then for
>>>> our next call let's decide how we will ensure conformance for the 2.2
>>>> UI.
>>>>
>>>> Tom (mobile)
>>>>
>>>> -----Original Message----- 
>>>> From: GW Brown, Information Systems and Computing
>>>> []
>>>> Received: Wednesday, 26 Oct 2011, 3:16am
>>>> To: Emily Eisbruch 
>>>> [];
>>>>  Grouper Dev
>>>> []
>>>> Subject: Re: [grouper-dev] Draft Minutes: Grouper-dev Call 12-Oct-2011
>>>>
>>>> --On 19 October 2011 13:06 -0400 Emily Eisbruch 
>>>> <>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> [AI] (Gary) will email the Grouper-Dev list with specifics on UI
>>>>> accessibility issues
>>>> Apologies for the delay:
>>>>
>>>> The original admin UI aimed to be accessible and deliberately avoided
>>>> the 
>>>> use of Javascript, partly because of cross-browser compatability
>>>> issues, 
>>>> but also because of accessibility constraints. We have subsequently
>>>> added 
>>>> Javascript for tooltips, and the Lite UI is AJAX-based.
>>>>
>>>> With the Grouper UI redesign slated for v2.2 extending Javascript use,
>>>> it 
>>>> is important to ensure that the UI is accessible. This is mandated by 
>>>> legislation in various countries and, in particular, is an important
>>>> factor 
>>>> for adoption in some HE institutions.
>>>>
>>>> Fortunately, accessibility standards have developed, and there are
>>>> many 
>>>> cross browser Javascript libraries which are designed to facilitate
>>>> the 
>>>> creation of accessible applications. So, in addition to the original
>>>> W3C 
>>>> standards <http://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG1AAA-Conformance>, the new UI
>>>> should 
>>>> aim to comply with WAI-ARIA  (http://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/aria).
>>>>
>>>> It looks like validation tools are a bit thin on the ground - partly 
>>>> because WAI-ARIA is supported in HTML 5 which is still being
>>>> finalized, 
>>>> however, <http://about.validator.nu/> and <http://validator.w3.org/>
>>>> have 
>>>> some support.
>>>>
>>>> I've always thought that there are two parts to accessibility:
>>>> 1) the box-ticking conformance with standards
>>>> 2) actual usability by real individuals who rely on accessibility
>>>>
>>>> Even if we make the effort during the re-design to ensure conformance
>>>> with 
>>>> standards it is hard to know how 'successful' we have been. Also, 
>>>> compliance often drifts over time as new features are added (as has 
>>>> happened with the current UI). Ideally we could do with some external 
>>>> agency (or someone with a real interest) to check our compliance and
>>>> its 
>>>> effectiveness.
>>>>
>>>> Gary
>>>>
>>>> ----------------------
>>>> GW Brown, IT Services
>>>> 
>>>>
>
> --
> Michael A. Grady                      
> Executive Program Officer for Cyberinfrastructure
> Office of the CIO, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
> 2222 DCL, MC 256, 1304 W. Springfield Ave., Urbana, IL 61801
> 217.244.1253 phone, 217.244.4780 fax
>