Begin forwarded message: > Date: October 27, 2011 12:34:20 AM EDT > Subject: OpenConcept: Intelligent Open Source Collaboration for Better > Accessibility > Source: drupal.org aggregator > > Recently as we've been working on enhancements to Drupal 8, we run into > several situations where we are looking at the jQuery library. Drupal's been > including the free software jQuery for the last two releases and are using it > more and more as it evolves. We were hoping we'd be able to simply leverage a > solid accessible jQuery UI element rather than have to continue to enhance > our own javascript widgets. > > jQuery UI 1.8 has an autocomplete widget in it so why don't we just use this > rather than re-invent the wheel for Drupal 8. Unfortunately based on some > quick testing by Everett Zufelt the autocomplete widget wasn't as accessible > as what we have implemented in Drupal 7. At the writing of this post there > are nearly 200,000 websites that report running Drupal 7 and are benefiting > from the enhancements we've made. Investing in Drupal core is already > removing barriers for millions of people on live websites. jQuery > improvements will have an even bigger impact. > > Now ideally we'd have lots of resources put into central libraries like > jQuery because when these core projects get enhanced, everyone who uses them > benefits. It just makes so much sense to invest limited accessibility > funding into the projects which will have the biggest bang. Just take a look > at some of these jQuery powered sites and projects. Just having Drupal and > WordPress using them means that by default it's being used by a large > percentage of the web. > > Now there have been attempts in the past to improve the accessibility of > jQuery & related widgets. The Paciello Group (TPG) developed this library of > accessible jQuery widgets through funding by AOL and AEGIS. There is a > similar initiative that's being spearheaded by the Government of Canada to > better integrate accessible jQuery widgets for theirWeb Experience Toolkit. > jQuery is the recommended javascript library for the implementation of the > federal government's Common Look & Feel. All Government of Canada sites are > required to be WCAG 2.0 AA compliant by the summer of 2013, so improving > jQuery's accessibility is critical for government. These are both good > initiatives, but I haven't seen evidence of the work moving upstream and > being adopted by the jQuery community. > > Fortunately Jennison Asuncion took the initiative to set up the Open Source > Accessibility Network which got several of us talking about ways to work > better across software communities to promote best practices & learn from > each other. I believe this was the spark which drove Everett Zeufelt to lead > a jQuery UI Accessibility Review. > > Everett's looking for people to help with the review, comment on bug reports > which he makes & if at all possible contribute financially to his evaluation. > He's committed to investing 40 hours of work in this project and I know from > experience that he will be able to produce constructive, detailed and > technical recommendations. > > This is a worth-while investment. With coordination with other open source > projects the accessibility enhancements made in this week will go a long way > to improving the accessibility of a great deal of the web. > > For all open source projects it is important that advocates ask, what is the > right level for this problem to be solved. Can this problem be better > resolved by engaging with the communities behind centralized libraries? If > so, how do we get involved in improving them? > > Topic: > > Accessibility > Drupal 8 > jQuery > Planet > Tweet Widget > Facebook Like > Google Plus One > > > Read more… >
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