Overview

• A brief introduction of myself
• What is accessibility?
• Why accessibility matters?
• Why plone?
• Issues with Plone
• Conclusion

Introduction

• Working in the area of ICT accessibility since mid '90s.
• a developer of the FreeBSD Project
• a Unix server admin, a Web admin, an accessibility advocate, a podcaster

Definition

• No universally accepted definition (AFAIK)

• Information and/or service can be accessed by "everyone" with virtually "equal of cost."

Who Is "Everyone?"

• ability/disability
• situation
• device in use
• language

More focus tends to be put on disabilities, but is actually broader.

"Cost of Access"

• financial cost
• time
• effort required

Technical Aspect

• broader audience
• increasing variation of access devices

Social/Legal Aspect

• aging population
• legal requirement
  • Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
  • Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act
  • similar legislation elsewhere

Requirements for My Project

• accessible for screen reader users, both published content and the administration functionalities
• multilingual content
• restricted access to some content for registered users only
• ease of administration
• inexpensive solution

Options

• MovableType
• WordPress
• Drupal
• Plone

MovableType

• easily customizable with Perl
• no multilingual content support builtin
• no support for access restricted content
• free licenced version is limited in functionality

• NOT A GOOD CHOICE

WordPress

• many plugins
• somewhat multilingual ready
• active movement in accessibility improvement

• NOT so A BAD CHOICE

Drupal

• many plugins
• multilingual ready
• accessible

• A GOOD CANDIDATE

Plone

• many plugins
• multilingual ready
• somewhat accessible
• flexible content management

• A GOOD CANDIDATE

Why I Chose Plone

• more experience than WordPress or Drupal

• from a server administrator's perspective:
  • PHP truly sucks
• from a blind programmer's perspective:
  • Python sucks
  • but far less than PHP

From Stock A11y Info Page (1)

Accessibility Statement

We have undertaken to use our knowledge and understanding of the ways in which different people access the Internet, to develop a web site that is clear and simple for everybody to use.

• sounds promising but...

From Stock A11y Info Page (2)

This site uses the Open Source Content Management System Plone and has been designed to be completely accessible and usable, working in accordance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG v1.0).

Complying With WCAG Is Good But

• WCAG 1.0 was published as W3C Recommendation in May 1999.
• WCAG 2.0 was published in Dec 2008.
• OUTDATED!

From Stock A11y Info Page (3)

Accesskey

This site uses a setup that closely matches most international recommendations on access keys.

• doesn't look bad, but...

Who Uses It Anyway

• these standard keys are rarely implemented.
• not really recognized by users.
• could be considered as useful once, but not any longer

From Stock A11y Info Page (4)

**Validation

We have used XHTML 1.0 and CSS that conforms to specification, as laid out by the W3C because we believe that usability and accessibility must have a solid foundation.

• great policy but...

Technology evolves

• is Plone stuck with XHTML 1.0, seriously!?
• as with HTML, accessibility is also a moving target.

Issues with Administration

• inline editor of any kind must be integrated with care

Current State of Plone

• up to Plone 4, it looks really outdated
• gives an impression that the community doesn't care much about accessibility unless you look at Plone 5

So Is It the Right Choice

• potentially yes
• wait for Plone 5
• if Plone 4 needs to be used, a lot of work by site admin is required.

Resources for Developers

• Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 and its supporting document
• freely available screen readers:
  • NVDA (for Windows)
  • VoiceOver for iOS and Mac OS X
  • TalkBack for Android

Today's Slides

These slides are available at:
http://www.accessibility.org/~max/talks/201506-plone.html

Comments and questions are welcome at: