I saw several threads that started dicussing whether XOOPS is/was/could be 508 Compliant. The threads ended about 6 months ago without any answer at the time.

I am curious whether anyone continued attempting to build on the "accessibility" questions. I am trying to design a site for a Multiple Sclerosis support agency (a NEWBIE by definition for certain!) and have built the shell of it using a standard HTML template. But they need more that and I can see that XOOPS - if I spend the time necessary - could provide the interactive capability that they require.

One of the most difficult areas for me so far is trying to determine how to create a method for the visitor to select their "Experience" - Standard, Large Text, Larger Text, or Reader format. That is just an idea .. I suspect I could create a link to swap CSS files for that kind of control but I really like the CMS/Portal layout of XOOPS and think that it will be a better fit.

So to state it clearly: I would like to provide a button on a XOOPS installation that flips to a selected "Visual" experience - changing font sizes up or down to accomodate those who might have problems reading the website content.

Anyone working this angle already? Did I just not read the FAQ's deeply enough to find an existing answer?

Thanks for your help in advance.

Hank

You may find the Xoops theme being developed for the EUIAN project offers some advantages for viewers with impaired vision, although the theme doesn't appear to be downloadable at present.

In principle, I guess you could create 3 versions of any theme and make the text progressively larger in each theme's CSS file. Viewers could then select the one that suits them best. You could even create different themes that address the differing requirements of people who suffer colour blindness.

If you post a request for something like that in the themes forums, one of the experienced theme designers may be able to help.

Great Idea - will edit and repost the question there.
Thanks much!

The CSS method is all I can think of as well - and is probably the best answer. A bit more work perhaps but it should do the trick. I appreciate your feedback and hope none of the April Fool's day tricks got ya bad today.

Hank

I am confident someone will be able to help you. And welcome to the XOOPS community! As you can see, never a dull moment here.

Looks like this thread exists in two places but this is the more happenin' of them so I will repost here :)

An article was published recently on the topic of Innovative Design and Accessibility: http://www.digital-web.com/articles/innovative_design_accessibility/

The article doesn't address CMS or XOOPS for that matter but it's a worthy read nonethless.

Here are some other links on the topic:

Building Accessible Web Sites in Seven Steps
http://www.techsoup.org/howto/articlepage.cfm?ArticleId=381&topicid=13&cg=content&sg=feature

W3C Accessibility Quicktips Reference Guide
http://www.w3.org/WAI/References/QuickTips/

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0
http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG/

5 First Steps for Designing Accessible Web Sites
http://www.ataccess.org/rresources/web/5firststeps.html

Accessibility Best practices
http://www.spingroup.com/htmdocs/resources/article.php?parent=5&catcode=57

The Sound of the Accessible Title Tag Separator
http://www.standards-schmandards.com/index.php?2004/11/06/6-the-sound-of-the-accessible-title-tag-separator


With regards to the creation of several user-selectable style sheets to enable font sizing - this is not necessary. With the use of em (instead of pt or px font sizes) the user can modify the font size with the browser function.

I'm currently redesigning my site (moving from phpnuke to xoops) and I can safely say that the templates themselves *can* be built for accessibility (using XHTML and CSS) with some decent hacking. Content may be another beast but the template is always the first step.

Yeah - based on PeeKay's response I did repost the question to the Theme's Design area. Re-wrote it 'slightly' but it is the same subject.

I thought I had replied back to you here already but I don't see my post so will re-state that the links you sent were fantastic. Spent several hours reading through them and have lots of good info about the concepts behind building websites that are standards-based and formatted to ensure everyone can access them.

Everyone's comments so far have been to the point and wonderful. The support I have seen here is more of a reason to choose XOOPS than almost anything else!

Thanks to everyone! Let's keeps this subjuect alive for awhile and see what comes of it.

Thanks again,

Hank