1
armylifer98
Thoughts on Themes for the Visually Impaired?
  • 2005/4/2 0:15

  • armylifer98

  • Just popping in

  • Posts: 7

  • Since: 2005/4/1 4


I saw several threads that started dicussing whether XOOPS is/was/could be 508 Compliant. The threads ended about 6 months ago with folks finding it interesting but without any real 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 (I am NEWBIE web designer 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.

Many of those with Multiple Sclerosis are afflicted with vision troubles and 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 "Visual Experience" - Standard Text, Large Text, Larger Text, or Reader format. I don't necessarily need that many options but that is the concept.

I realize that the most likely answer is creating several copies of the CSS files - each with a larger font choice - and letting the visitor choose which set to when they log on. But I am also curious as to whether anyone else has built, or has considered building a site (or even better - a Theme) that implements this kind of capability?

Continuing on that vien... I am just concentrating on the visual (readability) at this point... When considering Accessible websites what other kinds of issues should I be looking at? The thoughts that cross my mind now are:

1. The Visually Impaired (see above...)
a. Impaired
b. Total blindness

2. Physically Impaired
a. Hearing
b. Limbs (missing or paralyzed)
c. Control - (tremors, etc.)

What kind of controls might be implemented to assist visitors with these other impairments? I may have thought of the problem but have not really considered any real solutions. Those who have hearing issues should not really have problems with the browsing but where aural alerts were being used they would have to be replaced or supplemented with visual keys.
Those who are blind usually have "Reading" software that can help them - but as discussed in earlier threads you have to pay attention to the ALT tags so that the reader program can tell them what button they are passing over. But is there a set of instructions anywhere (I'm just now thinking of this so will go look but am asking here to keep the flow going) that cover such items of concern?

Anyways, if anyone here has built themes addressing these kind of issues I would like to hear about them.
If you have seen sites that have these concepts being used please let me know.

I thank you in advance for your advice and comments.

Hank

2
StaticBeats
Re: Thoughts on Themes for the Visually Impaired?
  • 2005/4/2 2:15

  • StaticBeats

  • Just popping in

  • Posts: 7

  • Since: 2005/3/6 8


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 to for accessibility with some decent hacking. Content may be another beast but the template is always the first step.

3
armylifer98
Re: Thoughts on Themes for the Visually Impaired?
  • 2005/4/2 4:34

  • armylifer98

  • Just popping in

  • Posts: 7

  • Since: 2005/4/1 4


Wow!

What an excellent response. The links are great! I've already been reading on just the first link for over an hour ... Thanks so very much!


They also mention using the "em" function to control the size of fonts. I can see how setting a percentage variable could help control the size of the text on the screen. Fantastic... now all I have to do is figure out how to do so inside XOOPS.

Hank

4
StaticBeats
Re: Thoughts on Themes for the Visually Impaired?
  • 2005/4/7 1:54

  • StaticBeats

  • Just popping in

  • Posts: 7

  • Since: 2005/3/6 8


Quote:

armylifer98 wrote:
Thanks so very much!


They also mention using the "em" function to control the size of fonts. I can see how setting a percentage variable could help control the size of the text on the screen. Fantastic... now all I have to do is figure out how to do so inside XOOPS.
Hank


glad you find the links helpful they've been a great resource for me.

once you start creating your own theme XOOPS will use your theme's stylesheet. in that stylesheet you can set your font sizes. alternately, you can modify the existing XOOPS CSS files to use em instead of points or pixels.

for em font sizes try the following: font-size:0.95em;
This is similar to: 11px/8pt

5
Rickb
Re: Thoughts on Themes for the Visually Impaired?
  • 2006/5/30 22:50

  • Rickb

  • Not too shy to talk

  • Posts: 118

  • Since: 2004/10/24


eiProject Inc. is creating a 503 Aware site and plans to tutor others how you can move towards creating more 508 compliant web pages. The construction of 508 friendly templates for XOOPS would of a great contribution.

Kind regards,

Rick

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