[GSoC 2012] Project Idea: Accessibility improvements for the CMS

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François Desplanques

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Apr 2, 2012, 5:16:54 PM4/2/12
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Hi !


My name is François Desplanques. I'm a french engineering student at Ensimag (Grenoble Institute of Technology). Our main fields are computing and mathematics.


I have just learnt about the GSoC last friday at a conference in my school lead by two participants in the previous session. I was really interested and I spent the week-end to choose an organization which reflects what I think.


I'm really glad to come here and try to participate at SilverStripe. Indeed I think the website is very important if you want to communicate, no matter the message you want to deliver. Helping people with an opensource software is amazing! Besides, I found one of your project for which I care a lot : Accessibility improvements for the CMS.


Dealing of my skills, I already had the occasion to manipulate HTML/CSS/JavaScript/PHP. I'm also connected to the medical field, which could let me meet some possible impaired users.


I have some ideas, which are mainly coming from the WCAG 2.0. Of course it may not be enough of a summer to get an AAA success criteria, but at first sight, I'll aim at a AA success criteria. Since I am a bit late by knowing just now the existence of the GSoC, I need to get more familiar with SilverStripe. That's the reason why I'll update this thread regularly until friday night. I hope you will be all able to help me if I have some questions.


Moreover, I am also going to do the PHP Coding Test.


Best regards,

François

xeraa

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Apr 2, 2012, 5:27:00 PM4/2/12
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Hi Francois,

Nice to have you on board - call out if you need anything.

Cheers,
Philipp

Ingo Schommer

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Apr 3, 2012, 10:46:02 AM4/3/12
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Hello Francois,

Welcome to the SilverStripe community.
Looking forward to your application, three days to go! :)

Ingo

harshit.sh...@gmail.com

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Apr 3, 2012, 10:51:55 AM4/3/12
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Hello everyone

I am Harshit Shrivastava. I am a 3rd year student in Computer Science Engineering at Manipal Institute of Technology in India.
I just learned about the SilverStripe GSoC ideas page yesterday and immediately applied for the mailing list membership.

I am interested in a few projects but before submitting my proposal, I am going through the mailing list archives of the discussions which have already taken place and working on the PHP test given on the website.

Will be submitting my proposal soon, most probably by tomorrow after doing required research.

Thanks


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François Desplanques

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Apr 3, 2012, 3:28:15 PM4/3/12
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Hi again! This time I will detail more my proposal.

I think they are two distinctions to do in the task for accessibility : the admin board and the contains of the website produced by the CMS.


Dealing with the admin board : I must confess that I did not know to much about WAI-ARIA. That's the reason why, my first reflex was to disable JavaScript on the panel. Unfortunately, it seems to be that the CMS can not work without JavaScript. I guess that you have made the board with JavaScript instead of enhancing a HTML version with it. Since I don't know yet how to set JavaScript for accessibility, I think it will be hard to really adapt the current panel to a version which will be for impaired users. I mean it's surely possible to do it but I think we will loose some of the beauty of the panel, which is really awesome yet !


Therefore, I am likely to propose a new version which will appear instead of the page error « The CMS requires that you have JavaScript enabled. ». At first, it would be a version without JavaScript at all. I would try to build it properly with the main aim : accessibility. The advantage of this method is that people who use JavaScript won't be bothered because they will not notice the second version, kind of hidden. Then to ensure that all disabled people can go to the version which is more practical for them, we could put a link from the original page.


More details about this HTML version : the text edit area would be a large text zone. The user could make some effects by using some tags. An anchor in the beginning of the page would help them to know precisely how to use tags. Anyways, every pages would have anchors to help them to go quickly on the data requested.


After the version without JavaScript written, we could enhance it with some JavaScript, keeping in mind the accessibility (by using WAI-ARIA). Finally, maybe we may desire to merge the two versions and produce some awesome things with WAI-ARIA if we got some skilled.


There are still some details which can be modified without changing the whole interface in order to get closer to the WCAG 2.0. It means that this details can be on both versions and are also available for the website produced by CMS. This list is not over and will surely be updated :

  • I have not checked yet the whole code, but I'm not sure that all the <span> have a semantic values here.

  • Labels seems quite good even if I saw, for the moment, one missing.

  • There should be texts describing pictures/medias. Maybe we could add this on the panel when uploading a file.

  • The keyboard navigation can be upgraded. We can add access keys and we can also propose to add them when creating the website in the panel.


I think that I must check every templates if I want to improve accessibility on the websites created by the CMS.


I would have also thought about vocal description. But it depends on the ability to people to hear. When this method is adapted, they have screen readers which already make the job. However it can be useful for audio-description with a video. But I will not make that point my priority since it's a AAA request and there is many to do before. It could be part of extensions if I finish on time.


As you may have noticed, I have to learn a lot. But it is work in progress and I don't think that is to much troubles because I'm hard-working and I can grep pieces of information. Of course I have the desire to share everything I would discover on this adventure. It won't be a problem for me to write down all my discoveries and knowledge on an overview document for modules later. I will also try to determinate which functions of which library is good with the accessibility.


Please, comment it as maximum as possible. It would be easier to adapt and develop. I also still have to familiarize more with SilverStripe code.


Ingo Schommer

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Apr 3, 2012, 4:28:16 PM4/3/12
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Hey Francois!

On 3/04/2012, at 9:28 PM, François Desplanques wrote:

Dealing with the admin board : I must confess that I did not know to much about WAI-ARIA. That's the reason why, my first reflex was to disable JavaScript on the panel. Unfortunately, it seems to be that the CMS can not work without JavaScript. I guess that you have made the board with JavaScript instead of enhancing a HTML version with it. Since I don't know yet how to set JavaScript for accessibility, I think it will be hard to really adapt the current panel to a version which will be for impaired users. I mean it's surely possible to do it but I think we will loose some of the beauty of the panel, which is really awesome yet !

Getting the CMS working without JS is unrealistic, and from my past experience on accessibility topics, unnecessary.
Screen readers drive modern browsers with JavaScript just fine, the challenge is making all the interaction added
through JS meaningful to them. That being said, we try to build on progressive enhancement wherever possible 
(starting with meaningful markup), but mainly for ease of customization through PHP than for accessibility reasons. 


Therefore, I am likely to propose a new version which will appear instead of the page error « The CMS requires that you have JavaScript enabled. ». At first, it would be a version without JavaScript at all. I would try to build it properly with the main aim : accessibility. The advantage of this method is that people who use JavaScript won't be bothered because they will not notice the second version, kind of hidden. Then to ensure that all disabled people can go to the version which is more practical for them, we could put a link from the original page.

You're probably underestimating the effort involved in making the CMS work fully without JS. Its a big system :)
I think that's a road we shouldn't go down, that's why initiatives like WAI-ARIA exist.


I think that I must check every templates if I want to improve accessibility on the websites created by the CMS.

The form fields are the same as in the CMS, so any work will most likely benefit both CMS and website HTML.
The CMS works based on "themes" for creating website HTML, which can be authored by anybody independently
of the CMS package. So in terms of improving website accessibility, we should limit ourselves to the default theme, "simple".


I would have also thought about vocal description. But it depends on the ability to people to hear. When this method is adapted, they have screen readers which already make the job. However it can be useful for audio-description with a video. But I will not make that point my priority since it's a AAA request and there is many to do before. It could be part of extensions if I finish on time.

Very thoughtful, good idea. We're still working on basic media insertion support for SS3, so will have to see how far we get before
extending it to support subtitle entry.

Thanks very much for putting so much thought into your application, keep up the good work :) Three days to go!
Ingo

François Desplanques

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Apr 4, 2012, 5:28:07 PM4/4/12
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Hi there !


First of all, thank you very much Ingo to take the time to answer to my post. It was really how I imagine the GSoC and I'm enjoying it :) !


About what you told me : I must say that I was a bit skeptic about WEI-ARIA. Indeed many websites says that even with this new kind of rules, some user-agents and assistive technology are not yet configured to use it. However I had underestimate his power! I read a lot about it! It is very powerfull for disabled people and it's also the future of coding style! I'm so convinced!


I've put the simple theme by following the instruction of the readme. I don't see so much changes compare to the tutorial one. Did I miss something or is it normal ?


About some points of my proposal :


-Semantic

I think I'll check SilverStripe code as much as possible to see if semantic is well applied. I realized that at least one label is missing and some images must not have alt attribute. Indeed, I used the « Web developer » module of firefox and I could see that if you replace some images by their attribute alt, they just disappeared. So that's only examples of what I could see by checking the code. I think it will take me quite a few time to track all of those.

More than checking, I would like to enhance with some WEI-ARIA. For example, it's possible to communicate on the menu if tabs are open or closed. There is also something to do with the drag & drop reordering. First, it can be improve with some ARIA telling people what can be grabbed and what is the 'dropeffect'. Then I think it's also needed for motion-impaired users to have another way to reorganize pages. I'm not sure yet of the best way to doing that but I'm thinking of a keyboard navigation. We have to be sure that every list, every button, every link , everything follows the WEI-ARIA and it would be to much to develop it here now.

I've also downloaded NVDA, a free screen reader. I've tested if everything is readable or not. It's quite good for the whole site but the text area needs to have some enhancement. Indeed, each button has no audio description. Moreover, if we work with the simple theme, maybe we could transform a bit. Indeed buttons could create some tags. By this way, everyone could write directly the code. Those tags would have to respect the semantic. It would be nice (and faster) if someone could explain me what method you chose to use for the textarea (in order to know how we could transform it)


-Keyboard Navigation

Another point I will develop tonight is the keyboard navigation. I thought of using more the tabindex. I also consider to use negative values with it and use programming. I mean by this that tabulation must give a quick access to the main ideas of the page, which will be done by using positive and ordered tabindex. Then, we can use negative tabindex to navigate through the details with the arrows of the keyboard.

It could also be more accesskeys. There are already two presents in the textarea but they use letters. It is more difficult to use letters because they are sometimes associated with others commands. I think we could use numbers instead. Besides, those acceskesy should be declared by some WEI-ARIA.

The aim of that is to make the whole simple theme accessible with keyboards.


I'm sorry to answer this late. I hope you will have time to read it. I must say that I'm still a student and I have class the whole day :). Now it's time for me to keep going on with the PHP coding test ^^.
Best regards,
François

Ingo Schommer

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Apr 4, 2012, 6:14:42 PM4/4/12
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Hey Francois,

Glad you're enjoying the process, its very productive :)

You're talking about the "simple" theme a whole lot. 
Just to clarify: The main purpose of the GSOC idea was to improve accessibility in the CMS interface, because:
- Every disabled CMS author will have to use it,  while only a tiny fraction of websites built with SS use the default theme.
- The barriers in the CMS are most likely bigger than in the theme, as its a much more complex interface
So, theme improvements are the icing on the cake, but please focus on the CMS.

Thanks!
Ingo

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François Desplanques

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Apr 4, 2012, 6:35:10 PM4/4/12
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Hi again!

I think we misunderstood... I thought the simple theme was for the administration panel! Indeed in the last post, you said that we will limit ourselves to the simple theme. Therefore I thought I would have a whole theme to adapt for accessibility. But I understand now that we were not speaking of the same thing.
But it's ok, everything I said on the last post would be applied on the CMS. The only personnification which can be less beautiful was for textarea. Would it be a problem to add tags for every users? It's surely less beautiful than what we have right now but it would be more practical for accessibility.

I hope I'm not confusing you...

Ingo Schommer

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Apr 5, 2012, 5:49:59 AM4/5/12
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Hey Francios, yeah sorry for the confusion :) When we say "theme", we usually mean a reusable set of styles on the website itself: http://www.silverstripe.org/themes
The CMS only has one interface design so far. To add to the confusion, we're toying with the ideas of having different "CMS themes" as well,
which will become relevant for high contrast modes in your project.

How's the application coming along? Still working on the coding test? ~30h to go! :)
Ingo

François Desplanques

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Apr 5, 2012, 10:39:06 AM4/5/12
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Hi!
I've just coming back from school, ready to work to the project!
Yes I've not finished yet the coding test but I will end it today. Tomorrow, I won't be able to work at all (i'll have an Internet access two hours after the deadline). Therefore i'll post my proposal today.
I have just one question : do I put it only on the GSoC website? The textarea seems not to be practical. I can easily copy and paste from an other application but I wanted to know if you needed a copy by email.

Thank you for your devotion,
François

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Ingo Schommer

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Apr 5, 2012, 11:05:11 AM4/5/12
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Hey Francois,

I agree that the textbox doesn't work well to develop the idea in detail.

As the project ideas page is a "shared resource" (for all students applying to an idea),
its not ideal to fill in details there either. I would suggest that you create a new
and reference that from your application. That also makes it easier
for us to collate material later on, as its already in the same wiki format.

Please keep all the "metadata" of the application (skills, references, etc) on google-melange.com though.

Thanks
Ingo

François Desplanques

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Apr 5, 2012, 9:27:34 PM4/5/12
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Hello!

I gave my proposal on google-melange.
Could you have a look? Please tell me if you need more additional details.
I'll release the PHP Coding Test tomorrow. I'll manage to find a hour to finish and post it.

Thank you very much!
François

François Desplanques

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Apr 7, 2012, 4:07:03 PM4/7/12
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Hi!

I'm sorry Ingo, I've just saw your message. Indeed holidays just began here (for one week only...) and I came back to my home. I couldn't have an internet access. I'll translate my proposal into a wiki page tonight!

Thank you for your attention!
François

François Desplanques

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Apr 13, 2012, 6:06:06 AM4/13/12
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Hello!

As you asked, I've posted my application on the wiki page. I'm a bit afraid because I don't see any other applications. Did I post on the good page? Will I get feedback before the 20th April or do you only look at it?
At this moment, I'm still working JavaScript and projects for school. I'm still really motivated to work with SilverStripe!

Best regards,
François

Ingo Schommer

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Apr 13, 2012, 9:01:16 AM4/13/12
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Hello Francois,

You did post to the right place, I don't think the other mentors
went the same way, though. That's OK, its just matter of how
each student/mentor pair decides to collaborate,
personally I find it easier to track changes on the Github wiki than in Melange.

Just for reference, this is Francois' proposal there:

A few random comments on your proposal:
- Keyboard navigation will be essential. You noted tabindex for this,
which is a good base technique. Please have a look into landmarks and
AIRA roles on how you can build on tabindex, there's some components
which allow more granular focus control (e.g. skipping a whole set of fields).
- Have you tried the CMS with NVDA? Would be interesting to get
a textual transcript of what it speaks, just to see how we fare at the moment.
Maybe even with your comments on how to improve certain spoken bits?
(e.g. "CMS, logout, list of 12 elements, first element: Pages" - Comment: Describe toplevel menu)

Also, it would be helpful if you can break up work into tasks
where they're clear already, and put those up as tickets
on open.silverstripe.org. A task shouldn't take more than a day,
and be well described enough that it can be started
without much further context. Please add the "accessibility" keyword,
so they're easier to identify.

Thanks!
Ingo

François Desplanques

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Apr 19, 2012, 12:46:04 PM4/19/12
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Hello Ingo!

Thank you very much for your answer.
Unfortunately I didn't have so much time to do what you suggested. Indeed I have 4 projects to do for my school and I'm really overwhelmed by it. Of course, it won't be the case when the school will be off.
Apologies,
François
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