where to start with helping improve core jquery UI widget accessibility?

[stevefaulkner]

Hi , my name is steve faulkner, I work for TPG an accessibility
consultancy, we are being funded by the Aegis project [http://
www.aegis-project.eu/] (via AOL) to help improve the accessibility of
the core jquery UI widgets. I understand some work has already been
done. Can anybody advise on the best way to contribute?
look forward to hearing back.

[Scott González]

Hey Steven,

There are lots of areas to help in. The standard process for new widgets is to define all the a11y requirements and markup on the plugin's planning page at http://wiki.jqueryui.com. The next step would be to help implement the functionality (new plugins are developed in /branches/dev then moved to /trunk when at least the core functionality is complete). During/after implementation we need unit tests for a11y concerns and ARIA support. We also need verification that our plugins are working as expected in various AT devices (this is usually one of the places we need the most help).

We just moved the button plugin to trunk, so it would be great if you could review that plugin and provide feedback. We're also getting ready to move the autocomplete plugin from /branches/dev to trunk, so it would be great to get feedback on that as well.

We'll likely have a big push to add ARIA support to our existing plugins in 1.9, so patches, bug reports, notes on the wiki, etc. for any existing plugins would also be really helpful.

If you've got any questions feel free to ask. Looking forward to working with you.

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[Steven Faulkner]

Hi Scott, thanks for the reply.

 

has there been any discussion about ensuring that the UI widgets work with OS themes usch as windows high contrast?

regards

steve

2010/1/7 Scott González <scott.g...@gmail.com>

--
with regards

Steve Faulkner
Technical Director - TPG Europe
Director - Web Accessibility Tools Consortium

www.paciellogroup.com | www.wat-c.org
Web Accessibility Toolbar - http://www.paciellogroup.com/resources/wat-ie-about.html

[Scott González]

On Thu, Jan 7, 2010 at 9:01 AM, Steven Faulkner <faulkne...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi Scott, thanks for the reply.

 

has there been any discussion about ensuring that the UI widgets work with OS themes usch as windows high contrast?

I've discussed that briefly (I believe with Colin Clark), though I don't remember if there was ever any public discussion about it. I remember doing some brief testing a while back and noticing that Windows does a much better job than OS X in high contrast mode. I assume this would be handled by just using an appropriate theme, but feel free to start discussions about this. We're interested in supporting all aspects of accessibility.

[Steven Faulkner]

Hi Scott,

I am going through the core widgets at the moment and taking notes on any issues
and adding the notes to the UI wiki for each widget.

 

In regards to high contrast support, it would be a matter of detecting whether high contrast is enabled (can be done for windows OS) and

swapping themes, though most themes appear to handle high contrast fine except for a few areas such as the icons and focus indication.

 

regards

steve

 

2010/1/7 Scott González <scott.g...@gmail.com>

On Thu, Jan 7, 2010 at 9:01 AM, Steven Faulkner <faulkne...@gmail.com> wrote:

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[Colin Clark]

Hey Scott and Steve,

First of all, Steve, welcome aboard! It's great to have you helping
with jQuery UI widget accessibility.

On 7-Jan-10, at 9:32 AM, Scott González wrote:

> has there been any discussion about ensuring that the UI widgets
> work with OS themes usch as windows high contrast?
>
> I've discussed that briefly (I believe with Colin Clark), though I
> don't remember if there was ever any public discussion about it. I
> remember doing some brief testing a while back and noticing that
> Windows does a much better job than OS X in high contrast mode. I
> assume this would be handled by just using an appropriate theme, but
> feel free to start discussions about this. We're interested in
> supporting all aspects of accessibility.

We did chat about this awhile ago. So far, there hasn't been any work
done in this regard, but it's something you could definitely dive
into. There are a couple of things we'll likely need to do in order to
support high contrast mode:

1. Ensure that all widgets and Theme Roller have high contrast mode-
friendly styles. In short, we want widgets to provide textual
alternatives for critical background images (such as close boxes). For
an example, you can see what we've done with Fluid Skinning System
themes here:

http://fluidproject.org/releases/1.1.2/demos/fss/themes/demo.html

2. Add some code to jQuery UI core that detects high contrast mode and
enables the high-contrast styling for a given theme. I think detecting
high contrast mode was accomplished in Dojo by inserting an element
with two main qualities and testing its computed styles:
a. Two differently coloured borders. If they end up both the same,
we're in high contrast mode
b. Background images. If the image isn't there, we're also in high
contrast mode.

http://www.dojotoolkit.org/book/export/html/1460

I'm not sure anyone from Fluid has any time to lead work on high
contrast support at the moment, but we'd be happy to lend advice or a
hand where needed.

Hope this helps,

Colin

---
Colin Clark
Technical Lead, Fluid Project
http://fluidproject.org

[Scott González]

I've added high contrast mode support to the roadmap for 1.9.

On Mon, Jan 11, 2010 at 3:28 PM, Colin Clark <colinb...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hey Scott and Steve,

First of all, Steve, welcome aboard! It's great to have you helping with jQuery UI widget accessibility.

On 7-Jan-10, at 9:32 AM, Scott González wrote:

has there been any discussion about ensuring that the UI widgets work with OS themes usch as windows high contrast?

I've discussed that briefly (I believe with Colin Clark), though I don't remember if there was ever any public discussion about it. I remember doing some brief testing a while back and noticing that Windows does a much better job than OS X in high contrast mode. I assume this would be handled by just using an appropriate theme, but feel free to start discussions about this. We're interested in supporting all aspects of accessibility.

We did chat about this awhile ago. So far, there hasn't been any work done in this regard, but it's something you could definitely dive into. There are a couple of things we'll likely need to do in order to support high contrast mode:

1. Ensure that all widgets and Theme Roller have high contrast mode-friendly styles. In short, we want widgets to provide textual alternatives for critical background images (such as close boxes). For an example, you can see what we've done with Fluid Skinning System themes here:

http://fluidproject.org/releases/1.1.2/demos/fss/themes/demo.html

2. Add some code to jQuery UI core that detects high contrast mode and enables the high-contrast styling for a given theme. I think detecting high contrast mode was accomplished in Dojo by inserting an element with two main qualities and testing its computed styles:
       a. Two differently coloured borders. If they end up both the same, we're in high contrast mode
       b. Background images. If the image isn't there, we're also in high contrast mode.

http://www.dojotoolkit.org/book/export/html/1460

I'm not sure anyone from Fluid has any time to lead work on high contrast support at the moment, but we'd be happy to lend advice or a hand where needed.

Hope this helps,

Colin

---
Colin Clark
Technical Lead, Fluid Project
http://fluidproject.org

[Steven Faulkner]

Hi Colin, thanks for the info on high contrast support,

there is a javascript available form AOL that detects for high contrast mode:
http://dev.aol.com/downloads/axs1.2/readme.html#hd

I will also chat to becky gibson about her experiences with
implementing it in Dojo.

best regards
steve faulkner.

2010/1/11 Colin Clark <colinb...@gmail.com>: