Following the discussion thread on this topic, the following are a proposed list of Accessibility pages that should be featured on Drupal.org to ensure that there is clarity about Drupal's Accessibility & a statement of commitment to the future. Please feel free to review & modify this wiki.
A version of this has been posted to Drupal.org
Generic introduction with statements of commitment and links to more - drupal.org/accessibility
@Mike and everyone, I don't have content to link to yet — at least not that I know of — but I would like to propose this as a start on the general approach and tone of our accessibility statement.
Drupal Supports Accessibility
As an inclusive community, we are committed to making sure that Drupal is an accessible tool for building websites and that Drupal helps you create websites that are themselves accessible.
Starting with Drupal 7, we have committed to ensuring that all features of Drupal core conform with two sets of guidelines from the Worldwide Web Consortium (W3C):
- Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0
- Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG) 2.0
Whenever possible, we also update the previous version of Drupal core, Drupal 6, to enhance its accessibility.
Accessible Features in Drupal
If you rely on a screen reader or other assistive technology, you will be glad to know that we have built Drupal to encourage and support the proper use of semantic markup. In other words, you should be able to use headings reliably for page-level navigation.
[Other useful information we can provide? For example, when we have significant use of ARIA, we should mention it here. My point isn't to tell them every detail of accessible design or assistive technologies, but to clue them in that they should be able to accept certain features that they can't always take for granted.]
Accessibility for Developers
As a developer, you can depend on Drupal itself to have the same features we support in sites created with Drupal. And through D7AX, we make it easy for you to find contributed modules and themes that also support the development of accessible websites.
Drupal Modules and Accessibility
Look for the D7AX hashtag on the page of each module you download for your site. D7AX on the download page means the developer of that module has followed our resources for developing accessible modules. So they have done all they know to ensure that their modules and the content produced by them are accessible.
And you can help them keep that commitment. Each D7AX developer is eager to hear of your experience with their module, especially if you have identified an issue that they did not recognize. Perhaps you can help them make a good module even better!
Drupal Themes and Accessibility
[Retouch this to make it less of a carbon copy of the module section, but get the same idea across]
As with our contributed modules, the D7AX hashtag marks themes that support accessibility. When you see D7AX on the download page, you know that the theme's developer has followed our resources for developing accessible themes. So they have done all they know to ensure that their themes help you create accessible websites.
And you can help them keep that commitment. Each D7AX themer is eager to hear of your experience with their theme, especially if you have identified an issue that they did not recognize. Perhaps you can help them make a good theme even better!
Drupal Community Sites
- Drupal.org
- groups.drupal.org
- api.drupal.org
Drupal 7 & 8
Drupal 7 is designed to support the development of sites that comply with WCAG 2.0 & ATAG 2.0. The accessibility community around Drupal will be involved in adopting best practices in Drupal 8 as they evolve.
- Front End - What most anonymous users see
- Back End - What administrators or community members see (any web form)
Specific technical improvements to D7 - drupal.org/d7-accessibility
Maybe pulling things out from the module/theme upgrade pages?
Positive page about why accessibility matters and approaches to take - drupal.org/accessibility-intro
More of a page like - http://codex.wordpress.org/Accessibility
Technical description for developers with best practices - drupal.org/accessibility-specifications
Not sure if we can replicate http://docs.moodle.org/en/Accessibility
Web Accessibility Educational Materials
We should link to both Drupal Handbook documentation and outside resources. We should not re-invent the wheel when there are good materials on many topics already (how to write good video captions, how to use headings, etc).