If you work with a government organization who has ever used an automated “508 testing” tool online, you know the pain: a screen full of alerts and the dreaded words: “200+ violations.” What do you do with that information? Is it code to fix or content to fix? Who can fix it? I wouldn’t know either, and accessibility is my full-time job.
At Phase2, we’ve set out to create a more collaborative accessibility implementation process through an automated testing tool called “Beyond 508″ to help government teams scan their sites for code and content, and then better identify the problem, who needs to fix it, and most importantly, how to fix it.
To get this project from prototype to “fully functional,” we’ve submitted a proposal to the latest Knight News Challenge (focused on open government). Check out the video to learn more about it! If you agree, please “applaud” our submission here: http://kng.ht/16O111m
Comments
Dangers of Promising Fully Automated Tool
Thanks Annie.
Would love to have you & Catharine McNally more involved in the Drupal accessibility community.
I do like where you are trying to go with Beyond508, but really get concerned when anyone recommends a fully automated approach to automated testing.
I'm also curious how Beyond508 would be integrated with the Drupal community. Is this something that will be released under the GPL like the QUAIL library? Is it something that will be a free service like the WAVE Toolbar? Will it work with other distributions of Drupal or indeed other CMS's?
The presentation seemed to be full of promise, but short on details. There's nothing wrong with that in a pitch for a grant, but I'd love to get more info here about where you are hoping this to go.
I do think it's also worth mentioning Kathy's submission as she's been a long time Drupal user (with a wealth of accessibility experience from DAISY) too:
https://www.newschallenge.org/open/open-government/submission/make-misso...
Some other links on automated testing:
http://www.nomensa.com/blog/2011/getting-accessibility-testing-right/
http://www.w3.org/wiki/Accessibility_testing#Expert_testing
https://www.ssbbartgroup.com/blog/2009/10/09/automated-testing-tool-limi...
http://www.gaates.org/aICwebdev/s3y4.php
http://www.karlgroves.com/2012/02/02/web-accessibility-testing-do-automa...
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OpenConcept | Twitter @mgifford | Drupal Security Guide
Hi Mike, We have always
Hi Mike,
We have always worked in open source technologies and we're committed to that for this project, too. anything we release in Drupal will be released under GPL. We don't know for sure if we will carry this to other CMSs or to a hosted service, where the same exact licenses would not apply, so I can't say for sure which licenses we'll use for this project. In terms of whether we'd offer this as a free service like WAVE, a service with paid options (like HiSoftware), or as open source code alone, I don't know yet. We are at the point of making the testing work — that's our primary goal right now. What we do with it, how far we extend it, and exactly how we'll license it once we get there will be part of the next phase of this project. In response to your tweet to me earlier, I absolutely agree with you, implementing accessibility is a collaborative effort so we're definitely open to any suggestions, feedback, and ideas from you and the community on what you'd like to see here.
Thanks,
Catharine
Automated versus automation-assisted
I agree there is no way to provide full automation. However, some assistance tools could be provided as time-savers. For instance, to review for appropriate alternate text, it would be helpful to have a view with several columns:
The image itself, clickable to see the full size version
The alternate text, fully visible without requiring an extra click or mouse-over to view, clickable to edit
The image dimensions
The URL, if the image is a link
The page title of the URL
The URL and title of any pages the image appears on
Charles Belov
Webmaster
San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA)
Automation Assistance
Hi Charles:
Thank you for your message. "Automation assistance" is certainly a direction that we're headed in. The ability to provide people with remediation information and details -- like as you outlined in your example scenario -- would help cut through the confusion and provide clarity for people less familiar with accessibility best practices.
Look forward to your support on our Knight News Challenge Proposal! You can "applaud" our application through this link: http://kng.ht/16O111m
Why is eAccessibility so hard?
Great discussion which already led me to think more about the whole eAccessibility eco-system.
Along with Mike I would like to know more about the Beyond508 project and whether the remediation information is addressing whatever the system or methodology is that the government pages were originally built in. It has been suggested that we collaborate but need to know more.
- Kathy
eAccessibility proposal: http://kng.ht/Zzpn8o
eAccessibility is hard - accessibility entries not funded
Note that the News Challenge login popup or login via Facebook is not accessible. I sent an email about this which they did respond to, saying they are working with their developers. Note that the entry submission site is not Drupal but all/most of the Knight News sites have been based on the Drupal open source CMS platform for several years.
March 18, 2013, 04:21PM
Some of our people cannot log in to this site and post:
On Mon, Mar 18, 2013 at 8:19 AM, George Kerscher
Refinement Stage
Well, the Knight News Challenge is certainly an interesting one. Sadly no accessibility initiatives got in to the semi-final round https://www.newschallenge.org/open/open-government/evaluation/?page=1&ba...
Curious who the winners will be when they are announced in June.
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OpenConcept | Twitter @mgifford | Drupal Security Guide
Annie, I'm trying to find the
Annie, I'm trying to find the best way to document the various pockets of effort that are underway among folks in this group. Mostly I want to prevent us from duplicating work.
Are you putting the Phase 2 work on drupal.org?