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Re: controlling a CMS for access

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From: Jim Allan
Date: Aug 28, 2013 1:26PM

Lucy, you should be able to modify the template that generates all pages to
fix your generated headings (navigation headings, top level heading on the
page). the template could also be modified to include landmarks and other
accessibility goodies. all of the other headings are up to the content
creators.

jim


On Wed, Aug 28, 2013 at 2:19 PM, Rick Hill < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:

> Lucy,
>
> Unfortunately as far as headings go, under WCAG 2, any skipped levels will
> generate at best a warning from any tool. The reason? Under WCAG 2 AA,
> there are two ways to view headings.
>
>
> 1. The entire page can be organized top down as in an outline. If that
> is the case, then the first element on the page is an H1, the next is an H1
> or H2. If its anb H2, the next element can be an H3 or an H2. And so on. No
> levels skipped.
> 2. The elements of the page are labelled for their semantic importance.
> So on a three column layout, the left and right columns are not the primary
> content. The center column is. So, the center column gets and H1 and the
> top of the two side columns end up with an H2. In the reading order, these
> will appear H2, H1, H2 … thus skipping a level at the top. If the left
> column has additional heading labels relative to starting H2 at the top of
> the column, it could be that the last element in the column is an H3 (or H4
> or …). Which would make the reading order H2, H3, H1, H2
>
> In fact, even in scenario 1, you could end up with a skip in heading
> order. Beneath the starting H1 I have an H2 that contains an h3 with sub
> H4's. The next H2 then would skip a level .. H1, H2, H3, H4, H4, H3, H4,
> H4, H2
>
> Realistically, Web pages aren't laid out like outlines. HTML 5 tries to
> account for that by adding additional tags like article, section and aside.
> Each of these can contain its own heading arrangement. So, its not clear
> that that helps or not. Plus, AT browsers don't well support some of these
> newer tags.
>
> We struggle with this in our Web CMS as well. If folks have flexibility to
> create content, then they can mislabel headings. It is not clear that
> headings can be "fixed" automatically (we're looking at that). And given
> the two mod3els the WCAG allows for the use of headings, we thing number 2
> makes more sense.
> -------------------------------------------------------------------
> Rick Hill, Web CMS Administrator
> Strategic Communications, UC Davis
> (530) 752-9612
> http://cms.ucdavis.edu
> -------------------------------------------------------------------
> Web CMS assistance at <EMAIL REMOVED> <mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
> From: Lucy Greco < <EMAIL REMOVED> <mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> >>
> Reply-To: WebAIM Discussion List < <EMAIL REMOVED> <mailto:
> <EMAIL REMOVED> >>
> Date: Wednesday, August 28, 2013 12:00 PM
> To: WebAIM Discussion List < <EMAIL REMOVED> <mailto:
> <EMAIL REMOVED> >>
> Subject: [WebAIM] controlling a CMS for access
>
> Hello:
> We are trying to launch a large scale adoption of a cms. And are finding
> most of it to be very accessible. however the semantic structure it
> creates is not really that grate and inconsistent
> So I can go to a page and the page starts with h3 and then the main
> content is h1 and then sub headers are h4. Then on subpages the h3 becomes
> an h2. We are basing our templates on Drupal 7 using the Panopoly
> distribution and the panels module. Does anyone have any ideas how we can
> help our users create more consistent structure and how we deal with the
> skipped levels in the headings. I would like to play hard ball on this and
> say that we should not allow out of order headers but the rest of what I
> have seen works to well to not give in a little smile Lucy
>
> Lucia Greco
> Web Access Analyst
> IST-Campus Technology Services
> University of California, Berkeley
> (510) 289-6008 skype: lucia1-greco
> http://webaccess.berkeley.edu
> Follow me on twitter @accessaces
> > > > <EMAIL REMOVED> >
>
> > > >



--
Jim Allan, Accessibility Coordinator & Webmaster
Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired
1100 W. 45th St., Austin, Texas 78756
voice 512.206.9315 fax: 512.206.9264 http://www.tsbvi.edu/
"We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us." McLuhan, 1964