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Thread: accessible CMS
Number of posts in this thread: 8 (In chronological order)
From: Rich Pedley
Date: Tue, May 08 2007 6:40AM
Subject: accessible CMS
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I realise this gets discussed every so often, so apologies for
bringing this up once again.
I am looking for a 'free' CMS that has accessibility features, or at
the very least has accessibility in mind.
Currently my top runners are:
PostNuke - http://www.postnuke.com/
Joomla - http://www.joomla.org/
XOOPS - http://www.xoops.org/
TYPO3 - http://typo3.org/
MySource Matrix - http://matrix.squiz.net/
I am leaning toward TYPO3 at the moment.
I would use my own CMS, but it lacks some extra features, and the
up-grade ability, of the larger packages.
Has anyone any thoughts on any of these, including ease of use on the
admin side of things, overall accessibility etc etc.
I haven't yet run any accessibility checks on these systems, but would
appreciate comments from first hand experience of any of these systems.
thanks in advance
Rich Pedley
From: Patrick H. Lauke
Date: Tue, May 08 2007 7:00AM
Subject: Re: accessible CMS
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Quoting Rich Pedley < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >:
> Has anyone any thoughts on any of these, including ease of use on the
> admin side of things, overall accessibility etc etc.
Have a look at this as a starting point, I'd say:
http://juicystudio.com/article/choosing-an-accessible-cms.php
--
Patrick H. Lauke
From: Gareth Dart
Date: Tue, May 08 2007 7:10AM
Subject: Re: accessible CMS
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Accessibility wise, I've had a reasonably smooth ride with Joomla. It's
not accessible out of the box, but has required minimal tweaking to
achieve all the priority 1 W3C targets. It's also a damn good CMS, the
admin side is pretty intuitive, and easily extensible. Joomla 1.5
promises to be a solid step forward, too.
One note that probably bears repeating: of almost equal importance as
the framework you choose is educating your authors (irrelevant if it's
just you, obviously) in how to produce accessible articles, and (if such
a thing is even possible ;) ) making sure they follow the guidelines.
Accessibility-proofing your CMS is all for nowt if your content creators
start churning stuff out with five million 'click here' links, for
instance.
G
From: Rich Pedley
Date: Tue, May 08 2007 7:20AM
Subject: Re: accessible CMS
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On 08/05/2007 14:00, Gareth Dart wrote:
> Accessibility wise, I've had a reasonably smooth ride with Joomla.
> It's not accessible out of the box, but has required minimal
> tweaking to achieve all the priority 1 W3C targets. It's also a
> damn good CMS, the admin side is pretty intuitive, and easily
> extensible. Joomla 1.5 promises to be a solid step forward, too.
That was my impression also, thanks for confirming.
> One note that probably bears repeating: of almost equal importance
> as the framework you choose is educating your authors (irrelevant
> if it's just you, obviously) in how to produce accessible articles,
> and (if such a thing is even possible ;) ) making sure they follow
> the guidelines. Accessibility-proofing your CMS is all for nowt if
> your content creators start churning stuff out with five million
> 'click here' links, for instance.
Well I'd get to tinker first, followed up by a couple of other
knowledgeable techies. After which we should be able to train up
people fairly easily to use it. Though we would probably create a
sandbox area for them to play.
While I am looking after the site, then all new content would be
reviewed and amended as necessary.
Rich
From: Rich Pedley
Date: Tue, May 08 2007 7:30AM
Subject: Re: accessible CMS
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On 08/05/2007 13:47, Patrick H. Lauke wrote:
> Quoting Rich Pedley < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >:
>
>> Has anyone any thoughts on any of these, including ease of use on the
>> admin side of things, overall accessibility etc etc.
>
> Have a look at this as a starting point, I'd say:
>
> http://juicystudio.com/article/choosing-an-accessible-cms.php
One of my starting points...
TYPO3 was a concern with the comments raised there, but the overall
'output' seemed to suggest it was better than had been reported. The
back end issues are an issue that would have been looked at.
(plus I did forget the bit about 'frames'...)
Rich
From: John E. Brandt
Date: Tue, May 08 2007 9:20AM
Subject: Re: accessible CMS
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You may also want to add Drupal (www.drupal.org) to your list. I found it
was easier to learn "out of the box" than Joomla! But I agree Joomla is a
very good product.
If you choose Joomla, you may want to consider using the a8ejoomla
accessible template http://www.a8ejoomla.com/ and then you'll have to look
around for some "skins"/templates that meet XHTML/CSS standards or write one
yourself.
I've found that by playing around with several of these that they each have
something to offer - I sometimes think I would like to see a marriage of
several of these systems.
I would also STRONGLY echo Gareth's comment about authors and accessibility.
None of these system are designed to prevent authors from intentionally or
unintentionally creating inaccessible content. The big issues I am finding
are: knowledge of the correct methods for adding images; and problems
created when people cut and paste content from other sources.
Good luck with your search - let us know how you make out and what you learn
~j
John E. Brandt
Augusta, Maine USA
www.jebswebs.com
From: Rich Pedley
Date: Tue, May 08 2007 12:20PM
Subject: Re: accessible CMS
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On 08/05/2007 16:15, John E. Brandt wrote:
> You may also want to add Drupal (www.drupal.org) to your list. I
> found it was easier to learn "out of the box" than Joomla! But I
> agree Joomla is a very good product.
I'll have to have a good play with the admin side as I hadn't
considered Drupal before. The last time I did a serious search for
CMSs' was several years ago, and something back then put me off Drupal
- though I can't remember what it was now.
> If you choose Joomla, you may want to consider using the a8ejoomla
> accessible template http://www.a8ejoomla.com/ and then you'll have
> to look around for some "skins"/templates that meet XHTML/CSS
> standards or write one yourself.
Thanks for the link, will come in handy.
I'd probably amend existing templates, bringing them upto scratch
where needed - depends on how intensive the templates are.
> I've found that by playing around with several of these that they
> each have something to offer - I sometimes think I would like to
> see a marriage of several of these systems.
Exactly, which is why choosing one isn't always that simple - they all
have different good and bad points.
> I would also STRONGLY echo Gareth's comment about authors and
> accessibility. None of these system are designed to prevent authors
> from intentionally or unintentionally creating inaccessible
> content. The big issues I am finding are: knowledge of the correct
> methods for adding images; and problems created when people cut and
> paste content from other sources.
Yes... which is why I will be overseeing any content changes and
amending as necessary. Even the best of us make mistakes and it is
good to have a second set of eyes go over things.
> Good luck with your search - let us know how you make out and what
> you learn
Thanks.
Though before I can even implement it I have to await for the people
hosting it to give me MySQL - promised by the end of the month!
Rich
From: Rich Pedley
Date: Thu, May 10 2007 12:50PM
Subject: Re: accessible CMS
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I've found time to play with some of them, and rather than bore you
all with the details:
http://cms.elfden.co.uk/2007/05/10/finding-a-content-mangement-system/
I am now hoping to go with Joomla, even with its faults. I'll have to
put it to the team I'm working with to get agreement first.
Rich