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Thread: Accessibility of third party comment systems such as Disqus?

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Number of posts in this thread: 6 (In chronological order)

From: Peter Krantz
Date: Fri, Jul 02 2010 3:39AM
Subject: Accessibility of third party comment systems such as Disqus?
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Hi!

Do you know of accessibility reviews of any of the third party comment
systems (for example disqus.com and aboutecho.com)? These are gaining
popularity and are often replacing the built in comment systems in
content management systems such as Wordpress. A review could help
these companies get accessibility on the agenda and improvements would
immediately be available to thousands of websites.

I am interested in seeing if someone already did this or if we could
get some people together to do a quick review of the technical
aspects.

Regards,

Peter Krantz
http://www.standards-schmandards.com/

From: John E. Brandt
Date: Fri, Jul 02 2010 9:09AM
Subject: Re: Accessibility of third party comment systems such as Disqus?
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That's a good question. It seems that there are new ones being developed all
the time and most are using some form of scripting that make them "look"
inherently inaccessible.

And, I've read some stuff on some blogs where folks are suggesting that some
of these "free feedback forms" are full of malware and/or create endless
pop-ups with links to "questionable websites. "

John E. Brandt
jebswebs.com
Augusta, ME USA
= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
www.jebswebs.com

-----Original Message-----
From: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
[mailto: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = ] On Behalf Of Peter Krantz
Sent: Friday, July 02, 2010 4:42 AM
To: WebAIM Discussion List
Subject: [WebAIM] Accessibility of third party comment systems such as
Disqus?

Hi!

Do you know of accessibility reviews of any of the third party comment
systems (for example disqus.com and aboutecho.com)? These are gaining
popularity and are often replacing the built in comment systems in content
management systems such as Wordpress. A review could help these companies
get accessibility on the agenda and improvements would immediately be
available to thousands of websites.

I am interested in seeing if someone already did this or if we could get
some people together to do a quick review of the technical aspects.

Regards,

Peter Krantz
http://www.standards-schmandards.com/

From: Peter Krantz
Date: Fri, Jul 02 2010 9:24AM
Subject: Re: Accessibility of third party comment systems such as Disqus?
← Previous message | Next message →

On Fri, Jul 2, 2010 at 16:10, John E. Brandt < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
>
> And, I've read some stuff on some blogs where folks are suggesting that some
> of these "free feedback forms" are full of malware and/or create endless
> pop-ups with links to "questionable websites. "
>

I am fairly sure that isn't the case with Disqus or Echo. They seem to
be very reputable. Some things they have in common are:

1. They require javascript to work. Website owners place a script in
the webpage to make it commentable.
2. They allow users to use existing credentials from other apps such
as Gmail and Facebook. This removes the need for CAPTCHA protection
(which is good).
3. They allow for threaded comments with at least visual display of
the comment hierarchy. This may make discussions easier to understand.

Regards,

Peter

From: Carin Headrick
Date: Fri, Jul 02 2010 10:00AM
Subject: Re: Accessibility of third party comment systems suchas Disqus?
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I use Echo, AKA JsKit, on my blog, and it's not the best best best, but it
is workable. I wish I could figure out why, in its latest flavour, the radio
buttons for following threads don't show up as radio buttons, nor do you
have any idea whether you have successfully clicked one...until the emails
start to come in, that is. There is an admin panel where you can ask for the
more stripped down interface, which makes it passible. All the emoticon
graphics are labeled, which is cute.

Carin
----- Original Message -----
From: "John E. Brandt" < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
To: "'WebAIM Discussion List'" < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
Sent: Friday, July 02, 2010 10:10 AM
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Accessibility of third party comment systems suchas
Disqus?


That's a good question. It seems that there are new ones being developed all
the time and most are using some form of scripting that make them "look"
inherently inaccessible.

And, I've read some stuff on some blogs where folks are suggesting that some
of these "free feedback forms" are full of malware and/or create endless
pop-ups with links to "questionable websites. "

John E. Brandt
jebswebs.com
Augusta, ME USA
= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
www.jebswebs.com

-----Original Message-----
From: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
[mailto: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = ] On Behalf Of Peter Krantz
Sent: Friday, July 02, 2010 4:42 AM
To: WebAIM Discussion List
Subject: [WebAIM] Accessibility of third party comment systems such as
Disqus?

Hi!

Do you know of accessibility reviews of any of the third party comment
systems (for example disqus.com and aboutecho.com)? These are gaining
popularity and are often replacing the built in comment systems in content
management systems such as Wordpress. A review could help these companies
get accessibility on the agenda and improvements would immediately be
available to thousands of websites.

I am interested in seeing if someone already did this or if we could get
some people together to do a quick review of the technical aspects.

Regards,

Peter Krantz
http://www.standards-schmandards.com/

From: ckrugman@sbcglobal.net
Date: Fri, Jul 02 2010 2:45PM
Subject: Re: Accessibility of third party comment systems such asDisqus?
← Previous message | Next message →

I have had some recent bad experiences with web sites allowing using
existing credentials. Facebook leaves much to be desired when it comes to
screen reader accessibility due to the layout and graphics. I have found one
web site that I could no longer access because they were exclusively
allowing use of credentials from other sites that I do not use due to
accessibility and other issues. While this trend may be beneficial in some
instances it needs to be watched carefully.
Chuck
----- Original Message -----
From: "Peter Krantz" < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
To: "WebAIM Discussion List" < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
Sent: Friday, July 02, 2010 7:25 AM
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Accessibility of third party comment systems such
asDisqus?


> On Fri, Jul 2, 2010 at 16:10, John E. Brandt < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
>>
>> And, I've read some stuff on some blogs where folks are suggesting that
>> some
>> of these "free feedback forms" are full of malware and/or create endless
>> pop-ups with links to "questionable websites. "
>>
>
> I am fairly sure that isn't the case with Disqus or Echo. They seem to
> be very reputable. Some things they have in common are:
>
> 1. They require javascript to work. Website owners place a script in
> the webpage to make it commentable.
> 2. They allow users to use existing credentials from other apps such
> as Gmail and Facebook. This removes the need for CAPTCHA protection
> (which is good).
> 3. They allow for threaded comments with at least visual display of
> the comment hierarchy. This may make discussions easier to understand.
>
> Regards,
>
> Peter
>

From: Carin Headrick
Date: Fri, Jul 02 2010 4:09PM
Subject: Re: Accessibility of third party comment systems suchasDisqus?
← Previous message | No next message

Yuck. That's gross. In Echo, it's only an option. You can either log in or
type out your name.

Carin
----- Original Message -----
From: < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
To: "WebAIM Discussion List" < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
Sent: Friday, July 02, 2010 3:45 PM
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Accessibility of third party comment systems
suchasDisqus?


I have had some recent bad experiences with web sites allowing using
existing credentials. Facebook leaves much to be desired when it comes to
screen reader accessibility due to the layout and graphics. I have found one
web site that I could no longer access because they were exclusively
allowing use of credentials from other sites that I do not use due to
accessibility and other issues. While this trend may be beneficial in some
instances it needs to be watched carefully.
Chuck
----- Original Message -----
From: "Peter Krantz" < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
To: "WebAIM Discussion List" < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
Sent: Friday, July 02, 2010 7:25 AM
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Accessibility of third party comment systems such
asDisqus?


> On Fri, Jul 2, 2010 at 16:10, John E. Brandt < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
>>
>> And, I've read some stuff on some blogs where folks are suggesting that
>> some
>> of these "free feedback forms" are full of malware and/or create endless
>> pop-ups with links to "questionable websites. "
>>
>
> I am fairly sure that isn't the case with Disqus or Echo. They seem to
> be very reputable. Some things they have in common are:
>
> 1. They require javascript to work. Website owners place a script in
> the webpage to make it commentable.
> 2. They allow users to use existing credentials from other apps such
> as Gmail and Facebook. This removes the need for CAPTCHA protection
> (which is good).
> 3. They allow for threaded comments with at least visual display of
> the comment hierarchy. This may make discussions easier to understand.
>
> Regards,
>
> Peter
>