Did you know that 1 in 4 adults in the US has a disability*? That's a staggering 61 million people who may be impacted by inaccessible websites.
As a Drupal developer, you have the power to make a difference by ensuring your site meets the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). In this blog, we'll explore the key features and best practices for testing WCAG 2.1 accessibility in Drupal, so you can create websites that are inclusive for all users.
Accessibility refers to making a website usable by as many people as possible, particularly regarding people with disabilities. What does A11y refer to? A11y simply refers to the word “Accessibility” where 11 denotes the number of characters present between “A” and “Y”
WCAG stands for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. It is considered to be the standardized benchmark for website accessibility. Created by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), WCAG guidelines are the best and the easiest way of making your website usable for everyone. WCAG guidelines are strictly followed by most government and healthcare organizations in order to ensure that the website abides by accessibility laws (for example, section 508).
There are four major principles of accessibility if you want to adopt WCAG compliance. These follow the ‘POUR’ acronym, which stands for Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, and Robust.
In simple words, the content should be detectable to a user’s senses. This means that they must be able to recognize the information that is being presented to them. It includes allowing users to hear audio content clearly and making sure that it is distinguishable from background noise.
It's all about making sure users can comfortably navigate your website and the interface is user-friendly. There mustn’t be any inaccessible part of the site or any steps that users might be incapable of completing. Should avoid fast-moving and flashing content when designing your web content. It should be made easy to surf the site without a keyboard, also making sure the site is keyboard accessible for users who can’t use a mouse.
Users must be able to process the information presented to them and also be able to understand how to use and navigate through the website. This includes making the text clear and readable and predictable to make sure that pages appear in a user-friendly and anticipated way.
This highlights that the technology could evolve and build your website with future technology evolvements. As a thumb rule, if technology changes and develops, the content should also remain accessible. It also needs to be comprehended by a wide spectrum of users with different disabilities and still remains easy to understand. For example, the site made it compatible to work with the newest version of screen readers.
Below are a few of the advantages of WCAG implementation
Many people with visual challenges use screen magnifiers and screen readers. A screen reader is software that reads digital text displayed on the screen aloud. Some screen reader examples include:
WCAG 2.1 has 3 levels of success criteria
Most of the WCAG-compatible sites widely fall under the accessibility success criteria level A or AA.
The following are steps followed to perform an accessibility test for a Drupal website
Web development must include accessibility to make sure that websites are functional and accessible to those who have disabilities. Drupal is renowned for its steadfast dedication to accessibility. Take a look at how Drupal promotes accessibility and what tools and features it provides to assist websites to be more user-friendly.
The goal of the Drupal development team has always been to build a platform that is usable by as many users as feasible. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA requirements are followed when developing the core Drupal platform. This indicates that a variety of disabilities, such as those affecting the visual, auditory, physical, verbal, cognitive, and neurological systems, can access Drupal websites.
To improve a website's accessibility, Drupal provides a variety of accessibility modules and plugins that can be deployed. Several well-liked accessibility modules and plugins are as follows:
Developers and designers who are committed to accessibility make up a sizable part of the Drupal community. An effort led by the community to make Drupal more accessible to those with disabilities is the Drupal Accessibility Group. The group offers guidance, tools, and best practices for developing ADA-compliant Drupal websites.
https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/disabilityandhealth/infographic-disability-impacts-all.html
Drupal is an effective and open-source content management system that provides a variety of features, tools, and plugins to improve a website's accessibility. Because of its dedication to accessibility and the strength of its accessibility-focused community, Drupal is a fantastic platform for building websites that are useable and accessible for those with impairments.
I hope this article provides you with the required insight on accessibility testing with WCAG 2.1. Want to build an accessible Drupal website from scratch or want to make your current site more accessible? We’d love to make that happen! Let’s talk!
Author: Nusrat Fathima
Meet Nusrat, a Software Tester by profession. Nusrat loves reading and learning new things. She enjoys road trips and exploring new places. When it comes to food, she loves to indulge in anything and everything chicken.
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Explore View all Case StudiesThe start of a design project is always exciting and uncertain—there are so many insights and possibilities to explore. As we discuss initial design ideas with the client, everyone begins to form a rough picture in their heads. Herein lies a challenge: how do we best communicate what’s in our mind’s eye? When we’re speaking in abstract, subjective terms, how can we ensure everyone is on the same page?
Good communication at this stage is as crucial as it is tricky. It’s a chance for everyone to collaborate and agree on a strong, clear direction for the design. Ultimately, this leads to a smoother, more efficient, more enjoyable experience for all. And, of course, an end result that impresses.
Stylescapes are a powerful tool that we use to facilitate communication around design direction. Read on to learn what stylescapes are, how we use them, and why our clients love them.
A stylescape is a collection of colors, typography, images, shapes, and other design elements that are carefully arranged to demonstrate an overall visual aesthetic. It’s something between a moodboard and a mockup.
Check out the stylescape that we created for OCAD University’s admissions website below. We incorporated animation into the stylescape to show how we planned to elevate the user experience with an interactive design.
Image
OCAD U’s admissions website showcases student-created art to inspire and engage applicants.
Image
A bold design direction reflects OCAD U’s reputation as Canada’s largest art, design, and digital media university.
Because a stylescape isn’t as abstract as a moodboard, the viewer gets a more accurate idea of how the end product might look. This makes it easier to discuss preferences—more of “this”, less of “that.” And you can provide broad feedback while pointing to specific examples.
Here’s an example of a moodboard we created for OCAD U:
A moodboard is a curated collage of images, text, and design elements that conveys a general style or feel.
Because a stylescape isn’t as specific as a mockup, it’s quicker to create and won’t lock you into designs for real pages yet. This level of flexibility is ideal while we’re still pinning down a design direction. It helps us use our time efficiently so that we can give you the most value for your investment.
Here’s an example of a final mockup for the OCAD U admissions website:
A mockup is a high-fidelity render of the design that shows how the finished product will look.
We’ve been continuously improving our design process since Evolving Web was founded 15+ years ago. Incorporating stylescapes into our process has elevated our collaborative, iterative approach.
We typically create stylescapes as we’re finishing the UX discovery phase and starting to develop wireframes (although our timing is flexible depending on the project requirements.) This ensures we know enough about your organization’s brand, goals, priorities, and target audiences to make valuable recommendations. It also means we have an idea of the most important components for us to showcase.
When we present a stylescape to a client, we aim to:
Million Peacemakers is a non-profit that empowers people and businesses to co-create a culture of peace using ‘Nonflict’—a structured approach to conflict resolution. We partnered with Million Peacemakers to design a website aimed at youth volunteers.
The project had a tight timeline of only 8 weeks. Our team worked quickly to understand the target audience, pitch ideas, and agree on a design direction. We developed a creative concept—”youth volunteers on a hero’s journey”—which we presented to the client in the form of a stylescape.
A high-contrast colour palette and contour drawings capture a youthful energy.
A curling, continuous line conveys the concept of an ongoing journey.
The stylescape enabled us to quickly and effectively communicate our ideas and elicit feedback from Million Peacemakers. The client loved our concept, and feedback was made easy because there were visual elements to identify. After some minor adjustments, we locked down a clear design direction and progressed to mockups.
Our team successfully delivered a beautiful, compelling, functional website within the 8-week timeframe. What’s more, Million Peacemakers was so happy with the new visual identity that they adopted the same treatment on their main website.
Evolving Web created a unique visual identity with a clear focus on Million Peacemakers’ youth audience.
Evolving Web has spent more than 15 years empowering organizations to create deeper connections through valuable digital experiences. Our Design Team harnesses research, strategy, and innovation to unleash the creative potential in every project—no matter its size. Partner with us and you’ll gain the confidence, wisdom, and support to take your digital design to the next level.
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Join us on Thursday, May 18 at 1pm ET / 10am PT, for our regularly scheduled call to chat about all things Drupal and nonprofits. (Convert to your local time zone.)
In this month's informal chat, we'll be talking about local development environments. Got something specific on your mind? Feel free to share ahead of time in our collaborative Google doc: https://nten.org/drupal/notes!
All nonprofit Drupal devs and users, regardless of experience level, are always welcome on this call.
This free call is sponsored by NTEN.org and open to everyone.
Join the call: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81817469653
Meeting ID: 818 1746 9653
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Dial by your location:
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Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kpV1o65N
Today we are talking about Working Remotely with Alan Sherry & Jordan Graham.
For show notes visit: www.talkingDrupal.com/399
TopicsAlan Sherry - Drupal Profile
HostsNic Laflin - www.nLighteneddevelopment.com @nicxvan John Picozzi - www.epam.com @johnpicozzi Jordan Graham - @jordanlgraham
MOTW CorrespondentMartin Anderson-Clutz - @mandclu oEmbed Providers Extends Drupal’s ability to embed content from third-party sites.
If you often feel that you have a lot to accomplish but fall short of time in your business life, you are not alone. A majority of entrepreneurs feel this way. But, thanks to Zapier, you no longer have to worry about the scarcity of time you experience. With Zapier, you can streamline your Automation for website development tasks and focus on growing your business.
Even the most complex Learning Management System can be augmented with Zapier's robust automation platform. While LMS can't accommodate every single use case, Zapier can often provide the best workaround by connecting the apps and services you use and creating automated workflows, known as Zaps. This way, all the repetitive tasks are taken care of, allowing you to focus your time and energy on other tasks that demand your unwavering focus.
You lay down for an afternoon nap, right above you a ceiling fan that has a reflective shiny motor catches your attention. You spend a few minutes tracing the slightest reflection of the room on that shiny motor. Or, amidst busy conversations in a happening room, you get lost, drowning out the noise but are aware enough to observe how people are engaging in conversation and small talk; you were not eavesdropping but simply paying attention. Or while you sit alone in a public space say a cafe, working on your laptop, the intricately designed borders of a wooden cabinet fascinates you, you stay in thought for a good moment and eventually recovering back to finish what work you planned for the day.
You can’t grow if you constantly crave comfort, and you certainly cannot move ahead with quality if you are a busy body; too much of a busy body. You have most certainly must have come across the Italian idiom "Il Dolce Far Niente" or The sweetness of doing nothing from the movie Eat Pray Love (you may also have heard it on social media). Between drifting away amidst heavy work and snapping right back, it can be considered balance and balance is beautiful. A break is necessary.
No matter how nescient this all can sound or however dull your break could be it is as important as crossing out your to do list. Sitting in front of a laptop, maybe for 2 hours, or for some even an unbothered 4 hours, move around. The 20/20/20 rule; for every 20 minutes of screen time, look at something 20 feet away for 20 seconds.
So if you have pulled a marathon of screen time take this as a reminder to stand up from your chair or stare at the ceiling fan (or at the wall for those that don’t use ceiling fans), but after you quickly skim through what we covered this past week.
The 2023 edition of DebConf is scheduled for September, and Four Kitchens, a digital agency, has underwent a rebranding process. Acquia Engage Is Back to Europe and the deadlines for Drupal Developer Days 2023 are fast approaching.
amazee.io is a ZeroOps application delivery hub is hosting a Webinar and are also hosting their first ever amazee.io LagoonCon in Pittsburgh.
Acquia releases a DrupalCon guide and also announced the appointment of its new Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). Jennifer Griffin Smith, a technology industry leader.
Material announces strategic alliance with Acquia and The Linux Foundation Introduces an Advisory Board.
That's all for this week.
Yours Sincerely,
Alethia Rose Braganza
Sub Editor, TheDropTimes
If the decision of choosing the right Drupal Development Services provider for your LMS development has left you feeling perplexed, you are not alone. It’s natural to get surrounded by the mist of confusion when there are plenty of options available to choose from. As this critical decision will have long-term consequences for your company, it actually calls for a conscientious choice with measured steps. So, what’s the way out?
The answer is knowing against which parameters you should weigh a Learning Management System (LMS) development company and the questions you should ask them. This will help you get valuable insights about the company and make an informed decision.
7 Actionable Steps to Select the Right LMS Development Company
Figma designs to CMS Are you a design ace, but less confident when it comes to actually building a new website? Maybe you’re new to website development and starting a build from scratch is a little daunting. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if there was a way to simply design in Figma and have a fully functioning website without having to code to build your Figma design? Converting the visual design files from a design tool like Figma is complex and requires specialist knowledge on how to write code for the CMS platform you intend to use for the website build. Even if you know how to design in Figma and write code or build a site in either Wordpress or Drupal (bonus points for being able to do both!!), it’s still time consuming.