RE: Libraries to build web pages.

Since this is a broader subject that involves many different types of frameworks, this is an extremely thorny subject and one that has no easy answer and likely never will.

In short, it's impossible to make all people making open source plugins for all frameworks accessible, because one or more of any of these factors will completely derail any attempt at doing so: 1 the person doesn't properly understand the standards, 2 they don't properly understand how this affects assistive technologies, 3 they don't properly understand what levels of support currently exist within browsers and platforms for these technologies, 4 they don't have any experience with accessibility to begin with or have never thought of it, 5 they have never been instructed that this is needed to ensure higher levels of support for all user types, and 6 many people just don't care about doing the necessary work needed to make all of these things happen. In addition none of these considerations take into account that businesses aren't willing to invest in this level of education and involvement for all of their present day engineers, hence the prediction that most future coders won't even be expected or know to be aware how to do these things themselves.

I realized this many years ago, and built the following three fully functional and scalable accessible widget archives that uses a light weight plugin module for directly integrating them into the jQuery, MooTools, and Dojo frameworks.

These web development archives include all of the most commonly used design patterns that most commonly have negative effects on accessibility when implemented incorrectly across the web.

These are free to use, fully configurable, and open source, available on GitHub at:
* Powered by jQuery: https://github.com/accdc/tsg
* Powered by Dojo: https://github.com/accdc/tsg-dojo
* Powered by MooTools: https://github.com/accdc/tsg-mootools

Moreover, I have intentionally programmed all of these widgets to automatically follow the ARIA Conformance Matrices algorithms at
http://whatsock.com/training/matrices/

Which too are also automatically integrated with Visual ARIA for full visual confirmation of the ARIA usage within these widgets at runtime for agile development projects, available at
http://whatsock.com/training/matrices/visual-aria.htm

Both Visual ARIA and the ARIA Role Matrices are actually subsets of the guidance more fully documented in the Accessibility Tree Training Guide, which I wrote as a result of building these widgets like this, at
http://whatsock.com/training

So back to the original question, it is impossible to legislate that all creators of frameworks and plugin developers follow the same level of obsession and dedication that I have here, which has taken about ten years to achieve, and without which, it is equally impossible to guarantee that all future makers of these widgets and frameworks will be able to do so without any prior knowledge of accessibility at all. The reason being that, if the developers making these frameworks in the first place lack this fundamental information, then how can they also expect that anybody implementing their widgets will understand this as well without doing as many do now, by propagating badly programmed widgets across millions of sites around the web in total ignorance.

Some frameworks are indeed working on this, which is good, however a lot of work needs to be done in these other areas regarding integral education, training, business investment and involvement, amongst others to make this happen more reliably, and there needs to be a base standard on which to base expected results.

I can only recommend that you choose the development framework that can best prove the accessibility of what it states and offers for whatever your business needs are.

Best wishes,
Bryan


Bryan Garaventa
Accessibility Fellow
SSB BART Group, Inc.
bryan.garaventa@ssbbartgroup.com
415.624.2709 (o)
www.SSBBartGroup.com

From: Sean Murphy (seanmmur) [mailto:seanmmur@cisco.com]
Sent: Thursday, January 05, 2017 8:11 PM
To: WAI Interest Group <w3c-wai-ig@w3.org>
Subject: Libraries to build web pages.

Team,

>From my point of view, development environments which include the libraries, bootstrap templates, code generators, etc are key focus areas to improve accessibility. Some articles I have reviewed on the net indicate web developers in the future will not need to have the level of development knowledge, but more design and business knowledge. Some of the tools I have used don't include or even discuss accessibility in their environment. Thus the topic I am rasing is slightly left field and I am hoping people can help.

UAAG from my reading is focusing on the browser, media players and plugins. Thus companies who develop libraries for web authors such as rich edit controls, toolbars, drop down (combo boxes), etc should follow the UAAG standards?

Those vendors who create development environments which allow the author to build the web site without using any coding should be following the ATAG standards. If the tool is using libraries as previously described with the vendor develops. Then they should follow the UAAG standards as well?

If I am correct in the above, what is peoples views on the best method of educating, encouraging or even using legal means to get these vendors/developers to start utilising the standards? As the end-user of the web product  only focuses on the organisation that is publishing the web content, not the tools or development environment.

Is any one aware of any company including accessibility in their contracts with vendors who provide the development environment?

AS some of the tools and libraries people use for development is open source. How does legal laws like the ADA or section 508 apply here? As from my understanding open source and like projects are not owned by anyone. Thus getting these groups of people to follow the accessibility standards is nearly impossible. Especially if you are not a coder to assist with the project.

I just see this as a big area of concern which I don't see major improvements. If the development environment which builds the web product was accessible or supported the standards. Then I think a lot of the issues would be addressed.

Sean Murphy