[support] accessibility of drupal sites

[Mohammed Al-shar']

hi Gerhard!

thank you for this quick response.

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" Our problem is that we don't have blind people who give us input."

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I hope I will be of help in this regard. I am blind myself, and has been 
using drupal for sometime now.

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 There is a module somewhere that allows you do change the size of the 
font, IIRC. It should be easy to extend to change the contrast too by
 switching to a different theme. There is a switchtheme module which might 
be usable for this.

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can you help me locate that IIRC module? I don't seem to be able to find it. 
as for the theme switcher, I don't like to do this as struggling with one 
theme for Arabic "rtl" and English "ltr" has been very troublesom. how ever, 
I think that making different versions of the same theme with different 
color and font size companations might work. understandably, I hate to 
struggle with colors myself as I haven't finished the task of modifying the 
current stylesheet to more blue, and wouldn't mind, will actually apreciate, 
a hand in doing this.

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 I like to think that Drupal as such is quite good at this.
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absolutely, I can't agree more.

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 I've had a short look. I like the design it is plain and simple (not  that 
I am not a designer). What I didn't like are the two images on the top of 
the site. The left image shows a guy who looks as if the earth would end 
tomorrow (very sad). The right shows a couple of people in an office. The 
people on the photo all look rather European and not very Arabic. That 
doesn't really make sense to me.
------

thanks for the nice words about the design, although the credit goes to a 
guy named Ayman who made this bidi theme. as for the image, I can't comment, 
but will pass this to my sighted colleagues who gave me these images.

Again, thank you so much for sharing your thoughts with me.

Regards,
Mohammed al-shar'
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Gerhard Killesreiter" <gerhard at killesreiter.de>
To: <support at drupal.org>
Sent: Wednesday, October 18, 2006 3:27 AM
Subject: Re: [support] accessibility of drupal sites


> Mohammed Al-shar' wrote:
>
> Hi Mohammed!
>
>>
>> first, I am sorry to have posted this messages to both the themes and the 
>> support lists, but I just am not sure where this would fit more.
>
> I am only replying on the support list since I am not subscribed to the
> themes list.
>
>
>> I am concerned with the accessibility of drupal powered websites for the 
>> blind and visually impaired. I have searched the drupal website and read 
>> what I could find about this topic but it seems to me that this has 
>> received little attention so far. none of the posts I read was elaborate 
>> enough.
>
> Our problem is that we don't have blind people who give us input.
>
>> here are some points to contemplate about:
>>
>> 1. for visually impaired users, I want them to be able to change the font 
>> size / color / contrast on the fly. one site that does this beautifully, 
>> but it's not drupal powered is our strategic partner's website at: 
>> www.yourdolphin.com
>
> There is a module somewhere that allows you do change the size of the
> font, IIRC. It should be easy to extend to change the contrast too by
> switching to a different theme. There is a switchtheme module which
> might be usable for this.
>
>> 2. provide keyboard users the possibility of reaching some parts of the 
>> website using accesskeys. I know that this method isn't preferred from 
>> what I read about it, but may be the listers can share their views about 
>> this point. I am blind myself, and never need to use accesskeys as my 
>> screen reader has built in commands to reach to various elements on most 
>> websites. actually, most modern screen readers have this possibility.
>
> The problem with Drupal is that it is a dynamic application and adding
> access keys automatically is very hard.
>
> It might be possible to include access keys in the path alias definition
> feature, but that would be future development.
>
>> I am thinking that structuring the website's documents well will often be 
>> most handy. like using different heading sizes, and using bulleted and 
>> numbered lists.
>
> I like to think that Drupal as such is quite good at this.
>
>> the project I am involved in currently is for the company I work for, 
>> which specializes in assistive technology for the blind and visually 
>> impaired. it's at: www.nattiq.info
>> it still requires lots of work, specially that it's going to be 
>> multilingual and has a right to left  language. still, I would highly 
>> appreciate it if some of you could give it a look and steer me in the 
>> right direction. any comments will be warmly welcomed.
>
> I've had a short look. I like the design it is plain and simple (not
> that I am not a designer). What I didn't like are the two images on the
> top of the site. The left image shows a guy who looks as if the earth
> would end tomorrow (very sad). The right shows a couple of people in an
> office. The people on the photo all look rather European and not very
> Arabic. That doesn't really make sense to me.
>
> Cheers,
> Gerhard
> -- 
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>
>
>