Background
Accessibility is a hot topic for governments all around the world. As eGovernment initiatives become more sophisticated, it is now common to access government related information and services on the web. Governments in turn must make sure that the information and services are available to citizens of all abilities and disabilities. In many countries this has been codified in one way or another, making it mandatory for government departments to adhere to accessibility guidelines when developing new websites.
This article will explain how accessibility on the web is defined, what guidelines exist and how governments can achieve fully accessible websites through the application of the right processes and tools.
Web Accessibility
Just like government buildings offer ramps to be accessible by people in wheelchairs, government websites should be implemented in a way so that they are accessible by people who are for example vision impaired or have other kinds of limiting disabilities. This is what we call web accessibility. There are a number of measures a website operator can take to make information universally accessible, e.g. providing alternate texts for non-textual elements such as images or videos, making links not only accessible by a mouse click but also by providing access keys (shortcuts) or adhering to a colour contrast minimum. These measures are parts of accessibility guidelines like the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) or Section 508.
According to Wikipedia, “Web accessibility refers to the practice of making websites usable by people of all abilities and disabilities. When sites are correctly designed, developed and edited, all users can have equal access to information and functionality”.
This definition basically encapsulates what has been described before and outlines a 3-step model for website creation:
- Design
- Development
- Content Editing
While these three steps can all be executed by the same entity (e.g. department), in most cases they are spread across at least two separate entities. One entity is designing and developing the website framework, which is like an empty shell of the website, containing the logo, header, footer, navigation and other functional elements like forms, but doesn’t contain any content. The second entity (the website owner) is in charge of adding and editing the actual content.
Most government departments work with an IT solution provider of some sorts, may it be another government department or an external implementation partner. This solution provider is usually in charge of designing and developing the initial website, called the framework. Solution providers are usually experts in accessibility and have the knowledge on how to create fully accessible website frameworks. Most of the time the finished framework is then integrated with a web content management system (WCMS) to allow the government department to update the website content themselves.
Once the empty website has been finished, it is up to the content provider (e.g. the government department) to fill the website with content. If a WCMS is used, the content editors log into the backend and start adding content to the website. This is the point at which most previously accessible websites become non-accessible. If the WCMS doesn’t force the content author to adhere to certain accessibility guidelines (e.g. enter alternate texts for images), the authors will most likely not spend the extra effort to make the content accessible. Thus the WCMS must have inbuilt facilities to make the creation of accessible content effortless and seamlessly integrate it into the organisations workflows.
Sitecore and Accessibility
Modern WCMS like Sitecore offer features to support the creation of accessible content. Whilst Sitecore is not the only WCMS to offer content validation features, the unique integration into the content editing process stands out.
Let’s take the creation of a new page with a title, abstract and an image as an example. Using the Sitecore Content Editor, the content author adds the page and starts editing it. The system has been set up to make the title field mandatory and validate the image and abstract texts against accessibility guidelines.
The content author will immediately see that his content item has validation errors. The invalid fields are marked with a red bar to the left of them and an overview of validation errors can be found on the right side of the editor. Once a field’s content is fixed, it is automatically revalidated and the error will disappear. In certain cases (e.g. the abstract field in our example), Sitecore offers the option to automatically fix the content. This is especially useful it the content author is not an expert in web accessibility.
If the content author decides to not fix the content, but approve the page anyways, the system will throw a validation warning and tell the content author that items with validation errors cannot be approved.
By using tools like Sitecore, government departments can make sure that their websites stay accessible, even if edited by content authors with little knowledge of web content accessibility guidelines.
Sitecore comes with a set of standard validation rules, including accessibility validation. Should website owners need more customised validation, they can of course create their own validators, as explained in Alexey Rusakov’s article series "Sitecore 6 Validation".
Video Demonstration
I have prepared a video of the content editing process above which can be viewed here:
