Policy Context and Legal Framework

Implementation and Management Approach

The framework has been developed and improved based only on real-world experiences. Everything has been added as ad hoc solutions to address issues on real systems.

Technology solution

The framework is focused on generating XHTML-compliant web pages that can be validated for accessibility. All the requirements of triple-A accessibility are covered by the generated code, in an effort to provide a good starting point for the development of web applications.

Please keep in mind that no framework can guarantee a good use: the developer should take care that additional features do not break the accessibility of the developed application.

Impact

Loom leverages common javascript practices with alternative ways of performing the same tasks for people with disabilities:
- Form input field validation is performed in the browser using javascript, but the same validations are automatically repeated at the server side if javascript is not available.
- Actions that require confirmation will be displayed as popup window or as an intermediate page if javascript is not enabled.
-The site menu is displayed as a javascript menu or as HTML contents, depending on the browser capabilities.
- Table listings can be ordered at the client or server side.
- The framework relies heavily on Cascading Style Sheets for page formatting.
- Advanced features have included accessible alternatives, such as multiple file uploading or tabbed components.

As a consequence, the framework promotes modern use of Rich Internet Application techniques but providing alternative ways for people with disabilities at the same time.

Innovation: There is no tool used to produce web applications that keeps disabled users in mind. Current tendency is to include flashy graphics and effects that render the website useless for the visual impaired.

Lessons learnt

Web application development has never been easy, but adding accessibility to non-trivial tasks proved to be an additional challenge:

Lesson 1 - When adding accessibility to your applications, you are not only giving access to disabled users but lots of other users with similar needs: users with old browsers, elderly users or web search engines that are inspecting the website.

Lesson 2 -There are situations where a normal user will need an accessible interface, like when clicking on bookmarks or email links or opening pages in new tabs or windows. In these cases no javascript code will be invoked, and your application will work better if it was built with accessibility in mind.

Lesson 3 - There is a big effort involved in adding accessibility to a website. It requires constant striving through the whole process, but the result makes it totally worth it.