I am in the Americorps*VISTA program, and my host organization is the Alaska State Dept. of Commerce Community and Economic Development (DCCED). The focus of my project is the design and implementation of websites for non-profit economic development organizations. Specifically, I work with the Alaska Regional Development Organizations (ARDORs), designing websites that they can maintain themselves with little training.
So, of course I use Joomla!.
Two of the sites I have up so far are:
pwsedd.org
alaskaeconomicdevelopment.org
Both of which are in the early stages of adding content.
Some of the components I have seen great demand for center around event announcement and registration. Non-profits have lots of events (fundraisers, competitions, workshops, what-have-you), and they want to have the ability to have people register for these events AND pay their entry fee as well. I've yet to find a piece of software that does the monetary side of this. I've played around with AKreservations, but no luck so far.
Love Joomla!. The best solution for nonprofits. hands down.
Joomla! and the State of Alaska
Forum rules
Joomla! and the State of Alaska
#andy{style:none}
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vavroom
Re: Joomla! and the State of Alaska
How do you handle Section 508 of the US Vocational Rehabilitation Act with your sites? Or are the groups you are working with non-governemental and not receiving substantial funding from the Feds?
Re: Joomla! and the State of Alaska
The groups are non-governmental, but they receive state grant money for their sites. I am not certain whether or not they receive federal grant money or not.
Regarding accessibility, the pages degrade nicely once styling is removed. The only potential problem would be with submenu items (being that I use a modified version of dm-tigra), but I always structure the information such that it's accessible without popup menus. For instance, if I have an 'about us' menu item with children, I make sure all of those children are classified dynamically, so that I can make the parent button a link to a blog or table of the section/category that the children are in. That way, if someone cannot see the submenus or doesn't click on them for some reason, they will be taken to a small middle-man page with a listing of all of the relevant content.
-a
Regarding accessibility, the pages degrade nicely once styling is removed. The only potential problem would be with submenu items (being that I use a modified version of dm-tigra), but I always structure the information such that it's accessible without popup menus. For instance, if I have an 'about us' menu item with children, I make sure all of those children are classified dynamically, so that I can make the parent button a link to a blog or table of the section/category that the children are in. That way, if someone cannot see the submenus or doesn't click on them for some reason, they will be taken to a small middle-man page with a listing of all of the relevant content.
-a
Last edited by Andy on Mon Sep 19, 2005 8:59 pm, edited 1 time in total.
#andy{style:none}
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vavroom
Re: Joomla! and the State of Alaska
That's good 
You should, however, look into the level of Federal funding they get. Because if they do get some of that $$, the site has to comply with Section 508, which has quite a specific list of requirements.
Cheers
You should, however, look into the level of Federal funding they get. Because if they do get some of that $$, the site has to comply with Section 508, which has quite a specific list of requirements.
Cheers
Re: Joomla! and the State of Alaska
Well, let's take a look then. Here is my attempt to go over section 1194.22, which applies to web-pages. Please feel free to point out any mistakes, omissions or misunderstandings in this.
§ 1194.22 Web-based intranet and internet information and applications.
(a) A text equivalent for every non-text element shall be provided (e.g., via "alt", "longdesc", or in element content).
Almost always, yes. All images on the sites are nonessential, anyway, and any photogallery software I would install would probably meet this requirement.
(b) Equivalent alternatives for any multimedia presentation shall be synchronized with the presentation.
n/a
(c) Web pages shall be designed so that all information conveyed with color is also available without color, for example from context or markup.
n/a, for the most part. Many of the links I use are colored, yes, but they are also underlined with a dotted line.
(d) Documents shall be organized so they are readable without requiring an associated style sheet.
This requirement is met through joomla!'s organizational structure and my own requirements for menu design
(e) Redundant text links shall be provided for each active region of a server-side image map.
n/a. No image maps
(f) Client-side image maps shall be provided instead of server-side image maps except where the regions cannot be defined with an available geometric shape.
n/a. No image maps
(g) Row and column headers shall be identified for data tables.
This is up to the site administrators to maintain. I only design the site.
(h) Markup shall be used to associate data cells and header cells for data tables that have two or more logical levels of row or column headers.
(i) Frames shall be titled with text that facilitates frame identification and navigation.
n/a. No frames
(j) Pages shall be designed to avoid causing the screen to flicker with a frequency greater than 2 Hz and lower than 55 Hz.
n/a. No flash animation. This is
(k) A text-only page, with equivalent information or functionality, shall be provided to make a web site comply with the provisions of this part, when compliance cannot be accomplished in any other way. The content of the text-only page shall be updated whenever the primary page changes.
Compliance to this part is obtained with the simple removal of stylesheets, which many screenreaders ignore.
(l) When pages utilize scripting languages to display content, or to create interface elements, the information provided by the script shall be identified with functional text that can be read by assistive technology.
It has been my experience that Joomla! renders readable text when de-styled. Ergo, it complies with this requirement.
(m) When a web page requires that an applet, plug-in or other application be present on the client system to interpret page content, the page must provide a link to a plug-in or applet that complies with §1194.21(a) through (l).
As of now, there has been no need for such an applet on my sites.
(n) When electronic forms are designed to be completed on-line, the form shall allow people using assistive technology to access the information, field elements, and functionality required for completion and submission of the form, including all directions and cues.
I'm a little hazy on this one. To my knowledge, most if not all screen readers are pretty good at interpreting forms, so long as elements are given intuitive names. Re: submission cues, all good web designers should include decent instructions.
(o) A method shall be provided that permits users to skip repetitive navigation links.
This requirement is vague. I believe the breadcrumbs (which render fine without css) should meet it.
(p) When a timed response is required, the user shall be alerted and given sufficient time to indicate more time is required.
n/a. There has been no need for a timed response on the sites at this time.
§ 1194.22 Web-based intranet and internet information and applications.
(a) A text equivalent for every non-text element shall be provided (e.g., via "alt", "longdesc", or in element content).
Almost always, yes. All images on the sites are nonessential, anyway, and any photogallery software I would install would probably meet this requirement.
(b) Equivalent alternatives for any multimedia presentation shall be synchronized with the presentation.
n/a
(c) Web pages shall be designed so that all information conveyed with color is also available without color, for example from context or markup.
n/a, for the most part. Many of the links I use are colored, yes, but they are also underlined with a dotted line.
(d) Documents shall be organized so they are readable without requiring an associated style sheet.
This requirement is met through joomla!'s organizational structure and my own requirements for menu design
(e) Redundant text links shall be provided for each active region of a server-side image map.
n/a. No image maps
(f) Client-side image maps shall be provided instead of server-side image maps except where the regions cannot be defined with an available geometric shape.
n/a. No image maps
(g) Row and column headers shall be identified for data tables.
This is up to the site administrators to maintain. I only design the site.
(h) Markup shall be used to associate data cells and header cells for data tables that have two or more logical levels of row or column headers.
(i) Frames shall be titled with text that facilitates frame identification and navigation.
n/a. No frames
(j) Pages shall be designed to avoid causing the screen to flicker with a frequency greater than 2 Hz and lower than 55 Hz.
n/a. No flash animation. This is
(k) A text-only page, with equivalent information or functionality, shall be provided to make a web site comply with the provisions of this part, when compliance cannot be accomplished in any other way. The content of the text-only page shall be updated whenever the primary page changes.
Compliance to this part is obtained with the simple removal of stylesheets, which many screenreaders ignore.
(l) When pages utilize scripting languages to display content, or to create interface elements, the information provided by the script shall be identified with functional text that can be read by assistive technology.
It has been my experience that Joomla! renders readable text when de-styled. Ergo, it complies with this requirement.
(m) When a web page requires that an applet, plug-in or other application be present on the client system to interpret page content, the page must provide a link to a plug-in or applet that complies with §1194.21(a) through (l).
As of now, there has been no need for such an applet on my sites.
(n) When electronic forms are designed to be completed on-line, the form shall allow people using assistive technology to access the information, field elements, and functionality required for completion and submission of the form, including all directions and cues.
I'm a little hazy on this one. To my knowledge, most if not all screen readers are pretty good at interpreting forms, so long as elements are given intuitive names. Re: submission cues, all good web designers should include decent instructions.
(o) A method shall be provided that permits users to skip repetitive navigation links.
This requirement is vague. I believe the breadcrumbs (which render fine without css) should meet it.
(p) When a timed response is required, the user shall be alerted and given sufficient time to indicate more time is required.
n/a. There has been no need for a timed response on the sites at this time.
#andy{style:none}
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vavroom
Re: Joomla! and the State of Alaska
Good homework ;) A few thoughts :
(a) It's not a question of images being essential or not. It's a question of giving an equivalent experience to a user. If you don't provide an alternate text equivalent, the user's screenreader will point out there's an image, but won't be able to interpret it. That's why it's important for all images to have an ALT tag. Unless you're using transparent gifs as spacer, where the alt should be alt="" so the screenreader skip over it.
(l)This is not a case of de-styled. It's a case of noscript. If you use javascript to deliver content (for example parsing an email address so it can't be spambot harvested), will the content still be available if javascript is turned off.
(n) Screen readers are somewhat good at analysing forms, but not always. If forms aren't properly done (using labels, properly associated to the element for example), the screen reader may cough up a hair ball. That was a problem in Mambo and was fixed in Joomla 1.0
(o) is basically saying provide a "skip navigation" system. Particularly if you have >5 or 6 links in your navigation, providing a skip nav means the user isn't forced to listen through the nav menu over and over again. Of course, if you've laid out your content so the menu is *after* the main content if no stylesheet are loaded, you're in the clear there
(p) So no login for users? cool
(a) It's not a question of images being essential or not. It's a question of giving an equivalent experience to a user. If you don't provide an alternate text equivalent, the user's screenreader will point out there's an image, but won't be able to interpret it. That's why it's important for all images to have an ALT tag. Unless you're using transparent gifs as spacer, where the alt should be alt="" so the screenreader skip over it.
(l)This is not a case of de-styled. It's a case of noscript. If you use javascript to deliver content (for example parsing an email address so it can't be spambot harvested), will the content still be available if javascript is turned off.
(n) Screen readers are somewhat good at analysing forms, but not always. If forms aren't properly done (using labels, properly associated to the element for example), the screen reader may cough up a hair ball. That was a problem in Mambo and was fixed in Joomla 1.0
(o) is basically saying provide a "skip navigation" system. Particularly if you have >5 or 6 links in your navigation, providing a skip nav means the user isn't forced to listen through the nav menu over and over again. Of course, if you've laid out your content so the menu is *after* the main content if no stylesheet are loaded, you're in the clear there
(p) So no login for users? cool
Re: Joomla! and the State of Alaska
(a) It's not a question of images being essential or not. It's a question of giving an equivalent experience to a user. If you don't provide an alternate text equivalent, the user's screenreader will point out there's an image, but won't be able to interpret it. That's why it's important for all images to have an ALT tag. Unless you're using transparent gifs as spacer, where the alt should be alt="" so the screenreader skip over it.
That's fair. Once again, most of the images on the site that relate to content will be the maintainers' responsibility, but in order to maintain compliance, I should go back and re-do widgets and such. What about background-image, though? I use that to render my banner graphics to reduce IE vs. Firefox inconsistencies.
(l)This is not a case of de-styled. It's a case of noscript. If you use javascript to deliver content (for example parsing an email address so it can't be spambot harvested), will the content still be available if javascript is turned off.
None of the things on my site rely on javascript to deliver content. It's only for little widgety stuff.
(n) Screen readers are somewhat good at analysing forms, but not always. If forms aren't properly done (using labels, properly associated to the element for example), the screen reader may cough up a hair ball. That was a problem in Mambo and was fixed in Joomla 1.0
I did not know this. I'll have to update everyone once Joomla 1.0 is released so that they can maintain compliance.
(o) is basically saying provide a "skip navigation" system. Particularly if you have >5 or 6 links in your navigation, providing a skip nav means the user isn't forced to listen through the nav menu over and over again...
What is the best way to do this?
(p) So no login for users? cool
Nope. There is no mention of front-end users as a requirement in the ARDOR grant, and it would probably constitute "undue burdon" to require a small economic development organization to bring the back-end and content editors up to code when the organization could just as easily shift the responsability of content editor to someone without a disability.
That's fair. Once again, most of the images on the site that relate to content will be the maintainers' responsibility, but in order to maintain compliance, I should go back and re-do widgets and such. What about background-image, though? I use that to render my banner graphics to reduce IE vs. Firefox inconsistencies.
(l)This is not a case of de-styled. It's a case of noscript. If you use javascript to deliver content (for example parsing an email address so it can't be spambot harvested), will the content still be available if javascript is turned off.
None of the things on my site rely on javascript to deliver content. It's only for little widgety stuff.
(n) Screen readers are somewhat good at analysing forms, but not always. If forms aren't properly done (using labels, properly associated to the element for example), the screen reader may cough up a hair ball. That was a problem in Mambo and was fixed in Joomla 1.0
I did not know this. I'll have to update everyone once Joomla 1.0 is released so that they can maintain compliance.
(o) is basically saying provide a "skip navigation" system. Particularly if you have >5 or 6 links in your navigation, providing a skip nav means the user isn't forced to listen through the nav menu over and over again...
What is the best way to do this?
(p) So no login for users? cool
Nope. There is no mention of front-end users as a requirement in the ARDOR grant, and it would probably constitute "undue burdon" to require a small economic development organization to bring the back-end and content editors up to code when the organization could just as easily shift the responsability of content editor to someone without a disability.
#andy{style:none}
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vavroom
Re: Joomla! and the State of Alaska
Andy wrote:What about background-image, though? I use that to render my banner graphics to reduce IE vs. Firefox inconsistencies.
Ask yourself this: What is experienced by a sighted visitor looking at your background images?
Then ask yourself: What would be experienced by a sighted visitor if your background images weren't loaded.
Compare the two. If the experience is significantly different, you should figure out a way to deliver the information/content/experience to non-sighted visitors (or those who surf with images turned off, or those who come to your site on a handheld device or phone). There are a few ways to do this. Some more successful than others. http://mezzoblue.com has a list of resources, look for Image Replacement, or something along those lines.
Andy wrote:I did not know this. I'll have to update everyone once Joomla 1.0 is released so that they can maintain compliance.
It's been released for a few days now
http://developer.joomla.orgAndy wrote:What is the best way to do this {skip nav}?
http://www.jimthatcher.com/webcourse4.htm Has a good discussion on it.
My two preferred ways are to either:
a) Organise my content in the markup so the first thing to be read is the main content. Then layout the way I want through CSS.
Where that is not possible:
b) Use a small transparent gif (1px by 1px), which links to a local anchor just above the main content. In the alt of the gif, put "skip to main content" or some such. (technique defined on Jim's site).
