KDE.org Web Site Accessibility Report

Criteria for Page Structure Evaluation

This is a list of criteria for evaluating the page structure of KDE-related websites as discussed on the kde-www-devel mailing list. Both the general critera and the accessibility criteria are ordered by priority: The most important are on top. The rational for the sorting is that it is not enough for a website to be standard-conformant but to fail in real-world browsers.

1. General criteria
   1. Works with Konqueror 3.x and preferably even Konqueror 2.x
      Rational: It will be used for the Konqueror Website as well.
   2. Works with the most common versions of Internet Explorer and Firefox
      Rational: Standards do not replace real-world tests.
   3. Works without Javascript
   4. Meets the XHTML standard
   5. Design (CSS), page structure (XHTML) and page content are cleanly separated
2. Accessibility criteria
   1. Text browsers: The page structure is still usable when CSS and tables are ignored (long link lists only after the page content, hidden navigation links for text browsers, bonus points for no tables)
      Rational: This is important for blind users and for some mobile devices.
      Implementation hints: This is best tested with lynx. Navigation links for text browsers (e.g "Skip to content") can be hidden with style="display:none".
   2. Works with very large font sizes, and has enough contrast
      Rational: This is important for partially sighted users.
      Implementation hints: Do not use hardcoded font sizes or placement. Evaluate the contrast of colors and make sure to specify all colors (background, foreground, links).
   3. Provides consistent access keys with the other KDE sites
      Rational: This is important for many users, e.g. with mobility or vision impairments.
      Implementation hints: the accesskeys are described on the page Access Keys within KDE.org. They will be reworked for the kde.org redesign, though.
   4. Provides a high contrast style sheet
      Rational: This is important for partially sighted users.
      Implementation hints: See www.kde.org or this site for an example.
   5. Has accessible markup for images and for tables
      Rational: This is important blind users.
      Implementation hints: Provide an "alt" tag for images, and a "summary" tag for tables.
   6. Meets the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines
      Rational: Open standards are very important, but do not replace real-world tests.
      Implementation hints: A useful checking tool is HERA.

Evaluation of KDE-Related Websites

This is a quick check evaluating the page structure used. There can be aditional accessibility problems on individual pages. Note that in many cases, it is very easy to improve an "almost" to a "yes", or a "no" to an "A", or an "A" to a "AA".

Assessment date: August 3, 2006
Update: August 5, 2006 www-devel.kde.org has been fixed
Update: August 8, 2006 conference2006.kde.org has been fixed

Evaluation of CMS/Wiki/Blog Websites

This is a quick check evaluating of the page structure used. There can be additional accessibility problems on individual pages. No evaluation has been made how easy it is in the CMS to fix the problems. This is merely meant as an indicator how well the CMS authors are familiar with accessibility needs.

Assessment date: August 5, 2006