An evaluation of the accessibility of EPiServer’s sample templates according to current recommendations and guidelines elaborated by the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI).
TECHNICAL NOTE Accessibility of EPiServer’s Sample Templates 2
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION 3
SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS 4
SAMPLE TEMPLATE RATING 5
SAMPLE TEMPLATE ISSUES 8
The contents of this document are protected by copyright. Changes to the content or partial copying of the content may not be carried out without permission from ElektroPost Stockholm AB. The document may be freely distributed in its entirety, either digitally or in printed format, to all EPiServer users. EPiServer® is a registered trademark of ElektroPost Stockholm AB. Other product and company names mentioned in this document may be the trademarks for their respective owners. Accessibility of EPiServer’s Sample Templates Introduction | 3
Introduction
The tables in this document specify the relative level of accessibility of the sample templates released with EPiServer 4.60 along with the issues related to the templates. References to the corresponding current WCAG 1.0 guidelines elaborated by the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) are included for the issues. For more detailed information on the WCAG guidelines, please refer to http://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/wcag.php.
Note For more information about Web accessibility and EPiServer features that enhance the accessibility of the content created, please refer to the white paper “Accessible Web Sites and EPiServer”. For information regarding the WCAG and ATAG compliance of EPiServer, please refer to the white paper “EPiServer’s Compliance to WCAG and ATAG”.
Accessibility of EPiServer’s Sample Templates Scope and Limitations | 4
Scope and Limitations
ASP.NET 2.0 TEMPLATES ONLY This evaluation has been made with the ASP.NET 2.0 version of the EPiServer 4.60 sample templates. Most of the results are also valid for the ASP.NET 1.1 version of the sample templates. There may be further issues for the ASP.NET 1.1 version of the templates, since Microsoft has made improvements in the release of their ASP.NET 2.0 framework.
Since the ASP.NET 2.0 template package was selected for this evaluation, the new portal templates based on Web Parts have been evaluated instead of the old WSRP-based portal framework.
TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS When evaluating the templates, the XHTML 1.0 Transitional document type has been used. Style sheets have been evaluated using CSS1. The following validators have been used:
• XHTML: http://validator.w3.org/
• CSS: http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/
PAGE CONTENT The sample content that is packaged with the sample templates has not been evaluated along with the sample templates. However, the creation of content has been taken into account in the evaluation presented in the white paper “EPiServer’s Compliance to WCAG and ATAG”.
MODULES NOT EVALUATED The evaluation focuses on the sample template package included in EPiServer, since this is the package delivered by default and includes the most commonly used templates. Modules and extensions have not been included in this evaluation, e.g. EPiStore, EPiBooking and EPiFields. Accessibility of EPiServer’s Sample Templates Sample Template Rating | 5
Sample Template Rating
The sample page templates have been rated according to the results of the evaluation, and this is shown in the table below.
A rating, where 5 is the highest and 1 is the lowest, has been given to each template. These ratings are not defined by WCAG, but indicate the overall status of the templates. The following criteria have affected the ratings negatively:
• If layout tables are used.
• If scripting is required for the core functionality of the template.
• If labels are not correctly used for form fields.
• If the semantics of the markup used is not applied correctly.
• The amount of markup validation errors.
Note The rating 5 does not mean that the template is perfect, and the rating 1 does not mean that the template is totally inaccessible. The rating should be seen as our own subjective rating to give an idea of the relative standards compliance of the different templates. This may help when deciding whether to use a certain template for a customer site, or when estimating the time required to adapt the template to a certain level of accessibility and standards compliance according to customer requirements.
References to the issues corresponding to each template can be found in the table, and refer to the Sample Template Issues table of the next section. To help give some idea of the nature of the referenced issues for each template, the issues have been categorized into the following groups: Usability and semantics (U), Markup and CSS (M), Tables (T), Scripts (S) and General (G).
Note Comments are included as endnotes, and are listed at the end of this table.
Template Description Category Issues Rating Start page Start page on the Web site Standard U8-9, U25-27, M2-7, M9-10, S1-4, S7 5 Ordinary web page1 Ordinary information page Standard U8-9, U25-27, M2-7, M9-10, S1-3, S7 5 Form page (XForms) Page containing a form Standard U1, U8-10, U25-27, M2-11, T6-7, S1-3, S5-7 4 News list Displays internal news within the Web site or external news from an RSS Standard U8-9, U25-27, M2-7, M9-10, M12, T8, S1-3, S7 4/52 source RSS source Page displaying information from EPiServer in RSS format Standard N/A N/A3 Calendar Main page for calendar Standard U8-9, U25-27, M2-10, T9, S1-3, S7-8 4
Accessibility of EPiServer’s Sample Templates Sample Template Rating | 6
Search Page for searching for information on the Web site Standard U8-9, U12, U15, U25-27, M2-7, M8-10, M13, 4 S1-3, S5, S7 Index Page displaying the content of all or part of the Web site Standard U2, U8-9, U25-27, M2-5, M7, M9-10, M14-15, 3/44 T10, S1-3, S7 Alphabetical index Page listing content in alphabetical order Standard U8-9, U25-29, M2-5, M7-10, S1-3, S7, S9 4 Changed recently Page displaying a list of pages that have recently been changed Standard U8-9, U25-27, M2-5, M7, M9-10, T18, S1-3, S7 5 File listing Page listing files from a folder on the Web server Standard U8-9, U25-27, M2-5, M7-10, M16, T1, S1-3, S7, 3 S10 Subscription Page for visitors to select subscription information Standard U8-9, U16, U25-27, M2-5, M7-10, T12, S1-3, 4 S5, S7 Discussion forum Main page for creating a discussion forum Standard U8-9, U13-14, U25-27, M2-5, M7-10, M17, S1- 3 3, S7, S11 Tell-a-friend window Pop-up window opened from the header of a page Miscellaneous U17, M9-10, M18-19, T13 2 Print window Pop-up window opened from the header of a page Miscellaneous M9-10, M28 3 Cookie information Pop-up window opened from the footer of the start page Miscellaneous M9-10, M29 3 window Flash page Page for loading a flash movie Miscellaneous U3, U9, U25-27, M2-5, M9-10, M20, S1-3, S7 3 PDF form Page that generates a PDF file with data from the page Miscellaneous U8-9, U18, U25-27, M2-5, M7, M9-10, M21, T2, 3 T14, S1-3, S5, S7 Slide show Page displaying a number of pages as a presentation, each page Miscellaneous U8-9, U25-27, M2-5, M7, M9-10, S1-3, S7, S12 4 changing at pre-determined intervals ReadSpeaker Page where the content can be heard in speakers Miscellaneous U8-9, U19, U25-27, M2-5, M7, M9-10, M22-24, 4 S1-3, S7 Mobile page Page for mobile units Miscellaneous M9-10, M25 4 Register users Page where visitors can register themselves on the Web site Miscellaneous U8-9, U20, U25-27, M2-5, M7-10, M26, M41, 3 S1-3, S5, S7 My settings A settings page where users can change their password and other Miscellaneous U8-9, U11, U25-27, M2-5, M7-10, M41, S1-3, 3 personal settings S5, S7 Profile search Search page for personnel register Miscellaneous U4, U8-9, U21, U25-27, M2-5, M7-10, T3, T11, 2 Accessibility of EPiServer’s Sample Templates Sample Template Rating | 7
S1-3, S5, S7, S13 Personal profile Personal page for information about an individual. Used for the Miscellaneous U8-9, U22, U25-27, M2-5, M7-10, M27, T11, 2 personnel register. T15, S1-3, S5, S7, S14 Login page EPiServer default login page Miscellaneous U23, M9-10, M30, T16, S15 1 Document list Displays a list of documents published from Microsoft Office Microsoft U5, U8-9, U25-27, M2-5, M7, M9-10, M31, S1- 4 Office 3, S5, S7 Document Document published from Microsoft Office Microsoft U6, U8-9, U25-27, M2-5, M7, M9-10, M32, S1- 3 Office 3, S5, S7 Workroom pages Pages used for workrooms Workroom U7-9, U25-27, M1-5, M9-10, M35-41, T5, S1-3, 2/35 S7, S17, G3 Blog pages Pages for creating and using blogs Blog U9, U24-27, M2-5, M7-10, M33-34, T4, S1-3, 3 S5, S7, S16 Blog RSS source Page displaying information from a blog in RSS format Blog N/A6 News group pages Pages for news group (pages used in frameset) News group M9-10, G2 1 Portal page Page containing a Web Part portal Portal U8-9, U25-27, M2-5, M7-10, T17, S1-3, S5, S7, 2 G1 Mixed content page Page containing both normal content and Web Part portal parts Portal U8-9, U25-27, M2-5, M7-10, T17, S1-3, S5, S7, 2 G1
1 Also used for news and calendar event pages. 2 Dependent on whether RSS listing is used. 3 Does not generate XHTML content, and is therefore not evaluated. 4 Dependent on rendering mode. 5 Dependent on whether the Document functionality is used. 6 Does not generate XHTML content, and is therefore not evaluated.
Accessibility of EPiServer’s Sample Templates Sample Template Issues | 8
Sample Template Issues
This table provides detailed information on the issues found when evaluating the sample templates listed in the previous chapter. Since the evaluation has been made in accordance to the WCAG 1.0 guidelines, references to the applicable guidelines are included.
Note Comments are included as endnotes, and are listed at the end of this table.
Category: Usability and semantics WCAG 1.0
Issue Cause File Environment Checkpoint Priority U1 Form-statistics image does not Core All 1.1 1 have an empty alt attribute. functionality U2 Index images do not have an Core All 1.1 1 empty alt attribute.1 functionality U3 Flash template does not Sample Units/FlashBody.ascx All 1.1 1 contain alternative description. templates U4 Profile finder's detailed results Sample Units/ProfileFinder.ascx All 1.1 1 list does not contain alternative templates descriptions for images. U5 Document list template Sample Util/DocumentList.ascx All 1.1 1 contains images without alt templates attributes. U6 Document template does not Sample Util/Document.ascx All 12.1 1 specify title for iframe. templates U7 Workroom pages contain Sample /Workroom/Templates/Units/Overview.ascx, All 1.1 1 images without alternative templates /Workroom/Templates/Units/News.ascx, texts. /Workroom/Templates/Units/Calendar.ascx, /Workroom/Templates/Units/BulletinBoard.ascx, /Workroom/Templates/Units/Members.ascx U8 Headings and tags are not Sample All 3.5 2 properly used. templates
Accessibility of EPiServer’s Sample Templates Sample Template Issues | 9
U9 Pop-up windows are used for Sample Units/QuickBar.ascx, Units/CookieInfo.ascx All 10.1 2 the print, tell-a-friend and templates cookie information functions without warning the user. U10 Check boxes and radio buttons Core All 12.4 2 use a non-associated label functionality instead of