Ramble On

Ok, now this is beyond a joke. Sorry, but Domino 8.5 is going to be an accessibility nightmare. I know the discussion template is used many many companies and I’ve seen some University’s base their discussion facilities on this template (not us, we wrote our own), but the new template makes NO ATTEMPT to be accessible, both from point of view of handling javascript or by using semantic HTML.

Sean Cull has kindly left his 8.5 discussion template  open for us to play with.

If you’ve got Firefox with the web developer tool bar installed. Switch off css

Notice how the page just collapses into a mess. None of the generally accepted conventions for semantic pages have been obeyed (such as marking up related links as lists).

It’s even worse if you switch off javascript. Although many of the advanced screen readers such as JAWS, integrate with Internet Explorer and deal with certain types of Javascript events, it’s generally accepted in accessibility circles that wherever possible, web developers should attempt to make as much of the page work without javascript as possible. In fact nothing in the discussion template works without javascript. All the links are to ‘#’ with the clicks being handled through events. Why, when there’s a document stored in the database is it now possible to show the document when javascript is switched off.

If the template demonstrated significant usability improvements over the existing template it would almost be acceptable, but the template is very basic. Where’s the different view modes such as viewing discussions as linear threads or the ability to filter discussions to the current conversation (i.e. limiting the view to the direct reply hierarchy). Where’s the facility to view the message you’re writing your reply to? Where’s the lookup when tags are added?

A core template such as this, should be accessible. If I was evaluating this product for use within the University it would not make it past the tender. It would fail on every accessibility point.  Sorry, it’s simply that bad.

Domino, Web Design Accessiblity, Domino, Lotusphere 2008, Web Design

Lotusphere online has been available for several days. Although I’ve still not been sent an email informing me that it’s live (just like last year), unlike last year my email and confirmation number work. 

A number of features are created using XPage technology and this is the first application I’ve seen that uses this functionality. I’ve mentioned that I’m concerned that XPages will provide Domino designers with tools that they might use that caused them to embed an accessibility time-bomb into their company’s intranets. So I thought I’d take a brief look at how accessible this IBM site is and knocked up a quick video walk through.

Domino, Lotusphere Accessiblity, Domino, Interface, Web Design

This year I put in two Lotusphere abstracts, a BOF and presentation on ‘accessible web design‘. To be honest neither abstract was very good having been put together at the last minute. If I’m honest, I’m relieved that I won’t have the worry of presenting and can just relax and enjoy the week. But I’m always uncomfortable attending conferences when I’m not presenting, especially at such an expensive conference (why doesn’t IBM sponsor educational establishments – most academic conferences are half the price of this one?)

Accessibility is extremely important in my job. A large proportion of ‘Web 2.0′ sites are designed without any real consideration of accessible design and I have a concern that Domino 8.5 will encourage the Domino community into adopting Web 2.0 technologies without understanding the problems they might be creating.

When I was a design student I visited the ‘Royal National Institute for the Blind’ and met one of their designers. He explained that the RNIB believed that spending some time with a student designer to explain some of the of the issues surrounding designing accessible products, would be repaid many times over, if that designer adopted sympathetic practices in industry. So I’ve always tried to show as much consideration as possible when designing websites, for the issues faced by people with disabilities.

At Lotusphere 2008 there were lots of wizzy AJAX being demonstrated. Not once in any of the session I attended, did a presenter discuss the accessibility issues created by the inappropriate adoption of AJAX. For example, the excellent ‘Great Code Giveaway’, showed developers how to make views exciting through AJAX. The fact that if you had Javascript disabled, you got nothing, wasn’t mentioned. Looking at the code afterwards, there were simple approaches that could have allowed the code to degrade to a more basic accessible design. I imagined Domino designers rushing back creating a whole host of inaccessible websites.

After chatting to some of the Designer and Domino teams, I wasn’t filled with confidence that Lotus are really tackling accessibility in Designer 8.5. So although I’m relieved I don’t have to present, it’s clear to me at least, that Lotus should have scheduled one of the accessibility sessions.

I hope it doesn’t come across that I’m bitter for not getting my sessions on to the agenda, I’m really am not. There was a far better accessibility abstract posted to IdeaJam that also hasn’t been included in the programme. It’s just I know how frustrated I was at last year’s Lotusphere that accessiblity issues were completely missing from the agenda, I’ll suspect this year I’ll be be doubly so.

Domino, Web Design Accessiblity, Domino, Lotusphere, Web Design