Drupal Could Easily be the Leader in Opensource Section 508 Compliance by 2010
I received an interesting sales call this morning from a gentleman whose company offers the service of helping to make your website, or client’s websites, fall in line with Drupal Section 508 compliance. After the call I really got to thinking about our clients and how arduous the task is of having a completely compliant website. Don’t get me wrong; I’m not saying that it isn’t important, Target found out the hard way; all I’m saying is that if done properly it’s most likely won't be easy.
I began doing some research and there are numerous sites out there that can assist you in starting to move your site towards 508 compliance; but if your site wasn’t designed with compliance in mind then it’s probably going to be a long road. If you are in the process of a redesign, then consider moving towards compliance now as the difference could be around 65% in total cost vs conquering the task once the site is launched.
Drupal is making significant strides to alleviate the effort that is required to deliver a compliant site and there’s some great information about Drupal accessibility here. From what I can gather the issues are focused primarily around the core modules; however, the installation of additional modules will present its own set of challenges. To help there’s a great list of contributed modules that can assist you in your accessibility exploits; the primary modules are:
Now, let’s look individually at these modules specifically and how they can aid your efforts.
Accessible Helper Module handles the following issues:
- Make Drupal content more accessible by hooking into released modules.
- Demonstrate modifications to existing themes to make them accessible.
- Serve as a demonstration to promote accessibility improvements to Drupal core and contributed modules.
- We realize accessibility should be integrated into core and all contributed modules, but understand the need for short term fixes also.