Outlining the Problem
Chloe
As of the year 2020, over 1 billion websites have been created using Content Management System (CMS) platforms (Schäferhoff, 2020), which is over half of all active websites (Radoslav, 2020). However, even though Web Content Accessibility Guidelines have been around since the end of the 20th century (Hoffmann, 2019), 2018 statistics showed that less than 10% of websites meet accessibility standards (Christopherson, 2018). I have been working with the hypothesis that this is partly because accessibility guidelines are written as a technical standard for web developers, industry-trained web content creators, and accessibility evaluation tool developers (W3C, 2005) but this group of people only make up a small portion of web content creators.
For the time being, CMS platforms do not teach people how to create accessible content and do not ensure websites are compliant (Steenhout, 2017). Websites like WordPress are working toward ensuring that all of the new official WordPress templates meet WCAG 2.0 AA standards. However, even though these new templates are accessible, once a person begins to edit and add in their own content, there is no guarantee the final product will be accessible (Johnson, 2020). The accessibility features are also focused on using industry-specific terminology and may be inaccessible to non-industry creators (2020).
A popular alternative to creating accessible web content is accessibility overlay tools. However, these tools can only check for and alter certain kinds of web content, are not able to work with certain programming languages or embedded content, and simply provide a quick-fix solution (Bryne-Haber, 2020). These products do not address the main problem: people are continuing to build inaccessible websites even with accessibility standards in place. This exhibit aims to spotlight one of many possible solutions to this problem by demonstrating how accessibility guidelines and compliance scanning can be integrated into existing CMS platforms in a way that is easy to understand while ensuring that the guidelines are met.
On the Redesigned Interface page, you will find several interactive images that reimagine the Squarespace web content editing interface with integrated accessible design options throughout the content design process. Though this is merely a sample of some of the different aspects that could be updated, it shows that with some slight modifications, the accessibility of the end websites will have an immediate improvement. Please use the link below or the navigation menu to explore the interface and find out more about the redesign.
Explore the Redesigned Interface 〉
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Software developed to help manage the development and management of digital content. Often used to build websites, especially if someone does not have web design or development skills.
Internationally recognized standards for what web content needs to be made accessible with specifications on how to do so. There are several iterations and levels of these guidelines but the most commonly used one is currently 2.0 AA.
In this context, to meet accessibility standards a website must pass all of the requirements outlined in the 2.0 AA Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.
Software or online services that help you determine if web content meets accessibility guidelines.
The most popular website building platform worldwide with a market share of 40% of all websites.
A base website with placeholder content and design styles that a person can use instead of starting a website from scratch.
Elements integrated with the content management system interface to assist in developing accessible content. For example, a section to add alternative text for images.
An interface that is displayed on a website that claims to be able to alter the website content to be more accessible based on a person's selections. For example, the interface can alter the website to have larger text if someone is having a hard time reading the default size.
A popular content management system platform. Known for having a simple interface and well-designed templates.