Fixing usability/accessibility issues in Admin Console

[Jack-139]

Hi all!

A newbie here - Cai Jun Jie. You can also call me Jack!

My teammates and I have been looking at accessibility of Geronimo's Admin Console. Most people would think that accessibility only matters for the disabled. Yet some people argue - which I also mostly agree - that if we make software easily accessible, then it benefits all the users!

There are already some JIRAs openned against Admin Console's accessiblity, e.g., GERONIMO-4081, GERONIMO-4080. After a quick analysis, the top 3 problems we see include -
1. No error messages shown when invalid form data are submitted. This is a usability issue for all users.
2. No label element defined for form elements. This prevents some screen reader software from reading HTML forms in a meaningful way. Screen reader software is a key assisting tools for low-vision people.
3. No ALT attributes defined for images. Similar to Problem 2.

We will be submitting patches to fix Problem 2 & 3. Since there are so many occurrences, we will divide the patches based on page groups. We will leave the problems that exist in DOJO though, hoping that more recent DOJO releases will have most of their problems resolved.

As to Problem 1, I believe we should define a unified way to present error messages. For example, for invalid form data, stay on the same page and present the error message near each form element that has the invalid input; and for other error (like system error), stay on the same page and present the error message at the top of the main content. Or, simply present all kinds of error message at the top of the main content...

Would be very interested in knowing the community's opinions...

Regards,

Jack Cai

[xu haihong]

Some parts of this message have been removed. Learn more about Nabble's security policy.

Hi all:

      A newbie here - Xu hai hong, You can also call me Ivan !

      I uploaded a patch for /plugins/welcome folder about the GERONIMO-4081, if it is reasonable, I will upload one patch for each folder in the plugins folder to fix those accessiblity issues.

     Thanks very much for any comment !

                                                     Ivan

 

2008/7/3, Jack <greensight@...>:

Hi all!

A newbie here - Cai Jun Jie. You can also call me Jack!

My teammates and I have been looking at accessibility of Geronimo's Admin Console. Most people would think that accessibility only matters for the disabled. Yet some people argue - which I also mostly agree - that if we make software easily accessible, then it benefits all the users!

There are already some JIRAs openned against Admin Console's accessiblity, e.g., GERONIMO-4081, GERONIMO-4080. After a quick analysis, the top 3 problems we see include -
1. No error messages shown when invalid form data are submitted. This is a usability issue for all users.
2. No label element defined for form elements. This prevents some screen reader software from reading HTML forms in a meaningful way. Screen reader software is a key assisting tools for low-vision people.
3. No ALT attributes defined for images. Similar to Problem 2.

We will be submitting patches to fix Problem 2 & 3. Since there are so many occurrences, we will divide the patches based on page groups. We will leave the problems that exist in DOJO though, hoping that more recent DOJO releases will have most of their problems resolved.

As to Problem 1, I believe we should define a unified way to present error messages. For example, for invalid form data, stay on the same page and present the error message near each form element that has the invalid input; and for other error (like system error), stay on the same page and present the error message at the top of the main content. Or, simply present all kinds of error message at the top of the main content...

Would be very interested in knowing the community's opinions...

Regards,

Jack Cai

--
Haihong Xu ( Ivan )

[Rex Wang-2]

I create a patch "GERONIMO-4025-DB.patch", which modifies 3 files under the \plugins\system-database\sysdb-portlets\src\main\webapp\WEB-INF\view directory.

This will bring some style changes on the tables in the DB Info and DB Manager portlet.

If this patch is reasonable, I will provide more about the rest pages of the admin console.


Rex.

2008/7/3 Jack <greensight@...>:

Hi all!

A newbie here - Cai Jun Jie. You can also call me Jack!

My teammates and I have been looking at accessibility of Geronimo's Admin Console. Most people would think that accessibility only matters for the disabled. Yet some people argue - which I also mostly agree - that if we make software easily accessible, then it benefits all the users!

There are already some JIRAs openned against Admin Console's accessiblity, e.g., GERONIMO-4081, GERONIMO-4080. After a quick analysis, the top 3 problems we see include -
1. No error messages shown when invalid form data are submitted. This is a usability issue for all users.
2. No label element defined for form elements. This prevents some screen reader software from reading HTML forms in a meaningful way. Screen reader software is a key assisting tools for low-vision people.
3. No ALT attributes defined for images. Similar to Problem 2.

We will be submitting patches to fix Problem 2 & 3. Since there are so many occurrences, we will divide the patches based on page groups. We will leave the problems that exist in DOJO though, hoping that more recent DOJO releases will have most of their problems resolved.

As to Problem 1, I believe we should define a unified way to present error messages. For example, for invalid form data, stay on the same page and present the error message near each form element that has the invalid input; and for other error (like system error), stay on the same page and present the error message at the top of the main content. Or, simply present all kinds of error message at the top of the main content...

Would be very interested in knowing the community's opinions...

Regards,

Jack Cai

[Kevan Miller]

On Jul 3, 2008, at 2:53 AM, Jack wrote:

Hi all!

A newbie here - Cai Jun Jie. You can also call me Jack!

My teammates and I have been looking at accessibility of Geronimo's Admin Console. Most people would think that accessibility only matters for the disabled. Yet some people argue - which I also mostly agree - that if we make software easily accessible, then it benefits all the users!

There are already some JIRAs openned against Admin Console's accessiblity, e.g., GERONIMO-4081, GERONIMO-4080. After a quick analysis, the top 3 problems we see include -
1. No error messages shown when invalid form data are submitted. This is a usability issue for all users.
2. No label element defined for form elements. This prevents some screen reader software from reading HTML forms in a meaningful way. Screen reader software is a key assisting tools for low-vision people.
3. No ALT attributes defined for images. Similar to Problem 2.

We will be submitting patches to fix Problem 2 & 3. Since there are so many occurrences, we will divide the patches based on page groups. We will leave the problems that exist in DOJO though, hoping that more recent DOJO releases will have most of their problems resolved.

As to Problem 1, I believe we should define a unified way to present error messages. For example, for invalid form data, stay on the same page and present the error message near each form element that has the invalid input; and for other error (like system error), stay on the same page and present the error message at the top of the main content. Or, simply present all kinds of error message at the top of the main content...

Would be very interested in knowing the community's opinions...

Hi Jack,

Thanks for the information. 

I doubt that accessibility was given much (if any) thought during development of the console. We'll probably need some education about important factors regarding accessibility. If you have some pointers, they'd be welcome. Also, it looks like some tools have been used to identify problems with the console. It would be useful to understand what these tools are.

From your description above, I think we'd welcome your contributions. 

Regarding 1), sounds like a reasonable approach. I think a specific illustration of your proposal would be useful.

--kevan

[Donald Woods-2]

Patch for Welcome app applied to trunk and branches/2.1.  Thanks.


-Donald


xu haihong wrote:

> Hi all:
>       A newbie here - Xu hai hong, You can also call me Ivan !
>       I uploaded a patch for /plugins/welcome folder about the
> GERONIMO-4081 <https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/GERONIMO-4081>, if
> it is reasonable, I will upload one patch for each folder in the plugins
> folder to fix those accessiblity issues.
>      Thanks very much for any comment !
>                                                      Ivan
>
>  
> 2008/7/3, Jack <greensight@... <mailto:greensight@...>>:
>
>     Hi all!
>
>     A newbie here - Cai Jun Jie. You can also call me Jack!
>
>     My teammates and I have been looking at accessibility of Geronimo's
>     Admin Console. Most people would think that accessibility only
>     matters for the disabled. Yet some people argue - which I also
>     mostly agree - that if we make software easily accessible, then it
>     benefits all the users!
>
>     There are already some JIRAs openned against Admin Console's
>     accessiblity, e.g., GERONIMO-4081
>     <https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/GERONIMO-4081>, GERONIMO-4080
>     <https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/GERONIMO-4080>. After a quick
>     analysis, the top 3 problems we see include -
>     1. No error messages shown when invalid form data are submitted.
>     This is a usability issue for all users.
>     2. No label element defined for form elements. This prevents some
>     screen reader software from reading HTML forms in a meaningful way.
>     Screen reader software is a key assisting tools for low-vision people.
>     3. No ALT attributes defined for images. Similar to Problem 2.
>
>     We will be submitting patches to fix Problem 2 & 3. Since there are
>     so many occurrences, we will divide the patches based on page
>     groups. We will leave the problems that exist in DOJO though, hoping
>     that more recent DOJO releases will have most of their problems
>     resolved.
>
>     As to Problem 1, I believe we should define a unified way to present
>     error messages. For example, for invalid form data, stay on the same
>     page and present the error message near each form element that has
>     the invalid input; and for other error (like system error), stay on
>     the same page and present the error message at the top of the main
>     content. Or, simply present all kinds of error message at the top of
>     the main content...
>
>     Would be very interested in knowing the community's opinions...
>
>     Regards,
>
>     Jack Cai
>
>
>
>
>
> --
> Haihong Xu ( Ivan )

[Donald Woods-2]

I only applied the patch to trunk, given the number of changes that will
be needed for this JIRA.

Also, I made a few changes to the patch, such as using message strings
instead of the Item/Value strings you had -
        Item --> <fmt:message key="internaldb.common.Item"/>
        Value --> <fmt:message key="internaldb.common.Value"/>
which I also had to add to -
   sysdb-portlets/src/main/resources/systemdatabase.properties
   sysdb-portlets/src/main/resources/systemdatabase_zh.properties

So please add any new portlet strings to the appropriate resource bundle
in future patches.  Rex, thanks for the patch and keep them coming.


-Donald


Lei Wang wrote:

> I create a patch "GERONIMO-4025-DB.patch", which modifies 3 files under
> the \plugins\system-database\sysdb-portlets\src\main\webapp\WEB-INF\view
> directory.
>
> This will bring some style changes on the tables in the DB Info and DB
> Manager portlet.
>
> If this patch is reasonable, I will provide more about the rest pages of
> the admin console.
>
>
> Rex.
>
> 2008/7/3 Jack <greensight@... <mailto:greensight@...>>:
>
>     Hi all!
>
>     A newbie here - Cai Jun Jie. You can also call me Jack!
>
>     My teammates and I have been looking at accessibility of Geronimo's
>     Admin Console. Most people would think that accessibility only
>     matters for the disabled. Yet some people argue - which I also
>     mostly agree - that if we make software easily accessible, then it
>     benefits all the users!
>
>     There are already some JIRAs openned against Admin Console's
>     accessiblity, e.g., GERONIMO-4081
>     <https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/GERONIMO-4081>, GERONIMO-4080
>     <https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/GERONIMO-4080>. After a quick
>     analysis, the top 3 problems we see include -
>     1. No error messages shown when invalid form data are submitted.
>     This is a usability issue for all users.
>     2. No label element defined for form elements. This prevents some
>     screen reader software from reading HTML forms in a meaningful way.
>     Screen reader software is a key assisting tools for low-vision people.
>     3. No ALT attributes defined for images. Similar to Problem 2.
>
>     We will be submitting patches to fix Problem 2 & 3. Since there are
>     so many occurrences, we will divide the patches based on page
>     groups. We will leave the problems that exist in DOJO though, hoping
>     that more recent DOJO releases will have most of their problems
>     resolved.
>
>     As to Problem 1, I believe we should define a unified way to present
>     error messages. For example, for invalid form data, stay on the same
>     page and present the error message near each form element that has
>     the invalid input; and for other error (like system error), stay on
>     the same page and present the error message at the top of the main
>     content. Or, simply present all kinds of error message at the top of
>     the main content...
>
>     Would be very interested in knowing the community's opinions...
>
>     Regards,
>
>     Jack Cai
>
>
>

[Jack-139]

Thanks Keven for your comments!

A good start point on accessibility is here [1]. W3C has released a guideline years ago [2]. And a newer version is under development (for a long time) [3].

I understand that might be lengthy. So I extracted the most relavent guidelines to Geronimo below. I suggest we can put it somewhere in our developer's documentation. Can someone help to do that? Or can someone grant me wrtie access to the confluence wiki? My account is caijunj.

As to the tools that we used to check accessibility, one is WebKing, and the other is JAWS, both commercial software.
 - WebKing can scan the source code and detect accessibility issues based on static code analysis.
 - JAWS is a popular screen reader software that people with visual problems use to access information on a computer screen. It basically reads all the information it understands via text-to-speech.

To make the mail not too lengthy, I'll discuss the error response formats in another mail later on.

[1] http://www.w3.org/WAI/
[2] http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG10/
[3] http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/

Web accessibility guidelines (short version)
1. Provide equivalent alternatives to auditory and visual content.
 - Set meaningful ALT attribute for IMG, APPLET elements.
 - Provide equivalent text links if a server-side image map is used.

2. Don't rely on color alone.
 - Ensure that all information conveyed with color is also available without color.

3. Use markup and style sheets and do so properly.
 - Use style sheets to control layout and presentation.
 - Use relative rather than absolute units in markup language attribute values and style sheet property values. e.g., in CSS, use 'em' or percentage lengths rather than 'pt' or 'cm'.

4. Create tables that transform gracefully.
 - For data tables, identify row and column headers. e.g., use TD to identify data cells and TH to identify headers.
 - Do not use tables for layout unless the table makes sense when linearized. Use css instead.

5. Ensure that pages featuring new technologies transform gracefully.
 - Ensure that pages are usable when scripts, applets, or other programmatic objects are turned off or not supported. If this is not possible, provide equivalent information on an alternative accessible page.

6. Provide context and orientation information.
 - Title each frame to facilitate frame identification and navigation. e.g., in HTML use the "title" attribute on FRAME elements.
 - Associate labels explicitly with their controls. e.g., in HTML use LABEL and its "for" attribute.

7. Make all functionality operable through a keyboard interface.

8. Help users avoid mistakes and make it easy to correct mistakes that do occur.

Jack

2008/7/5 Kevan Miller <kevan.miller@...>:

Hi Jack,

Thanks for the information. 

I doubt that accessibility was given much (if any) thought during development of the console. We'll probably need some education about important factors regarding accessibility. If you have some pointers, they'd be welcome. Also, it looks like some tools have been used to identify problems with the console. It would be useful to understand what these tools are.

From your description above, I think we'd welcome your contributions. 

Regarding 1), sounds like a reasonable approach. I think a specific illustration of your proposal would be useful.

--kevan

[Jack-139]

Before this post sinks, would someone help to put the accessibility guidelines somewhere in our doc? Maybe in the coding standard? If I can get the write access (I've signed ICLA), I can do that if no one objects...

Jack Cai

2008/7/16 Jack <greensight@...>

Thanks Keven for your comments!

A good start point on accessibility is here [1]. W3C has released a guideline years ago [2]. And a newer version is under development (for a long time) [3].

I understand that might be lengthy. So I extracted the most relavent guidelines to Geronimo below. I suggest we can put it somewhere in our developer's documentation. Can someone help to do that? Or can someone grant me wrtie access to the confluence wiki? My account is caijunj.

As to the tools that we used to check accessibility, one is WebKing, and the other is JAWS, both commercial software.
 - WebKing can scan the source code and detect accessibility issues based on static code analysis.
 - JAWS is a popular screen reader software that people with visual problems use to access information on a computer screen. It basically reads all the information it understands via text-to-speech.

To make the mail not too lengthy, I'll discuss the error response formats in another mail later on.

[1] http://www.w3.org/WAI/
[2] http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG10/
[3] http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/

Web accessibility guidelines (short version)
1. Provide equivalent alternatives to auditory and visual content.
 - Set meaningful ALT attribute for IMG, APPLET elements.
 - Provide equivalent text links if a server-side image map is used.

2. Don't rely on color alone.
 - Ensure that all information conveyed with color is also available without color.

3. Use markup and style sheets and do so properly.
 - Use style sheets to control layout and presentation.
 - Use relative rather than absolute units in markup language attribute values and style sheet property values. e.g., in CSS, use 'em' or percentage lengths rather than 'pt' or 'cm'.

4. Create tables that transform gracefully.
 - For data tables, identify row and column headers. e.g., use TD to identify data cells and TH to identify headers.
 - Do not use tables for layout unless the table makes sense when linearized. Use css instead.

5. Ensure that pages featuring new technologies transform gracefully.
 - Ensure that pages are usable when scripts, applets, or other programmatic objects are turned off or not supported. If this is not possible, provide equivalent information on an alternative accessible page.

6. Provide context and orientation information.
 - Title each frame to facilitate frame identification and navigation. e.g., in HTML use the "title" attribute on FRAME elements.
 - Associate labels explicitly with their controls. e.g., in HTML use LABEL and its "for" attribute.

7. Make all functionality operable through a keyboard interface.

8. Help users avoid mistakes and make it easy to correct mistakes that do occur.

Jack

2008/7/5 Kevan Miller <kevan.miller@...>:

Hi Jack,

Thanks for the information. 

I doubt that accessibility was given much (if any) thought during development of the console. We'll probably need some education about important factors regarding accessibility. If you have some pointers, they'd be welcome. Also, it looks like some tools have been used to identify problems with the console. It would be useful to understand what these tools are.

From your description above, I think we'd welcome your contributions. 

Regarding 1), sounds like a reasonable approach. I think a specific illustration of your proposal would be useful.

--kevan

[Kevan Miller]

On Jul 30, 2008, at 2:50 AM, Jack wrote:

> Before this post sinks, would someone help to put the accessibility  
> guidelines somewhere in our doc? Maybe in the coding standard? If I  
> can get the write access (I've signed ICLA), I can do that if no one  
> objects...

I doubt there will be any objections. Could a Confluence geronimo-
admin or confluence-admin (not sure which you need to be) give Jack  
access to the wiki?

--kevan

[Jack-139]

Thanks Kevan!

Joe, I guess you recently got the admin access. Can you kindly grant me write access to our wiki? Appreciate your help...

- Jack

2008/7/31 Kevan Miller <kevan.miller@...>

On Jul 30, 2008, at 2:50 AM, Jack wrote:

Before this post sinks, would someone help to put the accessibility guidelines somewhere in our doc? Maybe in the coding standard? If I can get the write access (I've signed ICLA), I can do that if no one objects...

I doubt there will be any objections. Could a Confluence geronimo-admin or confluence-admin (not sure which you need to be) give Jack access to the wiki?

--kevan

[Donald Woods-2]

Can someone give me Confluence admin karma?


-Donald


Kevan Miller wrote:

>
> On Jul 30, 2008, at 2:50 AM, Jack wrote:
>
>> Before this post sinks, would someone help to put the accessibility
>> guidelines somewhere in our doc? Maybe in the coding standard? If I
>> can get the write access (I've signed ICLA), I can do that if no one
>> objects...
>
> I doubt there will be any objections. Could a Confluence geronimo-admin
> or confluence-admin (not sure which you need to be) give Jack access to
> the wiki?
>
> --kevan
>
>

[xu haihong]

     Currently, the admin console is developed by many excellent guys, so everyone has their own strategy about how to displaying messages, and it is hard to say which one is better.
The question is that in one application (admin console), we should have a uniform way about how to show messages on the page and how to propagate the messages from the server side to client side.
     For the admin console is not a new project, we can not change too much to the existing codes.
     On the client side, thanks to Dojo, with it we could easily validate the inputs by adding some constraint attributes to the elements. For better usability, we could extend the dijit.form.Form to implement more functions, such as mark those error labels with red color.
     On the server side, like those popular web frameworks do, we may add some methods to the BasePortlet class, e.g. public void addErrorMessage(String message, String detailedMessage ,String targetElementId);
     If the idea is feasible, I would like give more detailed implementation later. Thanks!

2008/8/12 Donald Woods <dwoods@...>

Can someone give me Confluence admin karma?


-Donald

Kevan Miller wrote:

On Jul 30, 2008, at 2:50 AM, Jack wrote:

Before this post sinks, would someone help to put the accessibility guidelines somewhere in our doc? Maybe in the coding standard? If I can get the write access (I've signed ICLA), I can do that if no one objects...

I doubt there will be any objections. Could a Confluence geronimo-admin or confluence-admin (not sure which you need to be) give Jack access to the wiki?

--kevan

--
Haihong Xu ( Ivan )

[Joe Bohn]

Jack wrote:
>
> Thanks Kevan!
>
> Joe, I guess you recently got the admin access. Can you kindly grant me
> write access to our wiki? Appreciate your help...

Hi Jack.   Sorry for the delayed response ... I just returned back from
vacation.

Yes, I did recently get admin authority.   If you have not yet received
contributor access I can grant it.  I see that you have an ICLA on file.
  What is your confluence id?

Joe

>
> - Jack
>
> 2008/7/31 Kevan Miller <kevan.miller@...
> <mailto:kevan.miller@...>>
>
>
>     On Jul 30, 2008, at 2:50 AM, Jack wrote:
>
>         Before this post sinks, would someone help to put the
>         accessibility guidelines somewhere in our doc? Maybe in the
>         coding standard? If I can get the write access (I've signed
>         ICLA), I can do that if no one objects...
>
>
>     I doubt there will be any objections. Could a Confluence
>     geronimo-admin or confluence-admin (not sure which you need to be)
>     give Jack access to the wiki?
>
>     --kevan
>
>

[Joe Bohn]

Donald Woods wrote:
> Can someone give me Confluence admin karma?

Hi Donald,

I just checked and it looks like you already received this access while
I was away.  Let me know if you still need something and we can figure
it out.

Joe

>
>
> -Donald
>
>
> Kevan Miller wrote:
>>
>> On Jul 30, 2008, at 2:50 AM, Jack wrote:
>>
>>> Before this post sinks, would someone help to put the accessibility
>>> guidelines somewhere in our doc? Maybe in the coding standard? If I
>>> can get the write access (I've signed ICLA), I can do that if no one
>>> objects...
>>
>> I doubt there will be any objections. Could a Confluence
>> geronimo-admin or confluence-admin (not sure which you need to be)
>> give Jack access to the wiki?
>>
>> --kevan
>>
>>

[Joe Bohn]

Joe Bohn wrote:

> Jack wrote:
>>
>> Thanks Kevan!
>>
>> Joe, I guess you recently got the admin access. Can you kindly grant
>> me write access to our wiki? Appreciate your help...
>
> Hi Jack.   Sorry for the delayed response ... I just returned back from
> vacation.
>
> Yes, I did recently get admin authority.   If you have not yet received
> contributor access I can grant it.  I see that you have an ICLA on file.
>  What is your confluence id?

I found your id (the queries in confluence take forever :-/ ) and added
you to the geronimo-contributor group which I think should provide the
necessary authorization.

Joe

>
> Joe
>
>
>>
>> - Jack
>>
>> 2008/7/31 Kevan Miller <kevan.miller@...
>> <mailto:kevan.miller@...>>
>>
>>
>>     On Jul 30, 2008, at 2:50 AM, Jack wrote:
>>
>>         Before this post sinks, would someone help to put the
>>         accessibility guidelines somewhere in our doc? Maybe in the
>>         coding standard? If I can get the write access (I've signed
>>         ICLA), I can do that if no one objects...
>>
>>
>>     I doubt there will be any objections. Could a Confluence
>>     geronimo-admin or confluence-admin (not sure which you need to be)
>>     give Jack access to the wiki?
>>
>>     --kevan
>>
>>
>
>