Authoring portlet accessibility features
Accessibility features help a user who has a physical disability, such as restricted mobility or limited vision, to use software products successfully.
The Web Content Manager authoring portlet supports the following accessibility features:
- Screen-reader software and a digital speech synthesizer:
- Use these tools to hear what is displayed on the screen.
- Native browser accessibility features:
- The accessibility features of supported browsers (large fonts, high contrast colors) are supported in the authoring portlet.
The best accessibility experience is achieved with Firefox 3.5.x or higher.
Accessibility features of the default rich text editor
We access the accessibility features of the default rich text editor by typing control-shift-m. This launches the detached accessible toolbar. We then use the following keystrokes:
- Control-shift-t
- This launches the table insertion dialog. Users should first select the point at which to create the table in the edit window, and then launch the table insertion dialog. Use the tab button to navigate through the data entry fields used to define the table. Users may click the OK button to insert the table or click the Cancel button to cancel the action.
- Control-shift-g
- This launches the color picker dialog. Users should first select some text in the edit window, and then launch the color picker. Users can use the tab key to navigate through the color swatches. The selected color name and value are displayed in the text area. Users may press the Enter key to apply the color to the selected text or press the Cancel button to cancel the action.
The detached accessible toolbar can be closed using the alt-F4 keystroke.
Control-shift-t and Control-shift-g do not work when the focus is on the detached accessible toolbar We need to press Alt+Tab to set the focus back to the browser containing the authoring portlet where the focus will be within the rich text editor area.
We can customize the detached accessible toolbar keystrokes by editing the KeySequence.properties file located under the WP_PROFILE\PortalServer\config\com\ibm\wps\odc\editors folder.
These features only apply to the default rich text editor. See the documentation of other rich text editors for details on any accessibility features used by those editors.
Use JAWS with rich text fields
JAWS users need to install the Java Access Bridge to be able to read the content of Java applet rich text fields. Otherwise the JAWS reader only identifies rich text fields as a RTE frame and not read the content of the rich text field.
This is not required for the default rich text editor which is not a Java applet rich text editor.
Writing accessible web content
The Web Content Manager application does not check whether content written in WCM is accessible or not. We need to test the website to ensure the content is accessible.