5 replies to this topic

[jongleur]

Hi.
I'm a student of computer science at the university of Paderborn (Germany) and looking for a task to write my bachelor thesis.
I would like to write it in the field of accessible web-development, but not only at a theoretical level.

I searched for a free software product useful also for people, that do not fit to the "standard user" using exactly screen resolution x times y at a z"-color-screen , javascript enabled and so on.
Brainstorming brought me to e-commerce as a widely used online application with - as I heard from a blind person - commonly many accessibility problems especially using screen readers.
OsCommerce as a free solution for running an online shop would be nice, because results could be returned to the product directly, being used outside the archive of the university in future.

But: I have not used it since now - not being involved in the community yet. As a result, I would appreciate a few hints on this topic. Anything regarding the following questions would be welcome:

- Is there any experience with blind users (at least at the front-end/as buyers)?
- Is it appreciated to improve the accessibility of OsC?
- How does the core development team (and users experienced with committing bugs) think? Would it be welcome to the project itself, too? Some Open Source projects have problems with that.
- Last But not least: Do you know bugs or issues to be solved in this field?

I would appreciate your feedback.

Peter Wendorff

[Jon86]

jongleur, on 08 February 2010, 11:22, said:

- Is it appreciated to improve the accessibility of OsC?

If you compare version 2 with version 3 (currently being developed) you will see a massive difference that will help towards the accessibility of the software. This is because the web interface adherers to web standards and uses CSS to structure the layout and appearance of pages. When you separate content from design (using CSS) the HTML required on each page is reduced and is much cleaner.

This makes it easier for screen readers and other devices to process.

[jongleur]

Hi Jon.
That's good as basic work, but think, there may be a lot to do I think.
I don't want to say, that would be anyones "fault" or something like that - but beginning with the installation (I installed the current beta download now) there are some tasks to solve to achieve real accessibility.

During install:
- I didn't proove that yet, but using AJAX often is a big problem for current screenreaders because they lose focus on dynamically changing parts of the content. I'm a fan of AJAX, so I don't want to avoid it wherever possible, but that's one part of accessibility - just to give you an example.

I know - that's at least backend stuff, but using PHP 5.3.1 I have a lot of deprecated-messages now after (and during) the install process. I'll try to solve them before testing further, but I'm sure to find more issues - if not in the backend technology, so perhaps in the standard template or somewhere like there.

[Jon86]

The thing is screen readers are just that. They are only supposed to read and try and make sense of what is in a page or document. In my opinion work should be done to develop a screen reader that can detect events! If you had a standard defined for screen reader events then it would be easier to support them better.

[Java Roasters]

Burt (community member) has an ebook on making osC 2.2 accessible.

Edited by Java Roasters, 08 February 2010, 17:23.

[Mark Evans]

jongleur, on 08 February 2010, 11:22, said:

- How does the core development team (and users experienced with committing bugs) think? Would it be welcome to the project itself, too? Some Open Source projects have problems with that.

Making osCommerce more accessible to users is of course something we are interested in. The best way to contribute is to open an account at github and then fork the project, then when you commit any changes we can merge these in very easily.