Authoring Programs: Content Management Systems, Wikis, and Blogging Tools

The internet used to be like book, with a large number of webpages. Now, complex, sprawling websites are commonplace. Content Management systems arose to help designers and website administrators keep track of the huge amount of data they transact via each website. Think of it like a house: each CMS has its own floor plan, but which furniture goes in the house is up to the owner of that particular house. Houses can be modified but it's usually fairly involved construction, whereas changing the wallpaper or the furniture is more the kind of thing the average homeowner would do for themselves. Most systems have available add-ons that are comparable to installing new appliances in this analogy. There are generic CMSs, as well as specialized ones for certain applications.

Blogging tools

These tend to be fairly simple systems meant for a small number of users to post content to, and it organizes it by date, and usually also by tags or categories. It has a couple of common accessibility pitfalls:

• Since blogs are organized by date, there are often calendar browsers which allow users to quickly browse the archives by date. However, these are often visual and based on JavaScript-dependent DHTML and are not accessible to those with visual impairments or those unable to use a mouse.
• "Read more" links are typically generated at the end of teasers, allowing users to read the full article after seeing the teaser page. However, they almost always violate the rule that the same text appearing on the same page must not link to more than one distinct location. Assistive browsers often generate links lists for pages, but these lists are fairly useless if they read simply, "Read more Read more Read more Read more..."

Wikis

These are are systems that allow collaborative editing of large numbers of documents by lots of people.

• Wikis must be edit-accessible to all the users in the target user group of the wiki as well. That means the content must be accessible, as well as the editing interface for users, as well as the setup and editing interface for administrators.

These tools are governed both by ATAG and by WCAG.

• WCAG because they take HTML or plain text input from the user and pass it through a byzantine conduit of code, ultimately generating markup (website code) that surrounds, contains, and displays the content. If the site generates poor markup, such as a site whose layout depends heavily upon tables and spacer gifs (and especially if it overuses the alt attribute on those spacers in a misguided attempt at accessibility), the content is difficult for those with a different web browsing paradigm to access. A content management system must output valid markup with necessary semantics to be considered accessible. Or, put another way, it must not only provide enough information (such as alt attributes and abbreviation tags) in its markup, it must also maintain a clear separation between content, structure, and style.
• ATAG because these tools are authoring tools. Many people interested in Web accessibility overlook this important set of standards, but consider this: if the content editing interface itself is inaccessible to a subset of users (for example, if its text editor is visual and JavaScript-based and doesn't degrade properly), those people have fewer good tools at their disposal for getting their ideas and words out to the world. A lack of accessible authoring tools could mean the effective online silencing of people with relevant disabilities. As the online world becomes more and more real and important to everyday life, this free speech issue becomes more and more urgent.