Webcredible CMS boosts web site accessibility
From: IT Week, United Kingdom - 04/13/2007
By: Phil Muncaster

Content management system ensures sites are compliant with the W3C's
accessibility guidelines 

Web accessibility consultancy Webcredible is set to launch a new content
management system (CMS) designed to ensure firms' sites are compliant with
level AAA of the W3C's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). 

The product, which will be launched at the Internet World event in a
fortnight, automatically cleans up code so that it complies with the
standards, and forces content editors to use correct heading structures and
accurate ALT text for all images, among other things, according to the firm's
managing director Trenton Moss. 

"While the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) provide a useful
framework for developing an accessible web site, online retailers will run
into trouble if they rely solely on their interpretation of these
jargon-filled, somewhat vague guidelines," he added. "We are offering a
system that actually forces editors to produce accessible content during the
web page development and editing process."  

The product also utilises Ajax technology to improve the user experience, and
can optimise web pages for search engines, according to the firm. 

"Putting an accessible CMS at the heart of all web site content development
can also save companies time and money, as online retailers will not need to
develop and maintain separate, accessible web pages in addition to their main
web site," explained Moss. 

Read the entire article at:
http://www.itweek.co.uk/itweek/news/2187767/webcredible-launch-accessible

Links:
Webcredible
http://www.webcredible.co.uk/

Accessible CMS
http://www.webcredible.co.uk/services/accessible-cms.shtml

Submitted by Alan Cantor

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Alan's comments:

This sounds promising. However, I am not sure how a product can "force" a
content provider to "use correct heading structures" if he or she does not
"get" the idea of hierarchally-organized documents. My experience working
with web developers and content providers is that it takes time and effort to
wean people of the habit of using inappropriate markup for headings. 

"...online retailers will not need to develop and maintain separate,
accessible web pages in addition to their main web site..."  

It appears that that the myth that it is necessary to create separate
accessible web sites is still pervasive. I worked with a team of developers
who insisted on creating two versions of a site. One version was
graphics-intense and the other was mostly text. The purpose of the site was
to pull information from a database and display it, and in reality, there was
no real issue of maintaining two sites because the data was always the same.
However, the graphics-intense version was a visual nightmare, hard to
understand, and complex to navigate, whereas the so-called "handicapped"
version was a snap to use and yielded clear results! 

Alan