Accessibility - Are there plugins for increasing font-size and contrast?

[gunni]

Hi all,
A new law in my country requires that the websites will be accessibility sites
according to WCAG 2.0.
It means for example that I need to add buttons so the user could choose bigger
fonts, or better contrast etc'.
Is it something that is out there or I need to figure how to do it.

Thanks.

[gunni]

Hi.
No one needs to make accessibility website ?

[RodG]

Hi all,
A new law in my country requires that the websites will be accessibility sites
according to WCAG 2.0.

Serioulsy? Your country has made a law based on *guidelines*? Which country (rhetorical), and exactly which of the many guidlelines have been made law?

It means for example that I need to add buttons so the user could choose bigger
fonts,

Don't need a button for this. Just add text to advise people that to enlarge the text they only need press the CTRL key and move the scroll button on their mouse. Not that this advice is actually needed - Us oldies, and those with poor vision pretty much all know this, so adding a 'button' (that they may or may not be able to read) is a little pointless I reckon.

or better contrast

Why would this need to be something they need to set on a site by site basis? All (most?) browsers have settings and options that enable the site colours to be overwritten - Again, this is an accessibility function built into most browsers specifically for people with this type of disability.

There is no need or reason for websites to replicate this.

etc'.

This covers a whole heap of things, which again comes back to the question of which guidelines have actually become law? (as they are the only ones you need to consider)

Are you required to add audio descriptions? Sign language symbols? Captions and subtitles to all media files? Translations for all languages? The list goes on and on. I seriously doubt that I'd be able to find a single site on the Internet that adheres to all guidelines.

Is it something that is out there or I need to figure how to do it.

Assuming this has all become a legal requirement in your country, the solution is simple - Host your site in a country that is not subject to those laws.

Cheers
Rod.

ps. apologies for the belated reply. Missed it the 1st time and only saw it due to the more recent post.

[gunni]

Hi Rod and thanks for your reply.
The law I am talking about is in Israel. The law should has been activated in June (now) but they postponed it and
now the deadline for making the websites accessibility is October 2016.
In October 2016 a website that will not be accessibility according to the law could be forced to pay more than USD 13,000
without need to prove a real damage...

The law is according to "Web Content Accessibility Guidelines" of W3C organization and the level that the websites need to
be is level AA.
Level AA tells exactly what needed to be made like you mentioned and what's not but for sure the things that needs to be
adjusted in the websites are not only the zoom like you mentioned but also the font size (without enlarging the pictures) etc'.

Regarding your suggestion to host the site abroad, unfortunately they also thought about it and they mention that this will not
prevent the needed accessibility

So as you can understand, I need a solution...

P.S
If you need a link to Israeli Ministry of Justice with the details in English, I will search for it.

[RodG]

If you need a link to Israeli Ministry of Justice with the details in English, I will search for it.

I found the Hebrew version, and have read enough to know that it is based on the guidelines and that not all of the guidelines are required by law - I'm sure that an English version would be essential for any Westerners embarking on these updates, but I'm not one of those people - My interest is mostly curiosity.

I'm sorry that I can't really provide you with any further advice or suggestions (useful or not), but I don't envy your position.

Zencart is pretty much US centric, and as such I seriously doubt that there will be much in the way of support for country specific requirements such as this, so unless there is a huge number of Israeli sites using zencart you might (I say this reluctantly) be best looking into alternative eCommerce systems (one with its origins in a country subjected to these requirements.

However, having said that, I had noted that Canada is another country that has accessibility laws, also based on the WCAG 2.0AA guidelines, so perhaps I shouldn't be so negative in thinking it won't happen for you.

Which leads to me re asking your original question (DrByte?) - But this time in regards to the Canadian laws. What exactly is the status/situation in this regard? WikiPedia (worst reference source on the planet) tells me that these guidelines were apparently made a legal requirement way back in 2013? Does this mean that Zencart sites hosted in Canada are in breach of the law, ir does it mean that ZenCart already adheres to those requirements? If not, as the OP asked, is anyone working on this?

Oh. Australia also has similar laws based on these guidelines - but thankfully, so far, it is only a requirement for government sites (which I'm convinced most aren't fully compliant anyway), but what with the way the laws are going (across the globe) these days it will probably be only a matter of time before it gets extended to all.

<sarcasm> After all, life is tough for people with disabilities, so isn't it fair that we introduce laws to make it equally tough for *everyone*. </sarcasm>

Anyway, as I said, I've no answers or solutions. It isn't a problem for me (yet) but I am interested to know the thoughts of the ZenCart devs about this, and what the plans are for the future.

Cheers
RodG

[gunni]

Thanks Rod for your detailed reply.
Please be advised that the law in Israel is from 2013 (I did not know this before) but they scheduled 3 years for the websites
to be ready with the new rulls, meaning 2016.
Also in the docs they mention that Israel is a part of other countries that made this law so we are not the only one!
On the other hand, when I searched and found about 64 websites that allready have been aproved in Israel for the new law
I was shocked from what they needed to make (Different backgrounds colors that can be changed, text reading, change of font size
and more).

I know about a friend that made a new site with Wordpress (not shopping) and he had the option to choose a template
with this Accessibilty module inside without any need to make it. Lucky him.
But I am not going to search for another commercial system. I am a Zenner :)
but I need a solution.
I think that the solution must be in the template programing. right?
I do not think that a general plugin could do all of the needed changes for all the templates. right?
So....should I contact the template owner ?

[RodG]

G'day Again Gunni.

I thought I'd do the same as you, and check out a few compatible websites. Admittedly I didn't spend a lot of time on this, and one of the first ones I found was *supposedly* complaint was this one :
http://www.visionaustralia.org/

Being a site for the vision impaired, I would have though it's be a good one to look at. I didn't see anything 'obvious' that would allow the user to change font sizes or colours, so I headed over to

http://achecker.ca/checker/index.php and entered the URL for the site, and this *supposedly* compliant site has 12 Known problems and 457 potential problems.

I tested two other sites (listed as being WCAC 2 AA compatible, with similar results. I'm sure there must be some sites that pass, but after 3 failures in succession I didn't check any others.

I think that the solution must be in the template programing. right?

Yes, I would have to concur with that. However, if the laws become widespread and enforced, then one would think/hope that a suitable template would become a part of a standard ZenCart installation. Not suggesting that the task of doing it is one for the ZenCart team, but just as the latest release has a 'responsive' template written by a 3rd party, it will probably be left up to another 3rd party developer to create, and hopefully share :)

You really are correct though - this entire compliance is a matter of templating, so I suspect that it will be only a matter of time before the template/theme creators start making the needed additions/changes as the demand arises. I'm guessing that the 1st compliant templates will be of a commercial nature - which means you won't find them in the add-ons area here. They will probably come later as 'wannabe' developers take the commercial offerings and modifying them and releasing them as their own work.

In short - this is just going to be a waiting game (or get your hands dirty, learn to code, and do it yourself). <smiles>

Cheers
RodG

[gunni]

Hi Rod and thanks again for your reply and research.
If you want to see what is an accessible website I would turn you to the Israeli Cigarettes company: www.dubek.co.il
It's an Hebrew site but you could see on the top right a black sqaure with Hebrew text. When pressing on it you could see
all the (many) things that I guess should be done in order to keep the new Accessibilit law in Israel...

Thanks for your help. Now I am going to ask my nice free template creator some questions...:)

Good day.

[RodG]

Hi Rod and thanks again for your reply and research.
If you want to see what is an accessible website I would turn you to the Israeli Cigarettes company: www.dubek.co.il

That site lead me here
http://www.user1st.com/

It could be an avenue worth following up

Cheers
RodG

ps. Under the 'pricing' section they apparently have a free trial. With no actual prices listed though I suspect that this isn't going to be cheap.

[mesnitu]

Quite boring for shop owners, quite good for webdesigners, and probably quite good for users too.
I've never thought about this, but thinking about it , I would think in some system software, and not changing every online site in a country.

the first thing even for a external automation tool, it's to have a good html markup.
But "basically" it will load some new css or some DOM change file on demand with all those rules.

I hope this law stays out of europe for a while.