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Universal Design alignment of Dataverse
I just noticed the following essential characteristics in the COAR Community Framework for Good Practices in Repositories (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4110829); cf.:
2.3 The repository supports access to its documentation and metadata for persons with disabilities.
I guess there are already open issues related to this / Universal Design (but I couldn't find them). If so, please feel free to refer to them and close this issue.
@philippconzett I don't think there are any open issues about Universal Design specifically but in the thread you started at https://groups.google.com/g/dataverse-community/c/kOdzxQ7wGRs/m/nYW2zPLtEAAJ about a year ago @TaniaSchlatter mentioned #6072 and the fact that we tend to use the term "accessibility" which might be helpful when searching issues.
Our design and development process uses the SiteImprove tool to make sure that we are following the standards outlined in the Harvard University Digital Accessibility Policy, which use The Worldwide Web Consortium’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1, Level AA Conformance (WCAG 2.1 Level AA) as “the Standards.”
There is no single issue in GitHub to represent this effort, as it is now something included in our process for all feature development. As we build new features, or refactor existing features, we monitor the reports generated by the SiteImprove tool in order to make sure we are fixing as many issues as we can, and refrain from introducing any new issues.
@philippconzett I am happy to keep this issue open for the time being, in order to gather more feedback from the community on this topic. If there are any specific issues that are discovered, I would suggest opening a new issue to report them individually, so they can be addressed and resolved in our usual development and prioritization process.
Thanks, @pdurbin & @mheppler. The ongoing efforts you mention make me wonder whether some if this could be mention in the Dataverse Guide for CTS Certification (https://dataverse.org/cts-guide), but I couldn't figure out which section that would be appropriate. Maybe @jggautier can help?
Interesting idea. The guide on Dataverse.org isn't ready for publication yet, so not all of the sections are there, but I'm also not completely sure which of the sections described in the CTS Extended Guidance (http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3632533) are most appropriate for this info. Maybe the Mission/Scope section is where we could suggest that CTS applicants mention their commitment to universal design principles and that the process of designing and developing the Dataverse software includes steps for maintaining/improving accessibility. I can't imagine that the group reviewing CTS applications would not want to know about this, but we can ask Jon Crabtree what he thinks.
Is the goal to promote - to anyone who's interested (not just folks applying for CTS) - the Dataverse Project's commitment to Universal Design? Maybe we could consider adding the information to a more general page on Dataverse.org, like an accessibility statement.
In light of new national requirements regarding the accessibility of websites in Norway, I would like to revive the conversation in this GitHub issue.
From 1 February 2023, all public organizations in Norway must have an Accessibility Statement in place on their websites. In the Accessibility Statement, organizations must document which of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) that are met and which are not. The Accessibility Statement needs to be registered through a web service provided by the Norwegian Authority for Universal Design of ICT.
Somewhat delayed, I have just published the Accessibility Statement for the website dataverse.no, which is our Dataverse installation DataverseNO. The statement is in Norwegian, however, in the statement I've linked to an assessment report I carried out in English. This report, WCAG Checklist for Accessibility Statement for dataverse.no, is available at Zenodo: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7632552. A more reader-friendly and commentable version is available in this Google spreadsheet.
I hope some of this work can contribute to the further alignment of the Dataverse software with Web Accessibility requirements and recommendations.
Below, I have added a brief summary of the assessment. Please note:
- The assessment applies to dataverse.no, thus some issues apply to DataverseNO (currently running on Dataverse version 5.6), but not to other Dataverse installations. Also, some requirements might apply in Norway, but not in other countries, and vice versa.
- The assessment was not carried out by a UU or web technology expert.
- The assessment might have missed some cases of non-alignment with Accessibility requirements.
- Some of the comments about missing or insufficient UU compliance of dataverse.no may turn out to be unwarranted because the technologies used in the Dataverse application may have accessibility properties built in that can be accessed from assistive technology available through these technologies (e.g., Java) and thereby comply with the WCAC 2.1 Standard after all.
Brief summary:
Sorted on column Criterion met?:
FWIW, The changes in 5.10 were significant. Here's a brief summary: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_A-eoCsCNV2pzeFkLoXw5hsvCbQYrYmpfNGx4COEn0Y/edit?usp=sharing . We've since upgraded to a new PrimeFaces version (which may have accessibility fixes) which may or may not have fixed additional issues.
Thanks, Jim. We'll need to update our Accessibility Statement after upgrading to a post 5.9 version.