Re: BlindProgramming.com site

  • From: Jamal Mazrui <empower@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Sat, 1 Mar 2008 11:38:05 -0500 (EST)

I've done some research on the topic of free, open source content
management systems, and have the following points to share.

I got in touch with the developer of BlindAccessJournal.com, confirmed
that he uses Blogger on his site, but also confirmed that he has helped to
set up other sites with Drupal and currently recommends it over other
content management systems if one has more sophisticated needs than
blogging.

I concluded that three CMS approaches are worth considering at present:
Drupal, Joomla, and Plone.  Plone is Python-based, the most powerful, and
the hardest to set up and host.  HostMonster.com, for example, supports
Drupal and Joomla, but not Plone.  Plone is more appropriate for a
corporate or government site than a home-based one.  On the other hand, it
has the highest built-in support for Section 508 compliant web pages.
One can observe this, for example, on the plone.org and nasa.gov web
sites, wich include a standard "skip navigation" link -- a 508
requirement.

Joomla is aware of accessibility concerns, acknowledges problems, and is
striving to become more compliant during its development process.  Drupal
has a Tapestry theme that is intended to be 508 compliant, though this is
not the default theme, nor even part of the default installation choices
as far as I can tell.

Joomla is the easiest to set up, but it seems that Drupal offers the best,
overall combination of power and friendliness.  I thus agree that Drupal
is an excellent choice if BlindProgramming.com is to be developed into a
more sophisticated web site.  A drawback someone told me, however, is that
it is not easy to set up an efficient wiki for screen reader users with
Drupal.  Let me suggest that those able and willing help to apply the
customizability of Drupal to create such a wiki module -- one that could
eventually be contributed as an optional Drupal module.

In case this is useful to anyone else interested in learning
Drupal, I have prepared a collection of text tutorials at
http://www.EmpowermentZone.com/drup_doc.zip

Of course, others may have different perspectives, and the exchange is
constructive.  I appreciate the information and opinion I have received
both on and off list.

Cheers,
Jamal

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