re: Drupal and Microsoft CMS Options?

  • From: Alex Midence <alex.midence@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Sun, 12 Dec 2010 23:19:38 -0600

Hi, Rick,

SharePoint 2010 is what we have at work.  I personally don't care for
it.  Workflow colaboration in there is just painful right now.
Browsing content is pretty accessible but creating it is still a bit
hairy.  I have to write my stuff in raw html so that it works
propperly whenever I have to add content to my department's website.
also uploading html content you created is a bit difficult.  You
pretty much have to use it in conjunction with SharePoint Designer
because if you write your stuff by hand and it includes multiple files
and things, you have to put it up through the My Network Places
directory in windows instead of directuly in the site.  some of the
navigation is now more  Haccessible but there's something of a
learning curve.  I'd stay away from it unless you just have to use it,
honestly.  Have you looked into Alfresco?

http://www.alfresco.com/

Not bashing Microsoft but lately, a lot of their stuff just has been
accessible on paper but not in fact.  this is for many reasons but the
biggest one in my opinion is that they are changing the rules of the
game with UIA and there doesn't seem to be much work between them and
the assistive technology vendors for windows screen readers so that
everyone is on the same page.  Everything really started going
downhill with them with the introduction of the ribbon interface and
has just kept getting worse though, perhaps, now that screen readers
are finally starting to catch up with UIA, things are going to improve
soon.  wish they'd do it with free patches to their products though.
My sma with Jaws is coming up and if I renew, it will be grudgingly
and only out of sheer necessity this time.

the place where a lot of exciting things related to accessibility seem
to be happening right now seems to be Linux.  I've managed to just
about double ifnot tripple the number of accessible applications of
all sorts which I have access to ever since I put vinux on a virtual
machine and started running it alongside windows.  Once gnome 3 comes
out and they do all that work with at-spi and the work with the QT
bridge, a whole bunch of previously inaccessible stuff is going to be
accessible over there which will be just awesome!

Regards,
Alex M


You wrote:

       Hi: I know very little about CMS. As a result of Jamal using it, I
have looked at some of the Drupal docs by googling but am having trouble
wrapping my head around exactly how it all works since I am an old
Microsoft user. I am trying to figure out a similar option in the
Microsoft World. So far I think that Sharepoint and Open Office, both 2010
versionws with accessibility, sound like they are the Microsoft
counterpart to Drupal. does this sound about right? Since they support
ARIA and the other new Web Standards, or at least some articles say they
do, has anyone tried them out? If there is another Microsoft thingy where
it looks or works sort of a CMS with DB storage and perhaps Media support
could you mention it so I can do a little more digging?

       It looks like allot of blind folks are trying to use various CMS
Websites and most of them are pretty bad. They also sound almost as
complex to create and maintain as a standard Website developed in
something like VWD. Anyway, thanks for any input you provide on CMS,
Drupal or any Microsoft counterpart products that I can research a little
more.

       Again, the Microsoft 2010 versions of the Open Office and
Sharepoint are suppose to be accessible where the older versions were not
very accessible if that helps.

       Rick USA
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