Re: Drupal and Microsoft CMS Options?

  • From: "E.J. Zufelt" <lists@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Sat, 11 Dec 2010 08:51:04 -0500

I considered proposing a CSUN session this year, but didn't find the time / 
energy to do it.  I will likely be presenting on accessibility of custom UI 
components using WAI-ARIA at Drupalcon Chicago in March.

Thanks,
Everett Zufelt
http://zufelt.ca

Follow me on Twitter
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View my LinkedIn Profile
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On 2010-12-11, at 8:14 AM, Ken Perry wrote:

> Do you ever do a presentation at CSUN?  If you don’t you should.  We use 
> droople at APH and love it but it would be nice to get some Drooplites to do 
> some presentations.
>  
> Ken
>  
> From: programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 
> [mailto:programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of E.J. Zufelt
> Sent: Saturday, December 11, 2010 6:48 AM
> To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: Re: Drupal and Microsoft CMS Options?
>  
> Good morning,
>  
> Thought I'd jump in here.  I am currently the Drupal 7 Core accessibility 
> maintainer, which basically means I help to organize efforts around ensuring 
> that Drupal is the most accessible CMS that it can be.  We are by no means 
> perfect, but we have made some noticeable improvements over Drupal 6, and 
> Drupal 6 wasn't all that bad.
>  
> Yes, Drupal powers Whitehouse.gov, along with many other government sites.  
> It is a robust, secure and highly extensible CMS.  However, any accessibility 
> problems you may notice on a site powered by Drupal has very little to do 
> with Drupal itself, sometimes people who make custom themes for Drupal end up 
> making their site less accessible than Drupal would be out of the box, 
> because they know little if anything about accessibility.
>  
> Drupal is a more difficult to learn system than something like Wordpress.  
> Generally speaking, Wordpress is designed for people who want to quickly 
> throw up their own site, whereas Drupal is designed for site builders and 
> developers as a platform that can be used to launch more complex web 
> solutions.  With the recent release of Wordpress 3 and the soon to be 
> released Drupal 7 (currently in RC1), this difference has been lessened, but 
> definitely still exists.
>  
> Both Wordpress and Drupal have many contributed modules and themes, to extend 
> functionality and to modify the look and feel (along with the markup) of your 
> site.  Most anything you would ever want a Drupal site to do can be 
> accomplished with existing contributed modules.  If you do need functionality 
> that is currently not acheivable with contributed modules then you would need 
> to create a module using the module API, modules are developed in PHP, as is 
> all of Drupal.
>  
> HTH,
> Everett Zufelt
> http://zufelt.ca
>  
> Follow me on Twitter
> http://twitter.com/ezufelt
> 
> View my LinkedIn Profile
> http://www.linkedin.com/in/ezufelt
>  
>  
>  
> On 2010-12-11, at 5:46 AM, RicksPlace wrote:
> 
> 
> Hi Katherine: Well, don't give up on MS just yet. I have just started looking 
> at how to develop Sharepoint solutions in Visual Studio and it sounds pretty 
> clean and powerful as an integrated approach. I know I tried building a Local 
> Website using Web Parts in VB.net 2008 and found the experience not screen 
> reader friendly. Or, at least, not as friendly as using standard UI Controls 
> in a regular old Website. When Windoweyes 8 comes out I might take a look at 
> Vb.net 2010 to see what, if any, Sharepoint tools are included in the package 
> and how accessible they are. In the meantime I have seen that various U.S. 
> Government agencies and even the White House are supposedly using Drupal 
> according to one Drupal Website Webpage. That means that it must be 
> accessible and quite configurable since I would never have guessed those 
> websites were CMS sites. They just look and perform like regular websites 
> unlike many of the Drupal and other CMS sites I have visited recently. So, it 
> seems Drupal can be used effectively if one knows what they are doing. My 
> only reason for not jumping on it is that I like to develop on my local 
> machine and to do that with Drupal I would have to either install something 
> like xampp or whatever to get a simulated Linux Environment, set up a Duel 
> Boot software disc somehow or implement the Microsoft IIS based Web Platform 
> which is a huge mess to fix if anything goes wrong with any of it's many,, 
> many modules installed. In fact, one problem would likely be port conflicts 
> between my current Sql Server and the MySql server which would be 
> automatically installed. Anyway, I don't like headaches so am just holding 
> off on playing with Drupal even though it sounds pretty nice I am of the KISS 
> school of thought - Keep It Simple Sir! (Note: you can substitute any word 
> starting with "S" for the word "Sir" in the above phrase - grin. Oh Ya, I am 
> not so sure that the thousand or so apps created by third party folks are 
> designed to be accessible to screen readers so that is always a concern as 
> well when working with an Open Source Project with no Accessibility standards 
> for third party software plugs or apps.
> Well, that's all I have this morning from
> chilly Farmington Michigan and I am off to do a little more reading on Visual 
> Studio 2010 and Sharepoint 2010 with any related offerings like Office or 
> other modules and compare the development and maintenance process to that of 
> Drupal. Right now I am not sure which way to fall - headaches with Linux on a 
> Windows machine or working in Visual Studio and withthe built-in Sharepoint 
> and other tools and the learning curve of WPF and Silverlight if necessary. I 
> really will tend twoard the one that is the most stable over the next 5 years 
> or so, has the easiest procedures for working with sites and offers the 
> greatest flexibility. Oh ya, also add in a weighted factor based on the 
> learning curve. I would like to work in the Linux environment mainly because 
> so many of the old timers on this list work in it but I have had my doubts 
> about how productive I might be in that environment compared to a 
> comprehensive integrated IDE.
> I must wait  for  Windoweyes 8 to see how accessible vb.net 2010 or other VS 
> products will be with it since they use the new UIA Accessibility hooks.
> Later Katherine and don't give up on MS Stuff just pick the right tool for 
> the job - that is what the qualified professionals do:
> Rick USA
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Katherine Moss" 
> <plymouthroamer285@xxxxxxxxx>
> To: <programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Saturday, December 11, 2010 1:27 AM
> Subject: RE: Drupal and Microsoft CMS Options?
> 
> 
> 
> Oh gosh, Jamal, thanks!  These anti-Microsoft folks are killing me!  And
> whoever called Mojo Portal "Mojo thing that no one has heard of" better
> think again.  I'm a volunteer on the project, and I don't appreciate
> people's work being insulted.  And besides, that CMS works on Linux despite
> it's coding.
>  
> -----Original Message-----
> From: programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> [mailto:programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Jamal Mazrui
> Sent: Friday, December 10, 2010 12:27 PM
> To: ProgrammingBlind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: RE: Drupal and Microsoft CMS Options?
>  
> Hi Rick,
> Here is the web site of an ASP.NET-based CMS:
>  
> DotNetNuke - The Leading Open Source Web Content Management Platform for
> ASP.NET -
>  
> http://www.dotnetnuke.com/
>  
> Jamal
>  
> -----Original Message-----
> From: programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> [mailto:programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of RicksPlace
> Sent: Friday, December 10, 2010 9:43 AM
> To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: Re: Drupal and Microsoft CMS Options?
>  
> Hi Gang: Jim, I don't know just yet. My preference would be to just learn
> whatever Jamal is doing but I am now thinking of putting up some sites for
> some blind folks so their sites are kept up to date and work well with
> screen readers so I am not sure about the scope of my involvement. It might
> be Drupal based or, more likely if really accessible, something in the
> Microsoft venu since I am familiar with their DB stuff and coding websites
> using various ASP Controls and Server Side coding technicals.
> For development I might use one of the packages Jacques or Katherine
> mentioned but I can start reading up on them to get some color on what this
> stuff is all about.
> Hay, Jacques, are you French? If so, are you from across the pond?
> Later and thanks for the ideas to explore.
> Rick Farmington Michigan USA
>  
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Katherine Moss <mailto:plymouthroamer285@xxxxxxxxx>
> To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Sent: Friday, December 10, 2010 9:19 AM
> Subject: RE: Drupal and Microsoft CMS Options?
>  
>  
> Look at both Umbraco and Mojo Portal.
>  
>  
>  
> From: programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> [mailto:programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of RicksPlace
> Sent: Friday, December 10, 2010 8:01 AM
> To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: Drupal and Microsoft CMS Options?
>  
>  
>  
> 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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