GOSS iCM is designed to create content that meets accessibility requirements. It includes a number of built-in defaults, content restrictions and validation services.
There's an article about how your website meets accessibility guidelines in the Site Frameworks and Core Templates documentation.
An administrator with suitable privileges is able to override or disable iCM's accessibility features, as described below.
Article Editor
The article editor in iCM creates valid HTML markup as standard. Whilst it is possible to use the editor in source HTML mode, this is a privilege that needs to be explicitly assigned to editors. See HTML Editor Privileges for more information.
Headings
The article heading entered into the "Heading" field of the Article Summary section will generally be output as the main H1 element of the page. This means you will probably want to disable further H1 elements in the Article Body. You can do this by editing the rules (dhtmledit_rules.js) used by the editor. See Text Editor Configuration for full instructions.
By default the article editor also checks that headings are nested correctly. For example should your content be structured:
<h2>My Title</h2>
<p>Here's some text</p>
<h4>Another title</h4>
A warning is given
Heading accessibility checking can be turned off by assigning the "HTML Editor Disable Heading Accessibility Check" privilege to a user. See HTML Editor Privileges for more information.
The heading checker only checks headings after the first heading in the body text, which means your first heading style can be any available in the styles drop-down. That's because iCM doesn't know where your article content will appear, and what headings may be output before it. As a general rule your first heading in your body text should be an H2, because the article heading text is generally output as a H1. However, some sites and themes might use the article heading and introductory text differently.
Tables
All content in iCM can be configured to HTML 4/XHTML 1.1 or HTML 5 standards. The table properties dialogue box and required elements are completely customisable by an administrator with suitable privileges. See Text Editor Configuration for full instructions.
Table accessibility checking can be turned off by assigning the "HTML Editor Disable Table Accessibility Check" privilege to a user. See HTML Editor Privileges for more information.
Article Validators
Article Validators in iCM are third party tools that can be used to check the accessibility, markup, and readability of an article. They can be run on demand by a user as they create content, or invoked automatically whenever an article is submitted. This automatic invocation can be set on a per template, per subsite or global basis. See Article Validators for further information.
External Links
The way links to other sites behave on an iCM powered site is determined by the site framework and templates. This ensures that consistent behaviour is achieved across the site. Commonly links to external sites will open in a new tab or window. They will be tagged with the text "Opens in a new browser window or tab" and display an icon.
Media
The way media items behave on an iCM powered site is determined by the site framework and templates. This ensures that consistent behaviour is achieved across the site, removing the burden from iCM users. Media items in iCM must have a title and description which will provide the title and/or alt-text as appropriate.
Sites
There's a more detailed look at the standard accessibility features delivered by our website frameworks and themes in the Framework Accessibility article.
Forms
The forms designer gives you the flexibility to build almost any type of form you can think of. That flexibility does mean you need to think about your form design and accessibility. Building Accessible Forms outlines best practice, and highlights some of the easily fixed mistakes we've seen.
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