Forum Activity for @ultrajam

Accessibility improvements in Jamroom 7

Suggestions

I have a tracker set up which lists the issues I've noted at over the past 24 hours (some might not be well explained, and not enough links to further info yet).

If it's ok with you I can add you to the site tomorrow so you can see the type of issues I'm talking about. Happy to add any others in the Team too if that would be helpful. I've added some form designer fields to the tracker, but I'm sure you all know your way around it well enough for it to still make sense.
updated by @ultrajam: 06/02/22 01:12:34PM

Accessibility improvements in Jamroom 7

Suggestions

I think it would be quite a big project, and not necessarily something which has to be done all in one go. Might be better to think of it as a journey towards accessibility.

Jamroom is already very well thought out, clear and easy to use so that's a great place to be starting from! The disadvantage is that its capable of such a wide range of things, and there are so many modules and skins. We could start by looking at the Core with Elastic and see where it's at after that?

There are analyzer tools and services, but automatic checks can only test less than half of the requirements, and most of those still need to be verified as accurate. I like the developer tools in the browsers, especially the way they link to further info, and there are a few plugins which are quite helpful too.

Accessibility improvements in Jamroom 7

Suggestions

I'd be very interested in making Jamroom 7 more accessible for all users.

I work at a university, and because we receive some public finding we are required by law since 2018 to not spend money or work time on anything using a browser which doesn't meet current accessibility regulations. In a nutshell that means WCAG 2.1 AA: https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG21/quickref/?showtechniques=pageinfo&currentsidebar=%23col_customize&levels=aaa&technologies=flash
I know there are very similar Section 508 requirements in the US.

Forgetting law and regulations (I do try to), I believe that there is a really good business (and moral) case for making web apps usable by all people. W3C have been advocating for an accessible web since the start. The more people who can use a web platform the better, they will be able to interact/enjoy/feedback/pay/learn/buy things via the platform. Judging by the accessibility conferences I have been to (remotely) over the past 3 years big business is way ahead on this, universities are sadly way, way behind and are now only trying to catch up because they are legally compelled to.

Making Jamroom 7 a more accessible platform is my suggestion. I don't have the skills to make it fully compliant with the guidelines (e.g. I don't even have the patience to learn to use a screen reader properly), but I do have some knowledge in the area. And I'd be more than happy to help with making Jamroom more accessible if the Team have any interest in that.




updated by @ultrajam: 09/07/22 03:03:34PM

What are the future plans for Jamroom ?

Using Jamroom

Great to hear that there's an upgrade on the horizon! Something to look forward to

Makes me think of a suggestion for Jamroom 7, so I'll head over to the Suggestions forum...

After a lifetime of playing music

Off Topic

Congratulations Mick, that is great news!

Skype

General

Text to audio would be a plugin forr the browser rather than a website function.

Safari has that built in, there are extensions for other browsers - ReadAloud and TTS Reader were recently suggested to a colleague as good options.

Skype

General

It depends on the layout of your site, it was originally used in the sidebar of a support profile page.

I don't have any screenshots - this module hasn't been in use for 8 years or so. It may not be in a working state.

It wasn't intended to be used on all profiles, but it does depend on your network.

Yes, but you would have to check each skype name in your smarty template. Probably easier to vary the position by quota rather than smarty name.

Skype plugin module

General

Hi, I haven't installed this for the past 8 years or so. It's very likely that something has changed in Jamroom or at Skype in that time, so it's possible that the module no longer works.

You do need to add code to a template, I will answer in the other thread.

Like

Suggestions

Who am I kidding? I LOVE these forums!

Like

Suggestions

Reading through the forum I keep reaching for the Like button although I know it's not there. I guess I've got used to being social on Teams and Slack over the past year.

There is so much to just "Like" in the Jamroom forums.
updated by @ultrajam: 07/21/21 03:59:36PM