Planning for Accessibility

Providing equal access to digital resources is a fundamental aspect of modern web development. Accessibility not only improves usability, readability, and navigation for users with diverse access needs but also enhances the user experience for everyone while expanding an organization's potential audience. Furthermore, adhering to accessibility standards helps protect against legal repercussions. Liferay DXP supports accessibility compliance out of the box with a range of features and capabilities.

Liferay’s Commitment to Accessibility

Liferay DXP is engineered to comply with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), an internationally recognized standard for accessible web content. Specifically, Liferay aims to meet WCAG 2.2 standards, which are built upon four core principles, often referred to by the acronym POUR:

Perceivable: Information and user interface components must be presentable to users in ways they can perceive. This means content should not be invisible to all senses.
Operable: Users must be able to operate user interface components, ensuring that interaction does not require actions a user cannot perform.
Understandable: The information presented and the operation of the user interface must be understandable to users.
Robust: Web content must be compatible with a wide range of user agents, including assistive technologies, to ensure reliable interpretation.

While full adherence to accessibility standards depends on implementation, Liferay provides a variety of tools to facilitate compliance.

Liferay’s Accessibility Features

Liferay’s native accessibility features include keyboard navigation, screen reader compatibility, the page audit tool, and the accessibility menu.

For users who cannot rely on a mouse, many Liferay components are built to be fully accessible via keyboard. This includes the ability to navigate menus and sub-menus, interact with forms and buttons, and access modals and dialogs using only a keyboard.

Liferay supports Accessible Rich Internet Applications (ARIA), a set of roles and attributes for developing accessible web content and applications. By leveraging ARIA attributes, Liferay becomes compatible with popular screen reading tools, which provide these benefits:

Clear labels and descriptions for interactive elements.
Logical navigation orders to help users understand page structure.
Accessible alternative text for images and multimedia.

Page Auditing

The page audit tool uses the Google PageSpeed Insights service to analyze public Liferay pages and provide recommendations for improving accessibility and search engine optimization. Specifically, it evaluates pages for low contrast ratios and the absence of alternative text for images and input fields. Note that the page audit tool only works with public web pages.

While most accessibility configurations are propagated globally, Liferay provides individual users with the option to toggle specific settings using the accessibility menu:

Underlined Links: Add an underline to all links to increase their visibility.
Increased Text Spacing: Increase horizontal spacing between text characters to improve readability.
Expanded Text: Expand all truncated text to show complete messages by default.
Reduced Motion: Hide animations, transitions, and other movement effects in the user interface.

Administrators must enable this menu on a site by site basis.

Accessibility and Content Management

While accessibility is a broad web development concern, it is particularly relevant to how content is displayed. When planning and creating content within Liferay, you can be confident that the platform’s out-of-the-box features and applications are developed with accessibility in mind. However, if your Liferay solution involves numerous custom fragments, it is crucial to evaluate their accessibility to ensure your final digital experience is inclusive. While Liferay provides a strong foundation for accessibility, it does not automatically guarantee everything built with it is accessible.

Conclusion

Liferay DXP is committed to supporting accessibility compliance with a range of built-in features that align with WCAG principles. By understanding and leveraging these tools, along with considering accessibility during content creation and customization, organizations can build inclusive digital experiences that benefit all users.

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