The internet is for everyone, regardless of physical or mental ability. Everyone should be able to utilise it efficiently. Inaccessible websites instantly deter a big proportion of individuals from visiting them.
Drupal comes with a number of built-in accessibility features, such as the necessity of alt text for photos in Drupal 8. Here, we'll look at a few contributed modules that might help you increase the accessibility of your Drupal site even further. Recently, Drupal has made major changes. While Drupal 8 and even Drupal 7 are still in widespread usage, the later has reached enf od life and the former has less than a year left. As such, most websites are in the process of upgrading to Drupal 9.
To reflect this, we've included modules with D9 compatibility status.
The tools you need
The Accessibility Toolkit (the a11y module) is a useful resource for Drupal developers who are charged with creating user-friendly and accessible sites, despite the fact that it is only available for Drupal 7. Support for dyslexic fonts, high contrast mode, inverted colours mode, and text scaling are all included.
Furthermore, it offers assistance in imitating certain limitations. Because it's difficult for an able-bodied person to put oneself in the shoes of a handicapped person, these simulations aid engineers in developing empathy by mimicking the symptoms of disorders like dyslexia and color blindness.
If you're searching for a module that's comparable to the a11y module but can be used with Drupal 8, the Accessibility module is the closest match; however, it's aimed more at content editors and site maintainers. It comes with a set of accessibility tests that evaluate the material published by your editors and other users for accessibility issues like missing alt text (granted, with Drupal 8 this is already automatic).
So, if you're still running a Drupal 7 site (not that we recommend this) these two modules may be used in tandem: one ensures accessibility in development, while the other ensures that content and design fulfil accessibility criteria in the live environment. Just a heads up: the Accessibility module isn't protected by Drupal's security advisory policy since it relies on the deprecated QUAIL jQuery plugin.
Accessibility Scanner
The initial development version of Accessibility Scanner was launched in March 2020, and the most recent update was the 2.0.0 beta in September of this year. You may use Drupal and a checker to execute online accessibility scans straight from the Drupal admin panel with this module.
Style Switcher
For visitors who are colour blind, Style Switcher is quite handy. It enables theme creators to include alternative stylesheets in their themes, and site builders to add more alternate stylesheets directly from the admin area.
A site visitor is then given all of those styles as links in a block, from which they may choose the one that best suits their needs, such as the one with the most contrast for their particular form of colour blindness.
Block ARIA Landmark Roles
This ARIA module, which is available for Drupal 8, lets you attach ARIA landmark roles and/or ARIA labels to a block, making it simpler for screen readers and other assistive technology to recognise the kind and purpose of content. For visitors who use such technology, this considerably simplifies site navigation.
Text Resize
While resizing the text on a website using the keyboard ('ctrl' and either '+' or '-') is simple, not everyone who uses the internet is aware of this. Visitors may adjust the font size of a text using the Text Resize module, which is available for Drupal 8 and 9 It also features a reset option that must be turned on from the admin page.
Auto-generated alt text
You may use this Drupal 8 module to produce an alt text for an image when the user hasn't given one. The Microsoft Azure Cognitive Services API is used to do this.
It includes one or more visual descriptions, which are ranked according to their level of confidence. The descriptions are written in English by default, however they may be translated into other languages.
For blind or visually impaired visitors using screen readers, providing an alternate text is critical since it is the only way for them to get the whole information of a website. Furthermore, photos containing alt text are more SEO-friendly, which helps your site rank higher in search engines.
Even while Drupal 8 requires alt text for content authors by default, material supplied by users should as well, and this module makes that possible.
Fluidproject UI Options
The Fluidproject UI Options module allows users to customise the font size, line height, font style, contrast, and link style of a page to their liking. Cookies save all of the changes you make.
However, there are several restrictions to the module. Font scaling and line heights in Bootstrap themes, for example, need extra CSS, and components that employ CSS gradients cannot have their contrast settings adjusted.
This is a really helpful module, not just in terms of accessibility, but also in terms of security. It limits and cleans HTML code to ensure that it follows the site administrator's policy and guidelines, as well as security best practises.
You may autocorrect and beautify HTML markup as well as limit HTML elements, properties, and URL protocols in the input with this module. It also balances tags and ensures that HTML elements are correctly nested, as well as converts deprecated tags and attributes, among other things.
HTML Purifier
The HTML Purifier filter library, which is quite similar to the previously described htmLawed, is ideal for addressing both security and accessibility criteria. It eliminates dangerous code from your website and ensures that it complies with W3C standards.
Because it works well with WYSIWYG editors, HTML Purifier is a fantastic match for Drupal. It comes with a slew of features, like custom fonts, tables, inline style, and more.
Editoria11y Accessibility Checker
Editoria11y is an accessibility checker that operates in the background and is targeted at content producers and editors. When you click on the toggle, it displays the number and kind of faults found, as well as providing extra information and advice.
CKEditor Accessibility Auditor
CKEditor is a comparable module that also offers a Drupal 9 compliant version. The key difference is that this module works by pushing a button, after which HTML CodeSniffer Accessibility Auditor is launched. Furthermore, as the name implies, it only works with the WYSIWYG CKEditor.
Final thoughts
This is a collection of Drupal modules that deal with various areas of online accessibility. You may not need to use every module on this list, depending on the security measures you've previously installed and your team's best practises.
Nonetheless, we wanted to provide an overview of the many possibilities so that you may choose the one that best suits your requirements. These modules provide accessibility tools for both developers and content editors, as well as site users, so you're likely to find something that works for you.
We're advocates of accessibility for a fair internet for all. If you're interested in an accessibility audit as a first step towards improving your site.