Drupal Accessibility Features

More Semantic

More semantic HTML5 elements were added for better support assistive technology. We have supplemented this with WAI-ARIA elements such as landmarks, live regions, roles & properties.

Aural Alerts

Drupal.announce() is now part of Drupal Core with core/misc/announce.js so that users can confidently provide timely messages to aural users. In JavaScript we can now provide instructions to screen reader users to be read out either as assertive or polite:

Drupal.announce('Hello world.');

You can also pass translated strings & change the priority of messages using code like:
Drupal.announce(Drupal.t('This is important!'), 'assertive');

Controlled Tab Order

The TabbingManager is a great mechanism for both non-visual and keyboard-only users. With this there is greater control over the order of salient page elements. This allows more centralized control for this means of navigating complex user interfaces.

Hidden/Invisible/On-focus

We have continued to improve our centralized alternative to CSS display:none;. Drupal has standardized on the naming convention used in HTML 5 Boilerplate.

Fieldsets

We're presently using fieldsets for radios & checkboxes now in the Form API. This is a big step toward further enhancing forms in Drupal. It is also now used in the advanced search.

jQuery UI

jQuery UI delivers Drupal's autocomplete. We're also using their modal dialog now in Views UI and in other places. By working with the jQuery UI community we were able to improve accessibility for both projects.

Alt Text

Alternative text is now required by default. This can be overridden in both CKEditor & Image Fields. We have assumed that content creators will want to make their content accessible.

Olivero theme

Drupal’s newest default theme, Olivero, was developed with accessibility as a first class citizen. Special care has been taken to ensure the multi-level menu system is extremely accessible. Focus states throughout the theme are clear and obvious. Forced colors modes such as Windows high contrast mode work flawlessly. Extensive testing has been performed including testing by the National Federation for the Blind.

Accessible Inline Form Errors

Drupal forms are more accessible with the addition of accessible inline form errors module. This is available in Core but not enabled by default. It is now easier for everyone to identify what errors they might have made when filling in a web form. You need to manually enable this module. 

WYSIWYG (CKEditor)

By default the Basic HTML text format is set up to support author accessibility. Authors can headings, starting with an H2. This facilitates good semantic structure for the content. Furthermore, for images, alt text is required by default. This can be disabled by an administrator, but the default content types support authoring best practices. 

Language of Parts (CKEditor)

If authors are publishing content in more than one language consider enabling the language button in CKEditor. We added this button in Drupal to make it easier for authors to inform screen readers if a string of text in a page is in a non-dominant language. This needs to be added to the WYSIWYG controls by an administrator.