WE4AUTHORS: Web accessibility in content authoring tools (CMS)

The project sought to stimulate the content management system market so that its vendors would see the Web Accessibility Directive as a business opportunity, incorporating accessibility assurance as a quality principle of their products. In this way, it would make it easier both for those who write content to publish accessible content and for people with disabilities to use these same tools.

The objectives of the project were:

• To analyze the web content management systems most widely used in the European public sector and select the main ones for a pilot.
• To provide technical support to those systems in improving their accessibility, so that it would be applied from the design stage and built into the tool itself.
• To help ensure that web content created with these systems would be accessible automatically.
• To test the prototypes with real users and produce guides for CMS vendors, suppliers, and public administrations.

WE4AUTHORS was built around the following pillars:

• CMS market analysis: identification of the content management systems with the widest adoption in the European public sector, covering different technology platforms and programming languages.
• Accessibility-by-design pilots: technical support to the selected systems to incorporate accessibility features built into the tool itself, rather than added after the fact.
• Outreach and networking: development of guides and activities aimed at vendors, development communities, customers, and end users.

Funka led the project, with the participation of CTIC as the W3C Spanish Office, the European Disability Forum (EDF), the European Association for the Co-ordination of Consumer Representation in Standardisation (ANEC), and the European Network of Research and Innovation of Regions (ERRIN).