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I'm putting together a comparison of Commenting/Idea Management tools, and one question I can't seem to find an answer to is whether Disqus if 508 compliant "out of the box."

I understand that I can customize the output through the API, but if I wanted to just slap it on a Drupal site, would it meet the minimum 508 requirements?

Victor Zakharov
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Robert Ellis
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2 Answers2

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I disagree 100% with kcunning's answer. Like her, I don't have a staged demo, so I cannot give an official review. I took a look at the blog for Disqus, which I figured would be a good source. Looking at the rendered code, you will see:

<div class="textarea-wrapper" data-role="textarea">
<div class="textarea" contenteditable="true" tabindex="0" role="textbox"
  aria-multiline="true" style="overflow: auto; max-height: 350px;">
<p>
text here<br>
</p>
</div>

They use ARIA to allow the div to become a text area, but they do not use aria-label, -labeledby, or -describedby. So that is equivalent of not providing a <label>, which is a violation of 508 (1194.22(n)).

Kcunning said

I was able to access everything with just a keyboard or mouse, inputs showed focus, and headers were used appropriately.

On the Disqus blog, you do not get focus indication anywhere except the div acting as a textarea, and the name and email boxes. This may be some be some CSS doings on their end vs defaults on the product/platform. If it is the default, it fails 1194.21(c), lack of a well-defined focus in the UI. The Software applications and operating systems apply because the form is heavily scripted.

Ryan B
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Disqus doesn't have an example commenting box I could check out, so I went over to the Oatmeals and looked at his.

Out of the box, I don't think you'll have any issues with getting it through a 508 assessment. I was able to access everything with just a keyboard or mouse, inputs showed focus, and headers were used appropriately. Avatars didn't have alt text, but I'm of the mind that they don't need them, since the user's name is right next to them.

Also, since you can customize the interface to deal with any outstanding issues, this is probably the commenting module that will be the easiest for you to use.

kcunning
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