Accessibility for confluence

[Pres]

Hello everyone, I'm in search of an accessibility add-on that can help my colleagues with disabilities access Confluence effectively. Does anyone know if there's such an add-on available? It appears that the Confluence accessibility add-on was discontinued in November 2021.

[Randy O_Neal · Accepted solution]

I suspect - I don't know this for certain - the reason the accessibility add-on was removed was because it was unnecessary.  There are two key types of accessibility tools - screen readers and screen magnifiers.  Both - but especially the screen readers - rely upon the web pages being WCAG compatible.  WCAG compatibility is laid out here at the W3 Designing for Web Accessibility Initiative.

As long as the page you are viewing is WCAG compatible, then any industry-standard screen reader - such as Freedom Scientific's Jaws - or any of the myriad screen magnifiers - such as Freedom Scientific's ZoomText - should simply work; you shouldn't need any plugins to be able to leverage any of the industry-standard assistive technologies.

There's far more information at the American Foundation for the Blind.  I do not suffer from low vision/no vision, but hold multiple patents in this area from a previous job where I worked extensively with Freedom Scientific and other leaders in the accessibility arena.  If you want/need additional pointers to other online resources, please let me know and I can more than likely point you in the right direction.

[Pres]

Thank you and yes do share other online resources .

[Randy O_Neal]

Additional information regarding WCAG standards (I believe they are now up to WCAG 2.1, and they are working on proposed version 3.0, though it isn't yet in force):  WCAG offers the ability to grade compliance to their standards; websites are either A, AA, or AAA compliant to the standards... and there are myriad guidance regarding what needs to change on the website to attain the various levels of compliance.

The majority of the work involves common sense... but there are comprehensive sets of instructions on how to achieve each and every step along the way.  American Foundation for the Blind and National Federation of the Blind are two distinct organizations, both of which serve different purposes, but ultimately both serve the low vision/no vision community, and do so very well.

As for tools, there are many screen readers; Jaws is at the top of the list, but there are others which offer excellent services and work extremely well.  ZoomText is at the top of the list of screen magnifiers, but there are also many other screen magnifiers which offer excellent support on both desktop/laptop as well as mobile devices.

Google is your friend in this regard.  Do some searching... there are a lot of useful tools just a few keystrokes away!

[Neghena drawio Diagrams · Accepted solution]

I found the Accessibility for Confluence app on the marketplace that is used for screen readers and to adjust contrast. This should be able to help

https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/1213437/accessibility-for-confluence?tab=overview&hosting=datacenter 

If this doesn't seem like an option, the Atlassian Accessibility Support Portal can provide insight.

https://www.atlassian.com/accessibility

On another note, you definitely highlighted an issue that needs more attention especially for persons with disabilities on these platforms. Hopefully these links help!

[Pres]

Thank you for your insight .