1# Accessibility Conventions and Standards
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3It is important that the OpenBMC Web UI meet accessibility guidelines established by the [World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)](https://www.w3.org/). These guidelines are known as the [Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)](https://www.w3.org/WAI/standards-guidelines/wcag/). Making the Web UI accessible to as many users as possible is the right thing to do. In many countries, it is also legally required. Organizations providing interfaces that users with permanent or temporary disabilities can not use, may lose sales or be susceptible to discriminatory lawsuits.
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5## Accessibility Principles
6These [principles](https://www.w3.org/WAI/fundamentals/accessibility-principles/) reference a set of international standards from the [W3C Web Accessibility Intitiative (WAI)](https://www.w3.org/WAI/).
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8- [Perceiveable](https://www.w3.org/WAI/fundamentals/accessibility-principles/#perceivable)
9- [Operable](https://www.w3.org/WAI/fundamentals/accessibility-principles/#operable)
10- [Understandable](https://www.w3.org/WAI/fundamentals/accessibility-principles/#understandable)
11- [Robust](https://www.w3.org/WAI/fundamentals/accessibility-principles/#robust)
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13## Semantic HTML
14Coding the UI using semantic markup is the most important step in creating an inclusive interface. The use of [WAI-ARIA](https://www.w3.org/WAI/standards-guidelines/aria/) can help make an interface accessible to assistive technologies. However, there are two critical rules to follow:
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161. Always favor semantic markup over ARIA
172. No ARIA is better than Bad ARIA
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19## Testing
20Assuring the Web UI meets accessibility guidelines requires a combination of automated and manual testing. Automated tests will test the application against common problems such as color contrast and ARIA use. Automated testing can be built into the CI process, integrated with code editors, and run using browser extensions.
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22The OpenBMC Web UI developers should test their development pages using one of the tools listed in the tools section below. If using Chrome, the Lighthouse application comes bundled with the browser and also includes testing for performance and best practices. If there is an issue that is created when using a Bootstrap-Vue component, we can [create an issue in the Bootstrap-vue repo](https://github.com/bootstrap-vue/bootstrap-vue/issues/new/choose). Contributing to the Bootstrap-Vue open-source library, when possible, is strongly encouraged.
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24## Tools
25- [Deque Axe](https://www.deque.com/axe/)
26- [Firefox Accessibility Inspector](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Tools/Accessibility_inspector)
27- [Lighthouse](https://developers.google.com/web/tools/lighthouse)
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29## Screen Readers
30- [Voiceover (Mac only)](https://webaim.org/articles/voiceover/)
31- [NVDA (Windows only)](https://webaim.org/articles/nvda/)
32- [Jaws - (Windows only)](https://webaim.org/articles/jaws/)
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34## Resources
35- [Mozilla Developer Network - Accessibility](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Accessibility)
36- [Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)](https://www.w3.org/WAI/standards-guidelines/wcag/)
37- [WAI-ARIA Authoring Practices](https://www.w3.org/TR/wai-aria-practices/)
38- [WAI-ARIA Basics](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn/Accessibility/WAI-ARIA_basics)
39- [WebAIM Articles](https://webaim.org/articles/)
40- [A11Y Project](https://a11yproject.com/)
41- [IBM Accessibility Research](https://www.ibm.com/able/)
42- [Inclusive Components](https://inclusive-components.design/)
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