topic Re: Accessability anomoly in Community Site Feedback

Accessability anomoly

MauriceC — Tue, 03 May 2016 11:47:14 GMT

Browsing through the 'Forum' page on the track of something else, I tripped over the following issue.

All of the 'plusnet burple' board icons on the Left hand Side have the same 'Title' - "Message Board" and 'Alt' text - "There are no unread messages in this message board". All of the buttons have the correct href to take the User to the correct Board destination. The Title is misleading, but the Alt text is just wrong and misleading.

I'm no expert on Screen Reader software, but I think the code needs a bit of TLC to help make the site more accessible.

Re: Accessability anomoly

MauriceC — Fri, 13 May 2016 17:35:59 GMT

Did this post get reviewed?

Re: Accessability anomoly

Anotherone — Fri, 13 May 2016 18:48:13 GMT

Sorry Maurice I saw it the other day and didn't have time to look at it. It's on my list for later.

Re: Accessability anomoly

Anotherone — Sat, 14 May 2016 15:55:52 GMT

Well I can certainly see the Purple Icons all have the very informative title "Message Board" we'll have to see if we can get that changed. Screen readers are certainly not my forte, maybe about time I learnt something about them.
Where do you get this 'Alt' text? I can't seem to find that

Re: Accessability anomoly

MauriceC — Sat, 14 May 2016 17:50:33 GMT

@Anotherone wrote:

Where do you get this 'Alt' text? I can't seem to find that

Using the FF code inspector?

Re: Accessability anomoly

jaread83 — Sun, 15 May 2016 08:06:10 GMT

Icons do not need to have differing alt text if the link is descriptive enough. It is enough for the icon to describe what the icon is and not its context. Look at example 7 on this link for more information: http://webaim.org/techniques/alttext/#functional

Re: Accessability anomoly

MauriceC — Sun, 15 May 2016 08:33:28 GMT

@jaread83 If you read the last paragraph in the example you give, it suggests otherwise?

Additionally the fixed 'Alt' text of "There are no unread messages" will in many instances be in conflict with the unread post count on the right of the page. Alt="" would at least be more accurate.

Can you revisit this please.

Re: Accessability anomoly

jaread83 — Sun, 15 May 2016 08:45:08 GMT

Of course. I will have a closer look when I am at a computer as currently on mobile.

Re: Accessability anomoly

jaread83 — Mon, 16 May 2016 08:21:26 GMT

Thank you for spotting this @MauriceC. I have had a closer look and it doesn't make sense to have that same alt text regardless of the amount of unread messages. It seems to always be the same text "There are no unread messages in this message board" but it should also have "There are XX unread messages in this message board" where XX represents the amount of new items.

I have added this to my list of bugs to be looked at. Unfortunately this is a core product bug and looking at other communities I can see the same issue. This will probably be a fix done as part of a product release for all lithium communities so I will have this flagged up.

Re: Accessability anomoly

jaread83 — Mon, 16 May 2016 08:29:30 GMT

I have raised this on their support forum as its a product bug that needs to be fixed on all of their clients and not just ours. So will probably be fixed as part of their product release cycle.

Re: Accessability anomoly

MauriceC — Mon, 16 May 2016 08:47:54 GMT

@jaread83 wrote:

So will probably be fixed as part of their product release cycle.

Oh dear! Based on their current track record mañana might be tad optimistic.

Still, compared with many of the bugs, it is relatively low priority.

Re: Accessability anomoly

jaread83 — Tue, 17 May 2016 08:47:25 GMT

I raised it in their support forum and was told that it will be looked at by the software development team. They also said thanks for spotting it

This should be fixed in the next release but as you said, probably a low priority and I have no control over their release cycle.