Re: WCAG 2.2 status - Icon Description

as mentioned, I see potential for a "title attribute like" SC, where on hover and focus for an icon 'used as an accessible label' the 'accessible name' is shown as a tooltip (or alike)

[cid:26d9d2bd-b045-4417-9202-1bc1f39bc310]
example of a button with a clock as an icon, a tooltip is shown on focus with the text: "Set the time for an appointment"




________________________________
From: Alastair Campbell <acampbell@nomensa.com>
Sent: Monday, January 13, 2020 5:56 PM
To: Hall, Charles (DET-MRM) <Charles.Hall@mrm-mccann.com>
Cc: WCAG list <w3c-wai-gl@w3.org>
Subject: Re: WCAG 2.2 status - Icon Description


> Touch screens actually have more available actions than fewer. They lack hover, match focus, but gain long touch, force touch and gestures.



In terms of what can be applied with standard events on a web page, I think it is still fair to say we don’t have an equivalent option to hover/focus.



I wouldn’t expect to be able to do a long-press or gesture on an icon to get a description, it would probably activate the link. However, that expectation is there for hover. (Is force touch still a thing?)





> [having a toggle] would extend to a method that could be queried, like prefers-icon-labels that could globally toggle the display state of the text description.



Ok, but we’d have to put this SC on hold whilst that query was created. If the toggle isn’t the primary method, we don’t have a primary method that people could implement this year on a WCAG 2.2 timescale.



The question now is whether this (or some variation on the current wording) is a useful SC to add.



Would web interfaces be more accessible if they were required to:

  *   Show text descriptions by default?
  *   Show text descriptions on hover and/or focus?
  *   Provide a toggle to show text descriptions?



Or, would requiring any of those do more harm than good? I.e. the solutions are not good enough yet.



Is it be better to put this idea on the Silver track and/or campaign for a personalisation/preference for visible text descriptions?



Cheers,



-Alastair

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