Re: Visibly hidden controls

Michael,
your two examples are two different issues in my opinion.

> This is common on news websites and there are several where I left 
because the media started auto-playing but all I wanted was to read the 
story and I couldn't figure out how to stop the video. I'm sure there was 
a secret, but I couldn't figure it out.

Those are often equally inaccessible for everyone, not just you.  No 
secret there.  Its not that you can't figure it out, there isn't a stop 
button to even discover with a mouse or a keyboard.  I've seen where there 
is a pause/play button, but it isn't keyboard accessible, so again, a 
basic keyboard accessibility problem, not really to do with visibly 
hidden, but not accessible when un-hidden.  The "auto play" annoyance is 
usually a 1.4.2 violation too: 1.4.2 Audio Control: If any audio on a Web 
page plays automatically for more than 3 seconds, either a mechanism is 
available to pause or stop the audio, or a mechanism is available to 
control audio volume independently from the overall system volume level. 
(Level A)  


> One of my favorite websites, my ability to navigate it went away because 
the menu vanished. I thought it was a web design bug. After a month I 
finally e-mailed customer support to find out that the menu was now hidden 
by default and I had to press something that looked like three bars to 
show it.

I then asked them why they couldn't put the word "menu" next to it, and 
why it needed to be collapsed.

The response I got was it needs to be collapsed to make the site look 
better on cell phones and that everyone knows the three bars opens it, 
that's the standard.

That is often an issue of not connforming with the Success Creiteria 4.1.2 
Name, Role, Value: For all user interface components (including but not 
limited to: form elements, links and components generated by scripts), the 
name and role can be programmatically determined; states, properties, and 
values. . .  is available to user agents, including assistive technologies
. (Level A) 

where the so called new widget "hamburger menu" is not labeld correctly 
(e.g. no name of "main menu", no state (collapsed?), and no role (its a 
menu not a button), etc.  I agree that just placing a new image with bad 
or missing alt text on a page is in no way sufficient to call that a new 
accessible widget or control.  So again, its an inaccessible menu, period, 
whether hidden or visible is not the issue.
___________
Regards,
Phill Jenkins
pjenkins@us.ibm.com
Senior Engineer & Accessibility Executive
IBM Research Accessibility
ibm.com/able
facebook.com/IBMAccessibility
twitter.com/IBMAccess
ageandability.com




From:   "Michael A. Peters" <mpeters@domblogger.net>
To:     w3c-wai-ig@w3.org
Date:   12/05/2016 10:20 PM
Subject:        Re: Visibly hidden controls



On 12/05/2016 03:17 PM, Terrill Thompson wrote:
> Hi All,
>
*snip*
>
> Chromeless media players are a common example. By default there are no
> controls other than (perhaps) a large play button that's overlaid over a
> poster image. When the video is playing there are no controls at all.
> However, if a mouse user hovers over the video a control bar appears.
>
> Depending on how it's coded the control bar might be accessible to
> screen reader users, and might even be visibly exposed to keyboard users
> once it receives focus, but from my perspective if it's not visible,

*snip*

This is common on news websites and there are several where I left 
because the media started auto-playing but all I wanted was to read the 
story and I couldn't figure out how to stop the video. I'm sure there 
was a secret, but I couldn't figure it out.

One of my favorite websites, my ability to navigate it went away because 
the menu vanished. I thought it was a web design bug. After a month I 
finally e-mailed customer support to find out that the menu was now 
hidden by default and I had to press something that looked like three 
bars to show it.

I then asked them why they couldn't put the word "menu" next to it, and 
why it needed to be collapsed.

The response I got was it needs to be collapsed to make the site look 
better on cell phones and that everyone knows the three bars opens it, 
that's the standard.

I guess because I mostly use my phone as a phone (I don't trust the 
privacy / security of the app craze) it was a "standard" I wasn't hip 
enough to know about.

I still wonder why they can't put the work "menu" next to it, surely 
there's even enough room on a cell phone...

Anyway yes, I agree with you, controls need to either be visible or if 
they are hidden it needs to be obvious how to access them.

I weep at many of the web interfaces designed by today's "professionals".