RE: Question about proper use of screen readers in 508 testing

I'd argue that this kind of repetition caused by developer ignorance is a hard failure of 1.1.1 because the text alternative does not serve an equivalent purpose to the non-text content. 

If the label on the button included the word 'button' or the column heading in a data table had header text repeated three times or some other feature had 'global navigation navigation region' as a heading, it would be resolved as a functional defect and reasonably quickly.

Accessibility is usability for people with disability - the notion that they are somehow fundamentally different disciplines is problematic.

And shoehorning the evaluation of accessibility into functional testing and within everyday severity/criticality metrics is similarly problematic.

In any case, de-valuing such defects as 'usability' or something not to be fixed says much about our attitudes to both quality and user experience ... 

-----Original Message-----
From: Patrick H. Lauke [mailto:redux@splintered.co.uk] 
Sent: Friday, 24 July 2020 7:16 AM
To: w3c-wai-ig@w3.org
Subject: Re: Question about proper use of screen readers in 508 testing

On 23/07/2020 21:49, Andrews, David B (DEED) wrote:

> On the useable thing, the button button thing is usually caused by 
> having the word button in the label, and the screen reader identifies 
> the control as a button, hence the double speak.  Why would you argue 
> about this, just take the word button out of the label.

If these are being flagged as critical WCAG failures though, then 
there's a conversation to be had with the testers, because normatively 
I'd say it's not a failure of WCAG. And claiming/saying that they are 
undermines any other results they may be producing.

Sure, flag it as a best practice/usability issue to be fixed. But don't 
pretend it's a hard failure of the spec.

P
-- 
Patrick H. Lauke

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Received on Saturday, 25 July 2020 04:53:35 UTC