Re: [wbs] response to 'EOWG Weekly Survey - 23 February 2015'

Hi Wayne,

thanks for your feedback on the Tables tutorials.

On 26 Feb 2015, at 22:33, Wayne Dick via WBS Mailer wrote:

> Comments:
> I am not sure about the describedby example.  It is correct, but if it 
> is
> visible why not let the screen reader just fall into it.

The description can be anywhere on the page and doesn’t need to follow 
the image directly, for example in another tab or on the bottom of the 
website.

To make that clear, I have added the word “anywhere” to the first 
paragraph of the example, which now reads:

“The WAI-ARIA `aria-describedby` attribute can be used to link to a 
description of the image that is provided _anywhere_ on the same web 
page, in a similar way to the longdesc approach. The value of the 
attribute is the `id` of the element that provides the long 
description.”

> Shouldn't we have an example with a compelling reason to hide the
> describedby element. I can't really think of one.

Hiding the description is not what we want to show, I think. To make the 
description accessible to all, it is best to have it visible.

> I did not have a chance to test this with JAWS.  Is the describedby 
> text
> read twice?

It will be read twice (if not hidden using display:none or 
aria-hidden="true") but it depends on the structure of the web page when 
this is happening. For example if the description is on the bottom of 
the page with a header “Image descriptions:“ a screen reader user 
could skip that part.

Items being read twice is one aspect that is not entirely solvable by 
authors, consider the following example:

<nav role="navigation" aria-labelledby="sbtitle">
<h3 id="sbtitle">Sidebar Navigation</h3>
</nav>

You want to have the role navigation to make the landmark accessible. 
You want to have the aria-labelledby so that people who navigate 
landmarks have a nice title. (This will read “Sidebar navigation, 
navigation“: first the label, then the role.)

Additionally for people using voice input or heading navigation you want 
the heading in there. If a screen reader user navigates through 
landmarks and activates this navigation landmark, the screen reader 
reads: “Sidebar Navigation, navigation (activates), Sidebar 
Navigation, heading level 3”.

A lot of problems have to do with ARIA support in assistive 
technologies. Sometime in the future we may be able to use

<nav aria-labelledby="Sidebar Navigation"></nav>

and be done :-)

Looking forward to seeing you next week and to speaking to you today.

Cheers, Eric

--

Eric Eggert
Web Accessibility Specialist
Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) at Wold Wide Web Consortium (W3C)