accessibility-issues

These are externally raised issues about accessibility with broadly varying degrees of merit. Thus some issues may be REJECTED for a number of obvious reasons (but still documented here in case they are re-raised), and others contain longer discussions. Some issues may be ACCEPTED and perhaps cause changes or improved explanations in the spec.

Submitted issues may (and probably will) be edited and rewritten for better terseness, clarity, calmness, rationality, and as neutral a point of view as possible. Write your issues well. — Tantek

Please add new issues to the top of the list. Please follow-up to resolved/rejected issues with new information rather than resubmitting such issues. Duplicate issue additions will be reverted.

Closed Issues

Resolved issues that have no further actions to take.

• See accessibility-issues-closed.

Resolved Issues

Resolved issues that have outstanding to-do items.

• See accessibility-issues-resolved.

Issues

Accessibility of this wiki

• open issue! 2006-11-26 raised by Andy Mabbett

• 1. Large blocks of italic text are inaccessible to many readers, including people with types of visual impairment, dyslexia, etc. [1], [2]. [3], [4], [5]
     • ACCEPTED. Awaiting a list of pages that need improving and suggested patterns for improvement so we can recommend alternatives to large blocks of italic text in the future. - Tantek

• open issue! 2006-12-11 raised by Andy Mabbett

• 1. Duplicating link text breaches WAI-WCAG 1 guideline 13.1 Clearly identify the target of each link and is unhelpful to users of assistive technologies and other agents, which provide links in a stand-alone, out-of-context list.
     • UNCLEAR. Awaiting documentation of specific pages and tools that demonstrate said problem. - Tantek

• open issue! 2008-01-14 raised by Andy Mabbett

• 1. Inappropriate alt text, using file name as default, on images conveying information (e.g. [6]). Can editors specify alt text?
     • ACCEPTED. Awaiting suggested fix for MediaWiki installs. - Tantek

• open issue! 2008-02-07 raised by Andy Mabbett

• 1. The use of "font-size:smaller" on superscript notes is an accessibility barrier. Superscript is already smaller than the user's default preferred text size, and such links present a too-small target for people with visual disabilities and/ or motor-coordination problems to hit, even if they can read them. The Joe Clarke article cited in support of this change is not applicable; it refers to default font size for a page, and does not excuse making text smaller than that default. Even at default text size, single-character links are often too small for such users to "hit".
     • ACCEPTED. Awaiting suggested fix for MediaWiki installs. - Tantek

Template

Consider using this format (copy and paste this to the end of the list to add your issues; replace ~~~ with an external link if preferred) to report issues or feedback, so that issues can show up in hAtom subscriptions of this issues page. If open issues lack this markup, please add it.

Please post one issue per entry, to make them easier to manage. Avoid combining multiple issues into single reports, as this can confuse or muddle feedback, and puts a burden of separating the discrete issues onto someone else who 1. may not have the time, and 2. may not understand the issue in the same way as the original reporter.

<div class="hentry">
{{OpenIssue}} 
<span class="entry-summary author vcard">
 <span class="published">2011-MM-DD</span> 
 raised by <span class="fn">~~~</span>
</span>
<div class="entry-content discussion issues">
* <strong class="entry-title">«Short title of issue»</strong>. «Description of Issue»
** Follow-up comment #1
** Follow-up comment #2
</div>
</div>

See Also

• accessibility
• assistive-technology
• microformats-issues