Portal: Linked Graphics on Accessibility Information Page are not Screen Reader Friendly

Description

There are several linked graphics on the “Accessibility Information” page who’s meaning/purpose is confusing to screen reader users, whether they are encountering these non-descript linked graphics where they are embedded within the actual page, or when using the insert+F7 keyboard shortcut to bring up a list of links available on the page (see attached demo video)

 

JAWS announces these linked graphics as follows:

 

, “Original/b2f4893d-3c08-43c1-97c6-e52411b15b42”

(appears as item #19 in list of links)

 

“Original/0ead15d6-e909-4149-9134-2a197180ea7f”

(appears as item #20 in list of links)

 

“Original/10706a15-6440-4314-a962-6d66b4362e3a”

(appears as item #21 in list of links)

 

“Original/4f3ff98d-a7e9-40f8-8d58-64d3ecfd4a6d”

(appears as item #24 in list of links)

 

As reference, below are the detailed results of the related screen reader/keyboard testing of the Accessibility page on 22.X (the results were essentially the same for all four screen reader/web browser combinations tested, JAWS+Chrom, JAWS+Edge, NVDA+Chrome, and NVDA+Firefox)

 

1--There are graphics within following sections, completely skipped by screen reader. Below such graphics its written “pictured above”, thus, user will expect presence of a graphic there.

a. “Quick Access (Skip to...) Links”

b. Tool Menu for the Current Site

2--There are graphic links within following sections, screen reader is not rendering meaningful alt text for them. Purpose of graphic link is not descriptive

a. Sites

b. Favorite Sites List (on Desktop View)

c. Content Area

d. Footer

3--There are graphic links available under following sections. On activating these links, a modal overlay is getting opened on the screen. When users navigate using arrow keys, focus is going to parent page from this modal overlay and also with 'tab' navigation, focus is going to elements of browser.

a. Sites

b. Favorite Sites List (on Desktop View)

c. Content Area

d. Footer

 

There are following links available in the page. Just below these links, a text is written as (Opens new window). It is a best practice that this text should be provided with the link text. So that when link receives focus, screen reader reads this extra information with the link text itself, and no seperate arrow down navigation is required to read the same.

a. WebAIM: Web Accessibility In Mind

b. Keyboard Accessibility © WebAIM

c. MAGic

d. ZoomText

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Andrea Schmidt November 1, 2023 at 9:32 PM

Per , this is now passing on 22x. There is no Please merge/Merged flag set for 22x, so nothing to change there.

I did compare trunk to 22x, and trunk is still missing alt text that is present on 22.

Chris Knapp September 6, 2023 at 5:51 PM

Retested this on 22.X using JAWS+Chrome and was able to verify that the non-descript file names for the images have been replaced with more descriptive text alternatives. For example, “Image of normally invisible quick access links used in tabbed navigation graphic” and “Image of user Profile menu graphic”.

 

  

 

Wilma Hodges May 3, 2023 at 4:15 PM

I’ve updated the relevant help article for 22.x, however it will need to be exported and incorporated into Sakai for the next maintenance release before the changes are visible.

The updates for 23.x version cannot be completed until the latest portal UI modifications are available on nightly. The screenshots in question within the article show portions of the navigation that need to be screen captured once the portal changes are done.

Andrea Schmidt April 20, 2023 at 11:26 PM
Edited

We’re making this a blocker because it has a high impact on a11y, even though we normally would not make this a blocker. Lower the priority to Critical if this issue seems too time consuming.

Details

Priority

23 Status

Please Merge

Components

Assignee

Reporter

Environment

JAWS+Chrome, JAWS+Edge, NVDA+Chrome, and NVDA+Firefox
Created April 11, 2023 at 7:40 PM
Updated November 1, 2023 at 9:32 PM