Alt text for site skin previews

[fu]

We're adding some previews when you're choosing a site skin, and I've been thinking about an appropriate level of information for the alt text.

The alt text mentions the colors, the orientation of the menus, and whether or not the menus use Javascript. Is there anything else that needs to be added, or is there any non-essential information that should be removed?

For reference, here is sample alt text for four of the site skins:

Celerity

Olive and white with vertical non-Javascript menus

Gradation Horizontal

White on black with horizontal Javascript menus

Gradation Vertical

White on black with vertical non-Javascript menus

Lynx

Simple, bare skin with minimal decoration and navigation

Comments

[foxfirefey]

Hmm, I'd describe Gradation as light on dark, just because while it might look like white on black if you aren't sensitive to that kind of thing, it's not quite as stark a contrast as that.

For Lynx, might want to mention that it uses the browser's color defaults? It does, I think, although maybe it does not!

[fu]

Will change to light-on-dark; was going between the two terms because on the one hand I think that light on dark is a common term so we maybe should use it; on the other hand, I've used the actual colors to describe the other skins.

Hmmm. And Lynx doesn't, I think, not all the time. Unless I'm wrong and it does!

[deborah]

do they all have the same functionality? For a while, Lynx didn't have the same functionality as any of the others. If one of them has limited functionality that should be part of the text as well.

ETA: or is that what you meant by "minimal decoration and navigation"? If that is, it wasn't clear to me.

[aveleh]

If I look at the following URL, it does not have all the navigation links than the other site skins do:
http://dw-accessibility.dreamwidth.org/15546.html?usescheme=lynx

[fu]

Yeah, it doesn't. There's just the link to the site map, though as I understand it, the lack of links is deliberate.

[fu]

Yeah, I did mean that, but if it's not clear we should change it. The navigation is the only difference (I think) between Lynx/the other skins. Perhaps:

"Simple skin with minimal navigation" (+something about functionality?)

[turlough]

Maybe something about how it uses the default font and font size of your browser?

[jesse_the_k]

That's my #1 need-to-know as a large print user. If the designer hasn't planned on 9pt text in four tight columns, I'm usually OK.

[fu]

Hm, okay so right now I only have the text in the alt text, but it sounds like I will need to split it up into both alt text and a brief onscreen description -- just need to sit down and figure out which parts of the description are appropriate for which text.

Happy to try ...

[jesse_the_k]

my abstract reasoning is on vacation, but I'm happy to play around with samples and point at "this works!" and "this is hard!" :,)

Re: Happy to try ...

[afuna]

Hee, okay. How does something like this look?

Celerity

Alt text: Olive and white with vertical non-Javascript menus

No additional description

Gradation Horizontal

Alt text: White on black with horizontal Javascript menus

Description: Light on dark layout for less glare; uses Javascript for menus

Gradation Vertical

Alt text: White on black with vertical non-Javascript menus

Description: Light on dark layout for less glare

Tropospherical Red

Alt text: Red and grey with horizontal Javascript menus

Description: Muted gray background for less screen glare, with slightly smaller font. Uses Javascript for menus

Lynx

Alt text: Simplest skin with minimal menus and features

Description: Simple skin with focus on content and minimal navigation. Mostly uses the browser defaults

Re: Happy to try ...

[jesse_the_k]

Sorry for the delay in replying.

Uses Javascript for menus

I must blushingly admit I don't know what the implications are.

Is that when I can't make a selection because my shaky fingers create a shaky pointer cursor that doesn't stick a selection? Or is it the opposite thing where I have to use the arrow pointer to fly out the menu and tabbing the choices stops on the top level without highlighting?

I guess the general message is: teach me a little more as you're informing me.

Tropo Red: "...with 80% smaller font" (if known?)

Lynx
"Uses browser defaults for fonts and colors, with narrower text column"

Thanks for listening!

Re: Happy to try ...

[deborah]

both of those are JavaScript. A JavaScript menu is any web-based menu which is dynamic, and works as if it were a menu on a Windows computer or a Mac that can expand based on some prompt. That prompt could either be a mouse over or a keyboard/click or something else.

Without JavaScript, menus are static things, with links that sit on the page without moving.

So in this case, I guess the text should be "Has expanding menus". Would that be clear?

Re: Happy to try ...

[jesse_the_k]

Ahhh, thanks for the education.

I'll just say that what I want to know is how accommodating my layout is, so if you listed:

"Uses Javascript dynamic menus, pointer control required to navigate menu"

then I can choose to use a different design.

Re: Happy to try ...

[fu]

Thanks for pointing out that the text was unclear! I'd like to allow people to be able to quickly judge which layouts would/would not work for them, so all this has been very helpful.

We don't have a lot of space under there, though. Would collapsing the two clauses into one still work? Something like:

"(other description). Menu expands on mouse hover".


And re: description of Lynx upthread

I'm not quite sure what you mean by narrower text column -- I think that Lynx doesn't constrain the text width in any way, and it doesn't have any sidebars so no additional things taking up space there. Any examples so I can poke at it?

[lobsterdesigns]

Any chance you could add some more skins, for instance with medium contrast instead of high contrast? Light blue and light green are good background colours, as well as a soft yellow. I don't use it myself, but a light on dark colour scheme would probably be appreciated by quite a few people.

[denise]

Quite belatedly (I'm sorry, I missed this comment!) -- we have a few different skins we'd like to add (addressing certain other accessibility needs), but we've had to do a lot of backend work, both to make it easier for developers and to set things up more usably first, to prevent people from getting confused. We're getting closer to being able to develop other skins without overwhelming the user!