Accessibility Improvements In DW

[jeshyr]

I'd like to put together a list of all the stuff in Dreamwidth that's aimed at making us more accessible - so everything from "We have a diversity statement" to "Alt text for user icons" to "comment threads easier to navigate because of semantic HTML" to (eventually) "guides available to teach users to use browser accessibility functions themselves".

I don't think there's a list in one place of all the improvements that have been made which relate in some way to accessibility for any group.

Ones I can think of:

- Alt text for user icons
- Diversity Statement (which goes with "our volunteers care about accessibility")
- "Other" option in gender field
- Layout of HTML in comment threads is semantic now, which makes them easier to navigate with a screen reader and some other accessibility software..
- We've made the format=light and style=mine options more widely known and easier to use by putting them on the navbar.
- Readers have more control over their viewing experience - eg if they don't want the navbar then they can turn it off globally.

What other improvements have people noticed in accessibility while reading and using Dreamwidth?

Ricky

Comments

[jadelennox]

lightgetsin mentioned, in that comment you linked to a couple of days ago, not only that the layout of HTML in comments thread is semantic now, but the ordering of userpic/subject line on the page is more logical.

Also, core2 for styles -- whatever is going to be named in the end it -- has more functionality built directly into the underlying core style so that by default, it will be much easier for style writers to use the underlying styles which have accessibility functionality built right in, and the only styles which will be accepted as contributions are going to have those accessibility features.

[highlander_ii]

We haven't done it yet, but we're aiming for the WAI-ARIA coding... which, yes, I'm still up for helping with if someone can explain how to get the code info for the pages. *g*

I know there's probably more, but I can't think of any others right off the top of my head...

[jadelennox]

H_II, just so you know, my schedule of coordinating this is:

• Install Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10 (shipped from the manufacturer today), which will allow me to
• upgrade to Firefox 3, which will allow me to
• spend some time learning what WAI-ARIA implementation actually looks like, when done right, because Firefox 3 apparently has pretty good support for it
• so probably be ready to start figuring out what our project needs with people in about two weeks

Which is probably way more information than you wanted to know. :-) I figure we will have to look at all of the different parts of the specification, decide where we can add them, and prioritize. Maybe we can get everyone who has expressed interest (by adding themselves to the bug or in other ways) to get together via IRC or e-mail.

[highlander_ii]

Cool!

Hey - hand out all the info you want - I'm one of those ppl who thrives far better on 'more info' than 'not enough'. =) Granted, if it gets too techy, my eyes may glaze over, but I'll skim through to get the gist. *g*

"Other" option in gender field

[jason]

Is there no way to go farther than this? I remember 20 years ago moos had 7 genders. Could it not be a text field with a long list, like moods? I just realized that this might look funny to people, but what's the rationale for limiting to the official ones. Or what's the value of putting it in at all, vs all the other self descriptors.

Re: "Other" option in gender field

[jeshyr]

I don't know the rationale, Jason. I don't even know why they ask for a gender - it's not for legal reasons like a birthdate is. I suggest you make your suggestion on the dw_suggestions community (I hope I got the name right!) and see what the Powers That Be say about it.

Cheers,
r

[we_are_spc]

Maybe this is the wrong place for this, but the fact that the tag edit/removal page is completely accessible makes us all kinds of squeeingly dancingly happies. :d

-Us

[gaspodia]

I haven't had a chance to flick through many user pages, but there does seem to be a welcome lack of flashing icons. Is this just users being thoughtful or a setting in DW?

[jeshyr]

At this point it's probably good luck on your part, but having the system detect which user icons are animated and giving the user an option to only ever display still icons (which would mean the first frame of an animated icon) is on my long To Do list.