Screen readers such as “JAWS” and “NVDA” that provide access to web pages for blind users do not read the arrow buttons on the selection box. This patch adds aria-label attributes “Add”, “Move up”, and “Move down” to assist them.
0001-Added-aria-label-attributes-in-SelectionBox-to-help-.patch (1.53 KB)
Screen readers such as “JAWS” and “NVDA” that provide access to web pages for
blind users do not read the arrow buttons on the selection box. This patch adds
aria-label attributes “Add”, “Move up”, and “Move down” to assist them.
Knowing that not all devs are immediately aware of the aria-label
convention, do you have a pointer to something ‘official’ about it
(and how well it’s supported by screen readers). I don’t mind adding
things to core to support user agents, but want to make sure I have a
better understanding of it.
-kevin
I tested with two screen readers but here is more information. It is widely supported.
For general information about WAI ARIA see WAI-ARIA Overview | Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) | W3C
Current support is at least mentioned at ARIA - Accessibility | MDN
The bottom line is that using ARIA attributes breaks nothing, if screen readers and browsers don’t know about it then it is ignored. If you or someone else wants to change the value of the button to have a real label you can and, again, nothing is broken. There just isn’t a good reason not to use it here as a way to support accessibility without having to change your user interface.
Having said that, if someone wants to solve it a different way it won’t hurt my feelings but it does need to be fixed…-----Original Message-----
From: rt-devel [mailto:rt-devel-bounces@lists.bestpractical.com] On Behalf Of Kevin Falcone
Sent: Monday, June 30, 2014 5:29 PM
To: rt-devel@lists.bestpractical.com
Subject: Re: [rt-devel] Patch to add aria labels to SelectionBox arrow buttons
On Mon, Jun 30, 2014 at 05:43:13PM +0000, Keith Creasy wrote:
Screen readers such as “JAWS” and “NVDA” that provide access to web
pages for blind users do not read the arrow buttons on the selection
box. This patch adds aria-label attributes “Add”, “Move up”, and “Move down” to assist them.
Knowing that not all devs are immediately aware of the aria-label convention, do you have a pointer to something ‘official’ about it (and how well it’s supported by screen readers). I don’t mind adding things to core to support user agents, but want to make sure I have a better understanding of it.
-kevin
I tested with two screen readers but here is more information. It is widely supported.
For general information about WAI ARIA see WAI-ARIA Overview | Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) | W3C
Current support is at least mentioned at ARIA - Accessibility | MDN
The bottom line is that using ARIA attributes breaks nothing, if
screen readers and browsers don’t know about it then it is ignored. If
you or someone else wants to change the value of the button to have a
real label you can and, again, nothing is broken. There just isn’t a
good reason not to use it here as a way to support accessibility
without having to change your user interface.
Thanks for the references.
I’ve pushed a branch with your patch (although I did fix the fact that
you added executable bits somewhere along the line). I’ll merge it
later today and it should show up in 4.2.6 when we release it.
-kevin
Thanks Kevin.
I’m not sure how the executable bits got in there. I’ll watch for that in the future.
I just noticed some other unlabeled buttons, this time in the widget where you edit columns included in a search. I’ll fix that for us and can send a patch for that as well if you like.
Keith-----Original Message-----
From: rt-devel [mailto:rt-devel-bounces@lists.bestpractical.com] On Behalf Of Kevin Falcone
Sent: Thursday, July 03, 2014 10:09 AM
To: rt-devel@lists.bestpractical.com
Subject: Re: [rt-devel] Patch to add aria labels to SelectionBox arrow buttons
On Mon, Jun 30, 2014 at 09:55:32PM +0000, Keith Creasy wrote:
I tested with two screen readers but here is more information. It is widely supported.
For general information about WAI ARIA see
WAI-ARIA Overview | Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) | W3CCurrent support is at least mentioned at
ARIA - Accessibility | MDNThe bottom line is that using ARIA attributes breaks nothing, if
screen readers and browsers don’t know about it then it is ignored. If
you or someone else wants to change the value of the button to have a
real label you can and, again, nothing is broken. There just isn’t a
good reason not to use it here as a way to support accessibility
without having to change your user interface.
Thanks for the references.
I’ve pushed a branch with your patch (although I did fix the fact that you added executable bits somewhere along the line). I’ll merge it later today and it should show up in 4.2.6 when we release it.
-kevin
I’m not sure how the executable bits got in there. I’ll watch for that in the future.
Luckily we have tests that fail when you add them, so it’s easy to
catch.
I just noticed some other unlabeled buttons, this time in the widget
where you edit columns included in a search. I’ll fix that for us and
can send a patch for that as well if you like.
If you have something handy/fast, I can add it to the end of the
branch I was about to merge, otherwise it’ll likely need to wait until
next week and probably miss 4.2.6. I’d prefer to lump these changes
into the same branch if possible though.
-kevin
Hi Kevin.
Unfortunately I’m sort of swamped right now. My plan is to grep the source files for those arrow chars and hopefully get them all.
If you want to pull out the ones I have in there and let me submit the rest in a week or so that would be fine. It does make sense to try and get them all in one pass.
KeithFrom: rt-devel [mailto:rt-devel-bounces@lists.bestpractical.com] On Behalf Of Kevin Falcone
Sent: Thursday, July 03, 2014 12:15 PM
To: rt-devel@lists.bestpractical.com
Subject: Re: [rt-devel] Patch to add aria labels to SelectionBox arrow buttons
I’m not sure how the executable bits got in there. I’ll watch for that in the future.
Luckily we have tests that fail when you add them, so it’s easy to catch.
I just noticed some other unlabeled buttons, this time in the widget
where you edit columns included in a search. I’ll fix that for us and
can send a patch for that as well if you like.
If you have something handy/fast, I can add it to the end of the branch I was about to merge, otherwise it’ll likely need to wait until next week and probably miss 4.2.6. I’d prefer to lump these changes into the same branch if possible though.
-kevin
Unfortunately I’m sort of swamped right now. My plan is to grep the source files for those arrow chars and hopefully get them all.
If you want to pull out the ones I have in there and let me submit the rest in a week or so that would be fine. It does make sense to try and get them all in one pass.
I’d rather try to fix a bunch of them in one branch than piecemeal them
in. I’m sure you’ll find others as your users use RT, but it’s cleaner
to fix a bunch at once.
There’s no big deal holding this fix for 4.2.7, so I’ll leave
4.2/aria-label-arrows published for now, and rename if you end up
fixing other things to do.
-kevin