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Re: using .svg images accessibly

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From: Jonathan Avila
Date: Aug 4, 2017 11:10AM

I wanted to confirm with the group something related to this discussion regarding links with SVG images.

Given that links are not child presentation elements -- use of SVG inside of a link would either require an accessible name on the sSVG or marking the SVG as decorative such as via aria-hidden. Would people agree with that? That is SVG should be treated similar to the img element where you cannot simply leave it's purpose unspecified unless it is otherwise supposed to be excluded from the accessibility tree.

Jonathan

Jonathan Avila
Chief Accessibility Officer
Level Access, inc. (formerly SSB BART Group, inc.)
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-----Original Message-----
From: WebAIM-Forum [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Léonie Watson
Sent: Friday, August 4, 2017 11:04 AM
To: Sandy Feldman < <EMAIL REMOVED> >; WebAIM Discussion List < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] using .svg images accessibly

On 03/08/2017 16:20, Sandy Feldman wrote:
> What do you think?
> http://haltontrophies.com/svg/

These links work with screen readers, but probably not for the reasons you think.

The accessible name (link text) for the link is being provided by the title attribute on the <a> element, not the <title> element in the SVG.
If you remove the title attribute the links stop working properly with some screen reader/browser combinations.

The reason is that you're using the <use> element in the SVG, with all the accessibility applied to the original definition of the icon. When you use the <use> element to duplicate the original, the accessibility isn't reliably inherited.

A related problem is that the title attribute can cause problems when it's used on links. More on this here:
https://www.paciellogroup.com/blog/2013/01/using-the-html-title-attribute-updated/

You have a number of options...

1. Use the aria-label attribute instead of the title attribute.

This will provide an accessible name for the link that screen readers can access, without the problems caused by the title attribute for other AT users:

<a href="..." aria-label="Find me on YouTube">

2. Use the <title> element inside the <use> element.

You'd need to do this every time you used the icon. Something like this:

<a class="youtube" href="https://www.youtube.com/".
<svg class="socialIcon">
<use aria-labelledby="youtube-title" xlink:href="#icon-youtube"> <title id="youtube-title">Find me on YouTube</title> </use> </svg> </a>

3. Use an <img> element.

The icons are just simple static images, so you could save each one in its own .svg file and use it like you would any other image format:

<img src="youtube-icon.svg" alt="Find me on YouTube">

You'll still get the flexibility/scalability of the SVG, but with the simple accessibility of the <img> element.

HTH
Léonie.

--
@LeonieWatson @ <EMAIL REMOVED> tink.uk Carpe diem