Thread Subject: Re: WIKI COLOR

From: Jared Smith
Date: Tue, Oct 24 2006 9:30 AM

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On 10/24/06, Bailey Bruce wrote:
> Jared, how about adding font-style:oblique to a.new in main.css (line
> 83) as quick fix? (I was a little surprised that background color was
> not specified with color.)
>
> > (and violating our guidelines).
>
> Which guidelines would that be? I presume you mean 508 1194.22(c)?
>
> I respectfully submit that a good argument can be made that Media Wiki
> technically satisfies this provision.

Technically perhaps. Functionally, they don't. As you mention, making
the text oblique doesn't help screen reader users any more than what
is currently there.

My current thought on this is to hack the code and add an icon at the
end of the link. I like Bruce's idea of a red X. It would have to be
in-code and not added with CSS so as to have alternative text. That
alt text could be "Page doesn't exist" or perhaps "Create this page".

> Does the current approach for external links provide
> an appropriately obvious auditory cue?

Kinda. The screen reader would read the URL if that URL is visually
displayed. But for links that have labels and do not display the
entire URL, the icon provides a visual cue that is not provided to
screen reader users. This would be an issue under 508 1194.22(a). It
could be argued that in this case the screen reader user could have
the URL read to them, but it's a weak argument.

So we shouldn't use color alone (internal, non-existant pages) and we
shouldn't use an icon alone (external links where the URL is not
visible), so that leaves the option of placing the icons inline with
appropriate alternative text. Or am I missing something?

Another option would be to leave the icons in CSS, but add text
("External link" and "Create this page"?) to the link label that is
visually hidden, but still read by screen readers. This is the
approach we use on the WebAIM site for external links.

I think it's awesome that there are so many methods that can be used
to solve such an issue and the guidelines do not lock us into a
specific or limiting approach. Too bad IE doesn't support the CSS
:after pseudo-selector or these would all be very easy CSS fixes.

Jared Smith
NCDAE.org

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