WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Re: Hiding Legends

for

From: Dean Hamack
Date: Oct 17, 2008 3:10PM

Wow. Thank You Michael. This is excellent information, and very helpful.
Responses and additional questions inline.

>The overwhelming majority of
> people who are "blind" are not totally blind and more people use screen
> magnifiers or combinations of magnifiers and screen readers than use
> screen readers alone.

I came up with some similar stats during research last night. I'll write
about those in a separate post.

> I have found that many applications fail to function properly using
> Windows built in high contrast mode, including some Microsoft
> applications.

Ironic since they developed it.

> When I tested Dean's page I observed the following.
>
> 1. Color and contrast meets WCAG AAA requirements at 8.6:1 for the
> luminosity ratio.
> 2. Testing with JAWS 9.0, the legends were reported correctly.
> 3. Pixilation of the legends when using ZoomText at 5X was acceptable.
> 4. The default color schemes on ZoomText all worked as expected.
> 5. When images were turned off, the legends disappeared and the reason
> for two name and address fields was lost.

That stands to reason. I guess I question why any one would turn off images
and leave styles enabled. If you turned off styles, that wouldn't be an
issue.

> Final comment, cursive and italic scripts are difficult for many low
> vision people to read. Dean, you may want to convey that information to
> your client as well.

Agreed. This was not an actual comp I have been given, just an example for
demonstration purposes. I hope a client never gives me a pink page with
cursive script :)

> The only sites that we have full control over are the ones that we build
> for ourselves. Since most of us make our living building and/or
> testing/consulting for others the best that we can expect to do is point
> out the weaknesses, explain the implications, and allow the deciders to
> do their jobs.

Agreed. Most developers don't have the knowledge or tools to test their
sites for real-world accessibility. That's why lists like this are so
valuable.

Thanks again.