WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Re: The a11y bugs project

for

From: Vlad Alexander (XStandard)
Date: Oct 26, 2011 2:03PM

Hi Steve,

The problem you mention is caused because Firefox renders alternate text as text on a graphic rather than as real text. Our bug report #3:

http://a11ybugs.org/bug-3.php

.. addresses this issue as it states: "It would be useful to have alternate text displayed as text, rather than text on a graphic. This way, parts of alternate text could be selected, copied and alternate text would wrap. It would also be beneficial to make alternate text participate in Find operation."

> Another issue is that Firefox's implementation provides no
> indication that text is a replacement for an image
As it should be because alternate text is a replacement for an image, not a supplement to it. Approach this from another direction - would one expect a supplement to alternate text during a cut/paste, search and translate operations? No.

Steve, to get this project back on track, I invite you sign the petition. A united accessibility community can achieve great things and your participation would be a boost for this project. Please join us.

Regards,
-Vlad


-------- Original Message --------
From: Steve Faulkner
Date: 10/26/2011 12:38 PM
> hi Vlad,
>
> "As with any campaign, there is a time for discussion, a cut-off time and a
> time for everyone to come together to achieve a greater good. In the case of
> this project, the greater good is to have these bugs fixed to match Firefox
> implementation (which Steve questions) than not to have them fixed at all."
>
> I suggest discussion should have been public from the start. Spending 10
> mins surfing with images disabled in Firefox will provide enough evidence
> for most people to conclude that Firefox's implementation is broken. Text
> is sometimes cut off and other times overlaps other content.
>
> Due to this, getting other browsers to match Firefox's implementation does
> not achieve 'the greater good'.
>
> Another issue is that Firefox's implementation provides no indication that
> text is a replacement for an image, while this may be appropriate in some
> circumstances it is not in others.
>
> I would further suggest that working openly with the Firefox team to improve
> their implementation would be a necessary precursor to working on cross
> browser support.
>
> regards
> Steve
>
> On 26 October 2011 19:23, Vlad Alexander< <EMAIL REMOVED> >wrote:
>
>> As with any campaign, there is a time for discussion, a cut-off time and a
>> time for everyone to come together to achieve a greater good. In the case of
>> this project, the greater good is to have these bugs fixed to match Firefox
>> implementation (which Steve questions) than not to have them fixed at all.
>>
>> Over the 5-month period, I have exchanged about a dozen emails with one
>> browser vendor in particular. They used every possible tactic to push back
>> fixing these bugs. Throughout this process, the only leverage we had was
>> that another major browser vendor, Firefox, has a useful implementation.
>> This made these items into "bugs" rather than "feature requests". This is a
>> critical distinction! If Firefox has wrong implementation, then these items
>> are new features to other vendors. If Firefox has correct implementation,
>> then these items are bugs. Bugs can get fixed in a timely manner. New
>> accessibility features are put at the end of the queue and right now, the
>> queue is very long. And time is of the essence. Microsoft for example has a
>> multi-year release cycle. If these bugs are not fixed in IE10, it will be
>> years before they are fixed in IE11 or IE12.
>>
>> I hope that in light of the above, you can understand why I asked Steve to
>> consider using back channels to get clarification on Firefox implementation
>> of these bugs directly from a former Mozilla developer.
>>
>> I ask that we in the accessibility community work together for the greater
>> good. Let's applaud Mozilla for having the best implementation for these 3
>> accessibility bugs, compared to the other browsers. Let's get the other
>> browser vendors on board!
>>
>> Regards,
>> -Vlad
>>
>>
>>