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Re: Interesting effect with CSS

for

From: Leif Halvard Silli
Date: Jan 8, 2012 6:18AM

Jared Smith, Sun, 8 Jan 2012 05:49:18 -0700:
> On Sun, Jan 8, 2012 at 4:43 AM, Leif Halvard Silli wrote:
>
>> Another way to solve this problem would be to use media queries and
>> then to not send the 'content CSS' to the screenreaders. But so far,
>> screenreaders have not implemented media queries, so we are out of
>> luck.
>
> As Patrick noted, there's not really a media type for screen readers.
> There was a proposal for a "reader" type at one point. There currently
> is a "speech" media type (formerly known as "aural"), which is for
> "speech synthesizers", which I guess means screen readers. There's
> also accessibility-related "braille", "embossed", and "tty".

I *imagined* that the 'reader' type was not meant to be identical with
'speech'. But perhaps I am quite wrong there. From what you say below,
it could seem that you are right, however.

> This always brings up a bit of a heated debate - whether it's
> acceptable for user agents to identify assistive technology and/or
> disability.

The 'speech' label does not need to be a disability label.

> The community is generally very opposed to this self-identification.

Interesting. This is the first time I have been made aware of that
angle of looking at it.

> While this seems like a good idea, I doubt that
> assistive technologies are likely to start identifying themselves in a
> way that would render these media types of any use.

Unfortunately, you could be right. Anyway, CSS generated content from
::before and ::after, has been incorporated into ARIA 1.0: [1]

]]]
Text nodes are often visited because they are children of an element
that uses rule 2C to collect text from its children. However, because
it is possible to specify or alter textual content using CSS rules, it
is necessary for user agents to combine such content, as appropriate,
with the text referenced by the text nodes to produce a complete text
alternative. An example is the use of CSS :before and :after
pseudo-elements, where the user agent combines the textual content
specified in the style sheet with that given in the DOM.
- When an image replaces text, then the UA should use the original
text, since that text is presumably the equivalent.
- When text replaces an image, then the UA should provide that text.
- When new text replaces old, then the UA should include the new
text, since that is what is rendered on screen.
[[[

[1] http://www.w3.org/TR/wai-aria/complete#textalternativecomputation
--
leif halvard silli