WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Re: Facebook accessibility

for

From: Srinivasu Chakravarthula
Date: Nov 1, 2012 1:44AM

Hi All,
I did some off-line conversation with the accessibility team at Facebook
and they are pretty responsive and in fact, carefully looking at the issues
reproduced. I just forwarded them the below feedback too.

I'm certainly hopeful, they do their best to make FB accessible to all
users and not just to a set of users such as screen reader users. I think,
since now, there is a good team in place, it would be good to send the
feedback on their way.

Best wishes,
-Vasu

On Thu, Nov 1, 2012 at 12:11 AM, Payne,Susan N (DARS) <
<EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:

> I just did a few quick checks and found some problems.
>
> Clicking through to our agency's page without being logged into my account
> launched a pop-up window asking me to sign in or register. Using the
> keyboard only, I was unable to bring focus to that window so couldn't close
> it or enter anything. The focus remained on the FB page I was trying to get
> to and I could see myself tabbing through fields and links but most of the
> page was blocked from view by that pop-up.
>
> On the page itself every status had the name of our agency (being the
> poster of the status) as an H5. If I was trying to navigate via headings in
> a screen reader, hearing "DARS-Texas Department of Assistive and
> Rehabilitative Services" 33 times would not be helpful.
>
> The font size could not be enlarged via browser settings and the color
> contrast ratio was insufficient in several spots.
>
> Susan Payne
> Accessibility Specialist
> DARS - Center for Policy and External Relations
> <EMAIL REMOVED> 512-377-0366
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Morin, Gary (NIH/OD) [E] [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ]
> Sent: Tuesday, October 30, 2012 2:03 PM
> To: WebAIM Discussion List
> Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Facebook accessibility
>
> Accessible to who (whom?)? Is it for the real-life diversity of
> disabilities, functional limitations and assistive technologies? Or, just
> to screen readers and persons with sight impairments, which is the usual
> reality for most "accessibility" efforts?
> > From: Len Burns [ <EMAIL REMOVED> ]
> Sent: Tuesday, October 30, 2012 01:40 PM
> To: WebAIM Discussion List
> Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Facebook accessibility
>
> I applaud the direction, and deeply hope that it becomes their standard
> practice. Historically it has been three steps forward and two back with
> FB. For now I will hold to the belief that this time will be different.
>
> -Len
>
> On 10/30/2012 8:13 AM, Bourne, Sarah (ITD) wrote:
> > While I was on Twitter yesterday (OK, I was obsessively following storm
> reports. I'm better now.) James Teh, screen reader user and so-lead
> developer of NVDA, sent out a tweet that took me completely by surprise:
> "Oh wow! The main Facebook site became accessible! I am quite impressed."
> >
> > Wow, indeed. A few friends have confirmed that Facebook has made
> significant improvements. There are still some snags here and there, but
> apparently more annoyances than barriers. Another friend mentioned that he
> has found the (new-ish) accessibility team to be very responsive to problem
> reports.
> >
> > You can report issues specific to accessibility and assistive
> > technology at
> > https://www.facebook.com/help/contact/?id9372943117927
> >
> > Sb
> >
> > Sarah E. Bourne
> > Director of Assistive Technology &
> > Mass.Gov Chief Technology Strategist
> > Information Technology Division
> > Commonwealth of Massachusetts
> > 1 Ashburton Pl. rm 1601 Boston MA 02108
> > 617-626-4502
> > <EMAIL REMOVED> <mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> >
> > http://www.mass.gov/itd
> >
> > > > > > list messages to <EMAIL REMOVED>
> >
>
>
>
> > > >



--
Regards,

Srinivasu Chakravarthula - Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/VasuTweets
Website: http://www.srinivasu.org | http://www.learnaccessibility.org

Let's create an inclusive web!