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Re: Screen Shots and A11y

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From: Birkir R. Gunnarsson
Date: Jun 10, 2013 5:41AM

Hi

Agree that screenshots are not very helpful to the screenreader user.
However, I have had problems making sure, when I deliver an
accessibility evaluation, that there is no ambiguity for the sighted
site developer, where I am encountering an issue (especially on a
large site).
After all, I can't use a language like "the red square logo on the
bottom left of the screen only works with the mouse", not without
sighted assistance.
I use XPath currently to mark the piece of code I am referring to,
which is helpful for the developers, but I need to find out if there
is a way to paste an XPath query into a browser and have the browser
automatically highlight that section or page element, ideally
something that could be done very easily.
I have been playing around with Firebug for Firefox, nd you can easily
get the XPath of the element from there.
However I am not sure what happens when you past the XPath expression back in.
Cheers
-B

On 6/10/13, <EMAIL REMOVED> < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
> in my experience as a screen reader user screen shots have little value as
> they are an image that is not readable. The only value that they have is for
>
> me to demonstrate an inaccessible web page to a developer or sight master
> when I am using their site.
> Chuck
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "David Ashleydale" < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
> To: "WebAIM Discussion List" < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
> Sent: Tuesday, September 25, 2012 2:32 PM
> Subject: [WebAIM] Screen Shots and A11y
>
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> My web site often has screen shots of pages as an introduction to some
>> new
>> functionality, in addition to describing the functionality in the
>> accompanying text. The screen shots are meant to familiarize users with
>> how
>> the service might look if they were to sign up for it. However, this is
>> very visually-oriented. I don't think there's even a very practical way
>> of
>> describing a screen shot in ALT text. Or at least, ALT text wouldn't
>> provide the same purpose as the screen shot, which is specifically to
>> show
>> the user what it will look like.
>>
>> Would screen shots be considered "decorative" and therefore be given null
>> ALT text? Or should there be a completely different strategy that would
>> take the place of a screen shot for users that are unable to see it?
>>
>> Thanks,
>> David Ashleydale
>> >> >> >
> > > >