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Re: Screen Shots and A11y

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From: Birkir R. Gunnarsson
Date: Jun 10, 2013 6:33AM

Dave

Good points.
Ideally I'd like to combine all 3 elements here:
Find the XPath to the element or section of the site that is giving me problems.
Be able to highlight it using the XPath and then take a screen shot
(that way the developer or admin gets a screenshot of the page at the
time I discovered the problem, with a visual indicator).
Then I provide a text description as well.

The question is to what extent I can use this technique, i.e. can I
somehow highlight a section of a page that I point to via an XPath,
the rest is fairly straight-forward I think.
I'll check with me colleagues re Firebug in this regard, may be that's
all that's needed.
Cheers
-B

On 6/10/13, Dave Merrill < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
> An xpath representation of the object you're referring to is very specific,
> which is good, but its specificity also makes it very fragile. It's very
> possible for otherwise unimportant changes, even invisible ones, to break
> it, or make it refer to the wrong element.
>
> As a developer myself, I'd think a text description would be best, and
> possibly a screenshot. However, I'm sighted. If I wasn't, this
> communication would be more difficult, but me thinking that may just be a
> reflection of not having dealt with it all day every day for a long time.
>
>
> On Mon, Jun 10, 2013 at 7:41 AM, Birkir R. Gunnarsson <
> <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
>
>> 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
>> >> >> >> >> >> >> >
>> > >> > >> > >> >
>> >> >> >>
>
>
>
> --
> Dave Merrill
> > > >