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Re: Graphical heading & Alt-text

for

From: Duff Johnson
Date: Jul 15, 2013 1:57PM

Bevi,

> Here's the accessibility problem. There is a page that uses graphical text
> for the page's main heading, what should be <H1> if it was live text. For
> the visual appearance she wants, the text must be turned into a graphic to
> produce the appearance, so she then puts Alt-text on the graphical text.

Funny you should ask this - I got almost (but not quite) the exact same question earlier today from someone else!

> Questions:
>
> 1) Should it be Alt-text or Actual text on the graphic?

If one may assume that the visual appearance of the text isn't semantically significant then actual text is indicated.

If the visual appearance is significant (i.e., if there's some sort of concrete deliverable and relevant message in the typography itself, such as flames to indicate heat or snow-crystals to indicate cold) then alternative text would be indicated.

> 2) How can we let the reader know this acts as a <H1>? Because it's a
> graphic, it's tagged as a <figure> tag, not an <H1> tag.

Nest the <Figure> tag within an <H1> tag.

> This problem is just one of the many obstacles and software shortcomings
> InDesign and Acrobat users face as they try to convert their layout designs
> to either an accessible PDF or an accessible eBook.

These are very very hard questions for software. When does a change to visual styling "become" semantically significant? Whether the software helps you solve this problem or not, ultimately all software can do in such a case would be to bring the question to the attention of a human author: "what are you trying to say here?"

If the text used in the H1 is also used later on (say, within paragraph text), it's likely better to use actual text in those cases to preserve the word-flow when text is repurposed rather than bother the poor user with alternative text descriptions of the image each time it occurs.

Now, this last point is (largely) derivable from other general advice not to repeat information without purpose. But it's not going to be obvious (either way) to many many authors.

There are also - if we are to be honest - cases where it would be desirable to represent either actual or alternative text, depending. I believe (I could be wrong) that today's APIs and AT aren't set up to address such circumstances at this time.

Developing software that encourages authors to learn how to create accessible documents is profoundly challenging. I do not envy the UI developers, which is why my contributions are (necessarily) limited to standing on the sidelines throwing peanut shells.

Duff.