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Re: Activating controls with hidden accessible names usingspeech recognition

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From: Jonathan Avila
Date: Feb 8, 2016 7:38AM

Robert, these are important considerations that I discuss in a blog article on the topic titled Considerations for Testing with Speech Recognition Software such as Dragon Naturally Speaking that I authored in 2014 http://www.ssbbartgroup.com/blog/considerations-testing-speech-recognition-software-dragon-naturally-speaking/

Jonathan

Jonathan Avila
Chief Accessibility Officer
SSB BART Group
<EMAIL REMOVED>
703.637.8957 (o)
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-----Original Message-----
From: WebAIM-Forum [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Robert Fentress
Sent: Sunday, February 07, 2016 4:24 PM
To: WebAIM Discussion List
Subject: [WebAIM] Activating controls with hidden accessible names using speech recognition

Hi, all.

I'm curious about the accessibility for speech recognition software users of controls whose accessible name is not visible. One example is graphical buttons or links. Using Dragon, one could say "click button" and be shown selection boxes for all buttons on the screen, allowing you to choose the one you wanted. However, that seems like an added burden when, if the name was visible, you could simply say its name to click it. I only have access to Dragon 12.5, so I don't know if they've come up with better solutions for situations like this in later versions, but I'm wondering if having an option to display hidden labels would assist users of this assistive technology.

Using graphical controls can be a way of making things less cluttered and easier to grasp perhaps, but it seems to make things more difficult than it should be for those using voice control.

Also, I'm wondering if it is recommended practice to try to avoid having controls whose accessible name doesn't match what appears visually to be its name. For instance, visibly, it might say "read more", but its hidden name might be set to "read full entry for topic 1" using aria-label to disambiguate things for screen reader users.
In this instance, I could see a Dragon user saying "click read more"
and being confused when nothing happens.

Perhaps these are just examples of trade-offs where you need to use your best judgement, but I wonder if there are recommendations or best practices for things like this. You wouldn't ding someone for not having visible labels or having visible labels that are different than hidden labels, would you?

Thanks.

-Rob