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Re: Activating controls with hidden accessible names using speech recognition

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From: deborah.kaplan@suberic.net
Date: Feb 8, 2016 10:24PM

Robert Fentress wrote:

> I'm curious about the accessibility for speech recognition software users of controls whose accessible name is not visible.

Robert,

Assuming the accessible name is properly associated with ARIA, NaturallySpeaking allows the user to dictate the accessible name. However, the user needs to know what the accessible name *is*. With very few exceptions (a magnifying glass, a shopping cart, a gear, or a question mark) it's almost impossible for the user to even guess.

Now, of course, best practice is always to label icons (<https://www.nngroup.com/articles/icon-usability/>) because able-bodied users also find sites difficult to navigate without text labels. But current design trends sadly have little to do with evidence-based usability. So in order to make the icons easily usable by Dragon users, the site needs to find some way to expose textual labels (without relying on hover based effects such as flyout menus or title attributes).


> 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.

I'm not positive, but I believe Dragon does partial matches in that case. However, if the text is "read more" and the aria-label is "find more information about Foo", that would be a terrible plan.

> 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?

Well, I would, but that's because pretty much all user testing ever shows that users will navigate your site more effectively with a combination of icon + text label.

Deborah Kaplan