WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Re: email address @ vs. AT or use of an image for the @ symbol

for

From: Birkir R. Gunnarsson
Date: May 1, 2018 10:00AM

What about 1.4.5 (images of text)?
http://www.w3.org/TR/UNDERSTANDING-WCAG20/visual-audio-contrast-text-presentation.html

I'm not sure to what extent a single character can be defined as text,
but there is a text representation of the @ symbol, so there have to
be specific reasons why an image is used.
If there are security concerns I think those are valid and would
count, as long as the image has the alt text "at" (make sure it is
either an img element with an alt attribute, an SVG image with
<title>at</title> or, if it is a background image or icon that it has
role="img" and aria-label="at").





On 5/1/18, Patrick H. Lauke < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
> On 01/05/2018 15:33, Crystal Tenan wrote:
>> Hello,
>>
>> We have a group that I'm working with to try and have them move away from
>> using AT or an image of the @ sign in their email addresses that are on
>> our
>> websites. For example cltenan AT college.edu instead of
>> <EMAIL REMOVED> . I find these other ways confusing and inaccessible
>> when using a screen reader. I can't find anything that directly spells
>> out
>> not to use this practice, but I'm trying to provide them feedback as to
>> what in the Revised Section 508 guidelines it violates. I'm having
>> difficulty aligning exactly which guideline this would fall under, any
>> assistance would be appreciated. *Also they hyperlinked the AT and image @
>> email addresses so the links go to a faulty email address.
>
> I don't believe this contravenes any WCAG 2 SC nor any extended 508
> refresh requirements directly (assuming that when they use the "@" image
> it has appropriate alt text).
>
> To me, this falls more into a usability rather than accessibility argument.
>
> Their likely reason for doing it will be "so that bots can't scrape our
> pages and gather email addresses to then spam us". Of course, if these
> email addresses are perceived to be valuable enough, it's trivial for
> bots to also look for "a string of characters that looks like the first
> part of an email address, followed by AT, followed by another string of
> characters which looks like a valid domain name". And spam is really a
> problem that's better sorted at the email server end (spam filtering etc).
>
> So the argument boils down to: is the advantage or perhaps receiving
> less spam outweighed by the inconvenience caused to *all* users?
>
> (and the fact that their links are then also broken is just a bad bug
> for all users as well).
>
> P
> --
> Patrick H. Lauke
>
> www.splintered.co.uk | https://github.com/patrickhlauke
> http://flickr.com/photos/redux/ | http://redux.deviantart.com
> twitter: @patrick_h_lauke | skype: patrick_h_lauke
> > > > >


--
Work hard. Have fun. Make history.