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Accessibility workarounds for the Google Custom Search Engine?

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From: Robert Fentress
Date: Dec 13, 2018 8:56AM

Anybody know how to make the free Google Custom Search Engine
<https://developers.google.com/custom-search/docs/tutorial/creatingcse>
accessible? Currently, it appears to generate lots of problematic code.
Among the issues encountered are a number of violations of WCAG A success
criteria, such as:

- The Google Search logo lacks a text alternative (SC 1.1.1
<https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG21/Understanding/non-text-content.html>).
Since this image is the only content of a link, it further violates SC
4.1.2 <https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG21/Understanding/name-role-value.html>.
Essentially the link has no content that can identify where it goes.
- I cannot access the "Sort by" dropdown using only the keyboard. (SC
2.1.1 <https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG21/Understanding/keyboard.html>)
- Many interactive elements on the page are just <div> elements with
JavaScript onclick events attached, meaning that users of assistive
technologies cannot benefit from the cues and affordances their tools
provide them that rely on semantic markup.(SC 1.3.1
<https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG21/Understanding/info-and-relationships.html>
)

It is actually *much* worse than the code from the search results on the
actual Google search page, which I find strange. I believe it uses
JavaScript to create an iframe that it inserts into the page, and that
displays the search results. This makes it difficult to fix it in a stable
way, because we don't have access to the source code and the API for the
free version is quite limited. The paid version gives more options, but
I've been told it has limitations that mean it probably won't work in our
context. Anybody developed a good workaround? Thanks!

Best,
Rob

--
*Rob Fentress*
*Web Accessibility Solutions Designer*
Accessible Technologies at Virginia Tech <https://assist.vt.edu>
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