WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Re: Images of Text and Promotional Materials

for

From: Patrick H. Lauke
Date: May 22, 2020 2:21AM

On 21/05/2020 19:54, Maupin, Brennan Polaris McCaffrey - maupinbp wrote:
> Hello all,
> I am trying to give advice regarding SC 1.4.5, Images of Text, but am struggling with certain aspects of it.
> I am working with sites that contain a number of promotional images that stylize text in a visually appealing way. These are usually links to other sites that contain more information about the topic or event. They are usually text-based or only use images as a decorative element.
> I know that simply using an image of text as a heading is a clear fail of this success criterion and that an infographic is a clear exception to the success criterion. That said, these images are intended to promote a visual presentation that is professional and consistent with our branding. For me it seems a bit of a gray area.
> My two struggles are:
>
> 1) I do not think that the desired visual representation of these promotional materials can be reliably reproduced in our CMS in a reliable nor stable way.
>
> 2) Would a caption that replicates the text or a link to a pop-up or new site that displays the text in an accessible fashion satisfy the "Customizable" clause of the success criterion?

To me, 1.4.5 is a bit of an ill-conceived SC. Even in its understanding
documentation, it seems more aimed at "nudging" authors towards using
text instead of images ("The intent of this Success Criterion is to
encourage authors...").

Its main aim, to me, are situations where a link/button was made as an
image, rather than styled text. Or a heading, or blockquote, or similar.
Where it's fairly straightforward to say that it can be done just as
well with real HTML+CSS.

But as soon as the images of text are carefully laid out for a very
specific aesthetic effect...it becomes harder to say "well, you should
just use HTML and lots of CSS positioning, or a complex SVG, etc to
achieve the same result". (and even just saying "use SVG" won't be
accurate anyway, as SVG may contain outlines of text - text as geometric
shapes - rather than real <text> nodes...and even then, there's no
easy/available way for users to change the font/color/size of SVG text,
though it's theoretically possible, so even an SVG with <text> won't -
in my view - satisfy the underlying idea of the SC)

Long story short: I've been known not to fail images of text for
anything that is "laid out"/"designed" in a very specific way and would
be too complex/laborious to recreate. And in most cases (unless a site
makes far too heavy use of images of text for most of its content), I
consider it more of a mild failure.

P
--
Patrick H. Lauke

https://www.splintered.co.uk/ | https://github.com/patrickhlauke
https://flickr.com/photos/redux/ | https://www.deviantart.com/redux
twitter: @patrick_h_lauke | skype: patrick_h_lauke