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Thread: Screenreader support for title....

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Number of posts in this thread: 6 (In chronological order)

From: Paul Collins
Date: Tue, Jun 03 2008 5:10AM
Subject: Screenreader support for title....
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Hi all,

Just wondering what the latest is on this? The title never used to be
read out by JAWS, IBM and the like, although that was supposed to be
changing. Does anyone have the latest on which popular screenreaders
read out both the title and alt attribute?

Cheers
Paul

From: Jennison Mark Asuncion
Date: Tue, Jun 03 2008 5:20AM
Subject: Re: Screenreader support for title....
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Paul,

In terms of JAWS, the TITLE attribute is supported, however the
end-user must turn that option on (at least in JAWS V7.X), it is not
automatically read out-of-the-box.

Jennison

Jennison Asuncion
LinkedIn at http://www.linkedin.com/in/jennison

On Tue, 3 Jun 2008, Paul Collins wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> Just wondering what the latest is on this? The title never used to be
> read out by JAWS, IBM and the like, although that was supposed to be
> changing. Does anyone have the latest on which popular screenreaders
> read out both the title and alt attribute?
>
> Cheers
> Paul
>

From: Jukka K. Korpela
Date: Tue, Jun 03 2008 5:40AM
Subject: Re: Screenreader support for title....
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Paul Collins wrote:

> Just wondering what the latest is on this? The title never used to be
> read out by JAWS, IBM and the like, although that was supposed to be
> changing. Does anyone have the latest on which popular screenreaders
> read out both the title and alt attribute?

For some odd reason, the documents I found with simple searches look
rather old and sketchy. Moreover, the situation surely varies by
element. For example,
http://www.paciellogroup.com/resources/articles/WE05/forms.html
is from year 2005 and describes even JAWS 4.02 as supporting the title
element for several elements (though the <img> element, which you might
be primarily interested in, is "not tested").

But _some_ optional support (as a user-selectable option) has existed
for several years.

However, I think the issue is mostly pointless. Why would it matter,
when we _know_ that the great majority of users won't access the
information in title attributes anyway? A "normal" user might
accidentally hit some "titled" element with the mouse and then notice
the tiny text in a small popup, but mostly nobody sees what you put in a
title attribute.

If some information needs explanation, explain it in normal content.
Putting the information in an attribute may look modern and advanced,
but it's like publishing a book with annotations printed in invisible
ink that becomes visible in fluorescent light.

Jukka K. Korpela ("Yucca")
http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/

From: Rahul Gonsalves
Date: Tue, Jun 03 2008 5:50AM
Subject: Re: Screenreader support for title....
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On 03-Jun-08, at 4:32 PM, Paul Collins wrote:

> Does anyone have the latest on which popular screenreaders read out
> both the title and alt attribute?

Paul,

This [1] seems to be a fairly comprehensive guide to screenreaders and
their support for the title attribute on various different elements.

Best,
- Rahul.

[1] http://www.paciellogroup.com/resources/articles/WE05/forms.html

Additional, interesting, reading:

1. http://www.isolani.co.uk/blog/access/ConfiguringLinksInScreenReaders
2. http://www.paciellogroup.com/resources/articles/WE05/survey.html
3. http://www.rnib.org.uk/wacblog/articles/too-much-accessibility/too-much-accessibility-title-attributes/

From: ben morrison
Date: Tue, Jun 03 2008 6:00AM
Subject: Re: Screenreader support for title....
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On Tue, Jun 3, 2008 at 12:18 PM, Jennison Mark Asuncion
< = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
> Paul,
>
> In terms of JAWS, the TITLE attribute is supported, however the
> end-user must turn that option on (at least in JAWS V7.X), it is not
> automatically read out-of-the-box.

I'm not sure about latest versions, but I think it would work in forms
mode/form elements but not on any other elements say <a> unless
'verbosity' settings were changed.

I just don't rely on the title attribute.

ben
--
Ben Morrison

From: Steven Faulkner
Date: Tue, Jun 03 2008 6:10AM
Subject: Re: Screenreader support for title....
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hi paul,
i did some research a while back which is available:
http://www.paciellogroup.com/blog/?p=37

as far as window eyes and jaws there has been no major change in the
way in which the title attribite is supported.

be aware that the the main problem is when the title attribute is used
on a link, not when used on from controls.

2008/6/3 Paul Collins < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >:
> Hi all,
>
> Just wondering what the latest is on this? The title never used to be
> read out by JAWS, IBM and the like, although that was supposed to be
> changing. Does anyone have the latest on which popular screenreaders
> read out both the title and alt attribute?
>
> Cheers
> Paul
>