Category: image

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application gaad image twitter

Easy Chirp now provides accessible images for your Tweets

Although improving, accessibility of Twitter and third-party applications has been an issue over the years, and even more so, the images within tweets.

You can now provide accessible images for your Tweets using the web-accessible Twitter client Easy Chirp (@EasyChirp) which allows a title (a short description) and a long description to be entered along with the image. The title is required.

EasyChirp2 logo beta

This announcement comes on May 15 in recognition of Global Accessibility Awareness Day (#GAAD).

Web Axe author Dennis Lembree is also the founder of Easy Chirp. Last month, Mark Sadecki of the W3C (@cptvitamin) approached Dennis with an idea for authoring/posting accessible images on twitter. Together they brainstormed a plan.

Dennis implemented the plan within a couple weeks but ran into issues during testing. Proper support for the longdesc attribute is still behind in some browsers and assistive technologies. To ensure that everyone has access to the long description, it will also appear directly in the content of the page. Addendum: Here’s an example of the final image page.

Easy Chirp also provides a help page which explains the difference between a short and long description and provides information on a couple limitations of the feature.

To create a tweet with an accessible image:

  1. Log in to Easy Chirp with your Twitter account.
  2. Select Write Tweet.
  3. Select Add Image.
  4. Select an image from your device.
  5. Enter a title of the image (short description).
  6. If necessary, enter a long description of the image.
  7. Click the Upload Image button. A URL will be inserted in the tweet input (textarea).
  8. Finish writing the tweet and click the Post button.
  9. Happiness!

Please help the accessibility of the Twittersphere and write a long description or two. Need some ideas? Here are some tweets with interesting images that you can re-post. But be sure to credit the original author!

The image hosting service itself is provided via the Imgur API. Easy Chirp also provides some help and tips on its alt text feature.

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alt aria html5 image podcast

Podcast #83: Fate of Longdesc in HTML5

What’s the fate of the “longdesc” attribute in HTML5? Can or should the “aria-labelledby” ARIA attribute replace it? These are some of the controversial issues discussed by Dennis and guests John Foliot (@johnfoliot), Everett Zufelt (@ezufelt), and Joe Dolson (@joedolson).

Download Web Axe Episode 83 (Fate of Longdesc in HTML5)

[transcript of podcast 83]

Related Links

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alt flash image law

Walmart’s Poor Alt Text and Use of Flash

Yesterday, Steve Faulkner of The Paciello Group wrote a tweet quoting an alt attribute on the Walmart.com home page. My first reaction was disbelief, frustration, and outrage.

I replied to the tweet, then found the following code (line 2421) which Steve was referencing:

The Walmart.com site includes Flash technology. To avoid interruption of software designed to aid visually-impaired people, please turn off your Flash player.

The message was designed for screen reader users. But just this one line of code is so wrong on so many levels including the following.

  1. A spacer GIF? What is this, 1998? This is a badly outdated and poor practice.
  2. Alt text is too long; I suggest under 15 words. Or, include the text as part of the main page or use some kind of “D” link.
  3. This message was meant to be vital to the user (particularly if blind), and thus should not be stuffed in an ALT attribute.
  4. Many people with visual impairments may not be blind, but have “low vision”, and thus may not use a screen reader. These individuals could use a screen magnifier or simply enlarge text with their browser.
  5. Law: Walmart is a very large corporation providing sale of goods nationally; this means that they are a great “Target” for a lawsuit, excuse the pun! (If you don’t get the joke, read about the NFB vs. Target lawsuit.)
  6. The use of Flash in itself is highly debatable. One can write a book about this point, but basically, Flash requires a proprietary plug-in, usually not developed with accessibility, and is not supported on many modern user agents such as the iPhone/iPad (not to mention many others including text-only browsers).
  7. How does one turn off his Flash player, anyway?

Solutions

Immediate: Provide HTML alternative to content.

Better: Use accessible Flash and provide an HTML alternative to content.

Best: Use HTML only for content. Implement with web standards, progressive enhancement, and DOM scripting, to create the same visual effect as the original Flash. This will not only make your content accessible, but will also make the site lighter and faster and is also good for SEO.

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"fixing alt" alt html5 image

Fixing Alt – Social Media Venn Diagram Made Accessible

Social Media Venn Diagram T-Shirt from despair.com
http://despair.com/somevedi.html

Perfect scenario for the longdesc attribute!

The alt I used in the image below is “Social Media Venn Diagram”

Three intersection circles labeled Narcissism, ADHD, and Stalking.
Narcissism and ADHD cross and labeled MySpace.
Narcissism and Stalking cross and labeled Facebook.
Stalking and ADHD cross and labeled FourSquare.
All three (Stalking, ADHD, and Narcissism) cross and labeled Twitter.

Social Media Venn Diagram

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alt expert image

Alt text and linked images

Our friend Jared Smith at WebAIM has sparked some discussion from his post Alt text and linked images. Towards the end of the post, a question arises: does an image with a caption require an ALT attribute, even if the ALT attribute would contain the same text as the caption? I say yes! Another issue is HTML 5 working group’s proposal to make the alt attribute optional for images. I say no!