Adding section Alternatives To Overlays #423
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What do you think about adding a link to "Fluid UI Preference Editor" @stringyland ? I don't know that most folks would know what it was. https://build-infusion.fluidproject.org/demos/uioptions/
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Sorry for the slow reply, I've been flat out at work. I'm not sure what @karlgroves had in mind regarding linking to alternatives and possibly looking like we're promoting them - I think it should be ok to give examples of other ways to make things accessible, but I don't want to make it look biased like we're promoting a competing "product". If Karl's cool with it, I'll make the edit. |
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| <li>Use one of the <strong>free automated accessibility checkers</strong> and make the fixes it recommends for your site. This will only fix about 30% of the potential accessibility problems with your site, but it will not cost you anything except time and it will make improvements for several groups of people without creating problems for others. Most of the free automated audits include useful advice on how to fix the problems they find, but there are also many blog posts and tutorials available online.</li> | ||
| <li>Use one of the <strong>free accessibility tools</strong> which include a guided manual test as well as an automated check, and make the fixes it recommends for your site. You may not become 100% WCAG compliant but you will be able to address the majority of problems, which will make your site usable for a wide range of people with disabilities.</li> | ||
| <li><strong>Find or build a widget which exposes more user options</strong> and add that to your site. Giving your users more options to control the personalization of your site is useful for many people who are not tech savvy. Being able to easily increase contrast or text size is useful. Tools like the Fluid UI Preference Editor supports this and other customizations, but you will likely need to employ a developer. To make it look intentional, might be good to hire a designer as well. These can only address some accessibility problems, and definitely are not sufficient on their own.</li> |
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I don't think links to specific tools should be added here and am very reluctant about the addition of this line overall.
Adding the principle of "consider creating or adding a user preferenced toolbar" is ok, but I think this could really confuse product owners.
My clients mostly want to include ReciteMe accessibility overlay because of the additional tools it offers rather than because they think it solves all accessibility issues. When I ask them what it offers which the browser or operating system does not already, they cite: easy translation, reading aloud, font changes, text size changes.
I worry that this may be interpreted by some as a recommendation of accessibility overlays.
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Personally I would suggest that alternatives to overlays are browser settings and/or assistive technologies under users control. Changing styling/settings/high contrast mode on OS and browser level instead of needing to change it per site (or per widget if they support cross-site preferences) is way more sustainable and in users control. Screen-readers that can be personalized versus custom plugins that can read the content out loud. But at the end of the day this is only my way of thinking. Maybe we should get real data from real people of all kinds, with statistical significance and then summarize it? |
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Worth checking out AbilityNet's My Computer My Way, which is basically from the BBC's old My Web My Way. https://mcmw.abilitynet.org.uk Also just noticed that Shell also has set up one https://accessibility.shell.com/mcmw Pointing people to resources like this is one way, although people don't like to learn to adjust their settings (or be told to RTFM). |
| <li>Use one of the <strong>free automated accessibility checkers</strong> and make the fixes it recommends for your site. This will only fix about 30% of the potential accessibility problems with your site, but it will not cost you anything except time and it will make improvements for several groups of people without creating problems for others. Most of the free automated audits include useful advice on how to fix the problems they find, but there are also many blog posts and tutorials available online.</li> | ||
| <li>Use one of the <strong>free accessibility tools</strong> which include a guided manual test as well as an automated check, and make the fixes it recommends for your site. You may not become 100% WCAG compliant but you will be able to address the majority of problems, which will make your site usable for a wide range of people with disabilities.</li> | ||
| <li><strong>Find or build a widget which exposes more user options</strong> and add that to your site. Giving your users more options to control the personalization of your site is useful for many people who are not tech savvy. Being able to easily increase contrast or text size is useful. Tools like the Fluid UI Preference Editor supports this and other customizations, but you will likely need to employ a developer. To make it look intentional, might be good to hire a designer as well. These can only address some accessibility problems, and definitely are not sufficient on their own.</li> | ||
| <li>Use one of the <strong>paid automated repair overlays</strong> by reputable accessibility companies. As mentioned in the automated repair section above, this can only be a short-term solution while you use one of our other recommended alternatives.</li> |
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I don't think this should be mentioned in this list at all. It has already been mentioned in the automated repair section that this is an ok short term solution so it doesn't need to be repeated here.
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This PR is quite old, but sill badly needed. I plan on revising the PR to address the comments by @jnurthen, @grace-snow, and others in this PR and then merging it. Please take some time to read through it and make any other suggestions if you're so inclined. |
As per issue #36. Have placed it after the In Their Own Words and before the Conclusion, with an addition to the table of contents. Let me know if it needs any changes.