Accessability anomoly

[#1]

Browsing through the 'Forum' page on the track of something else, I tripped over the following issue.

All of the 'plusnet burple' board icons on the Left hand Side have the same 'Title' - "Message Board" and 'Alt' text - "There are no unread messages in this message board".  All of the buttons have the correct href to take the User to the correct Board destination.  The Title is misleading, but the Alt text is just wrong and misleading.

I'm no expert on Screen Reader software, but I think the code needs a bit of TLC to help make the site more accessible.

M

[#2]

Did this post get reviewed?

M

[#3]

Sorry Maurice I saw it the other day and didn't have time to look at it. It's on my list for later.

[#4]

Well I can certainly see the Purple Icons all have the very informative title "Message Board" we'll have to see if we can get that changed. Screen readers are certainly not my forte, maybe about time I learnt something about them.
Where do you get this 'Alt' text? I can't seem to find that

[#5]

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@Anotherone wrote:

Where do you get this 'Alt' text? I can't seem to find that

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Using the FF code inspector?

M

[#6]

Icons do not need to have differing alt text if the link is descriptive enough. It is enough for the icon to describe what the icon is and not its context. Look at example 7 on this link for more information: http://webaim.org/techniques/alttext/#functional

[#7]

@jaread83   If you read the last paragraph in the example you give, it suggests otherwise? 

Additionally the fixed 'Alt' text of "There are no unread messages" will in many instances be in conflict with the unread post count on the right of the page.  Alt="" would at least be more accurate.

Can you revisit this please.

[#8]

Of course. I will have a closer look when I am at a computer as currently on mobile.

[#9]

Thank you for spotting this @MauriceC. I have had a closer look and it doesn't make sense to have that same alt text regardless of the amount of unread messages. It seems to always be the same text "There are no unread messages in this message board" but it should also have "There are XX unread messages in this message board" where XX represents the amount of new items.

I have added this to my list of bugs to be looked at. Unfortunately this is a core product bug and looking at other communities I can see the same issue. This will probably be a fix done as part of a product release for all lithium communities so I will have this flagged up.

[#10]

I have raised this on their support forum as its a product bug that needs to be fixed on all of their clients and not just ours. So will probably be fixed as part of their product release cycle.

[#11]

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@jaread83 wrote:

So will probably be fixed as part of their product release cycle.

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Oh dear!  Based on their current track record mañana might be  tad optimistic. 

Still, compared with many of the bugs, it is relatively low priority.

M

[#12]

I raised it in their support forum and was told that it will be looked at by the software development team. They also said thanks for spotting it

This should be fixed in the next release but as you said, probably a low priority and I have no control over their release cycle.