From: nvda@nvda.groups.io [mailto:nvda@nvda.groups.io] On Behalf Of Joseph Lee
Sent: Thursday, December 07, 2017 10:47 AM
To: nvda@nvda.groups.io
Subject: Re: [nvda] Design Help, Please

 

Hi Tonea,

Can you provide me (offlist) with a sample of a help documentation that is written with that program? That way I can figure out what’s up and provide suggestions (when sending samples, I prefer HTML or docx).

If links to sections are images and are coded with HTML, then alt text (alternative text) should work across browsers. A good example that illustrate this principle is mobile Twitter page (m.twitter.com) where different Twitter actions are graphics yet NVDA will announce labels. Another example, although a bit more technical, is Python documentation (docs.python.org).

P.S. There is another reason why I request sending samples to me offlist, and that’s for career reasons.

Cheers,

Joseph

 

 

Hello,

 

I’m in the United States, Central time, so it just turned 8 a.m. I’ll be available until 3 p.m.

 

My problem is this, I design help files that accompany software. I want to make sure what I design is readable to screen readers.

 

Having no sensory input problems, I designed the help system for such as myself. Many pages of the help system have a copy of the home screen at the top. It has hot hyperlinks over the image. Thus the viewer can see a typical home screen and select the text or button with which they want help. This enables them to quickly jump to that help page.

 

Now I’m going back and making these things friendly to screen readers. I know they read alt text, which means I need to break apart the image and reassemble it so each text area (which has a hyperlink on top) has its own alt text.

 

Not knowing how screen readers work, is that the best method? I need something that will work with the most common screen readers. If they read hyperlink text, does breaking the image apart just create more reading? Am I cluttering the audible page with this approach? Or, should I have my hyperlinks have their own tooltips? The maker of the software I use, Help and Manual, has made the offer:

 

Begin Quote: It's important to remember that every graphic can only have one tooltip. You can add additional tooltips with hotspot links, but they currently only have the tip in a title= attribute, not in an alt= attribute (let us know if screen readers need that as well and we'll add it). However, if you add hotspot tooltips the hotspots are not really part of the image. They are in a special "image map" that positions their clickable areas over the image. If you are going to use hotspots to implement multiple tooltips in a single graphic it would be important to test it out with current screen readers first to see how they handle them -- they would need to read the image maps in the "correct" order and respond accordingly.

 

--Tim Green, Monday, November 27, 2017, 5:29 p.m. End Quote

 

So, H&M is willing to add alt=attribute support, if it will help the screen readers process an image map better than a tiled image.

 

I thought I’d ask experts, since I don’t know. What do you think?

 

Tonea Morrow

 

Tonea Morrow

Technical Writer MCSG/SAIC | Desk: 405-954-7152 MMAC: Base Maintenance Building 15 Enterprise Services Center (ESC) 6500 S. MacArthur Blvd, OKC, OK  73169 tonea.ctr.morrow@... | www.esc.gov

Availability (appointments outside these) Mo 7a – 5 p If I take a lunch, I’ll be here later. If I take a kid to a doctor, I’ll be here later on Friday. Tu 7:30 a – 3:30p We 7:30 a – 3p Th 7:30 a – 3:30p Fr 7:30 a – 2p