Difference between revisions of "Accessible Graphics"

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What makes Inkscape the ideal tool for creating accessible SVG?
How can Inkscape become the ideal tool for creating accessible SVG?


=== background links ===
=== Background Links ===


<!-- dead link, not sure where this was supposed to point
* inkscape [https://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=993367&group_id=93438&atid=604309 rfe]
* inkscape [https://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=993367&group_id=93438&atid=604309 rfe]
* a [http://www.peepo.co.uk/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SVG rant] on SVG and Accessibility given at the latest London SVGUG meeting with plenty of links. some concepts were addressed and alpha proof of concept code developed.
-->
*Links to primary [http://www.learningdifferently.com/develop/svg.html documentation] on creating accessible SVG
* a [http://www.peepo.co.uk/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SVG rant] (dead link) on SVG and Accessibility given at the latest (year?) London SVGUG meeting with plenty of links. some concepts were addressed and alpha proof of concept code developed.
* Links to primary [http://www.learningdifferently.com/develop/svg.html documentation] on creating accessible SVG
* SVG and accessibility (somewhat out of date): [http://www.w3.org/TR/SVG-access/ authoring guidance], [http://www.w3.org/TR/SVG11/access.html SVG 1.1 appendix]
* Work of the W3C Accessibility task force: [http://www.w3.org/WAI/PF/svg-a11y-tf/ work statement], [https://www.w3.org/wiki/SVG_Accessibility wiki]
 
=== What Inkscape Does Well ===
 
Some accessibility features of SVG Inkscape inherits by default, such as having text stored as machine-readable text.  Others require extra effort.
 
As of 0.91, Inkscape:
 
* Allows users to set alternative text (<title> and <desc>) for graphics content in the object properties dialog.
* Sets the document-level <title> element if the user has set a title in the metadata
* Supports logical grouping of elements, and allows <title> and <desc> to be set on the group
 
Recently pushed to the dev branch was a fix so that text-to-path stores the original text content in an aria-label attribute, which will go a long way to preserving the accessibility of that content.
 
=== Doing Better ===
 
There is currently a {{bug | id = 170340 | name=bug report | status=confirmed}} regarding adding UI support for the core SVG accessibility features.
 
Two main issues (not yet implemented) are covered by that bug report:
 
* A document-level title should be required, but it is currently hard to set and there is no prompting for it.
* The language of the text (visible or alternative) needs to be easy to specify with the xml:lang attribute.
 
Language issues can get rather complex, and have benefits beyond accessibility, so there [[Language_support | is a separate wiki page for them]].
 
More advanced issues to consider:
 
* Ensuring that text elements are preserved in a logical reading order.  This will be easier once z-index is supported, for now the aria-flowto attribute could be used to define the reading order.  However, there would need to be a user interface for setting the reading order -- the order that elements are added to the graphic may not be the logical reading order.
* Adding WAI-ARIA widget roles for anything that has interactive scripting added to it.
 
[[Category:Developer Discussion]]
[[Category:Needs Work]]

Latest revision as of 14:27, 23 February 2017

How can Inkscape become the ideal tool for creating accessible SVG?

Background Links

  • a rant (dead link) on SVG and Accessibility given at the latest (year?) London SVGUG meeting with plenty of links. some concepts were addressed and alpha proof of concept code developed.
  • Links to primary documentation on creating accessible SVG
  • SVG and accessibility (somewhat out of date): authoring guidance, SVG 1.1 appendix
  • Work of the W3C Accessibility task force: work statement, wiki

What Inkscape Does Well

Some accessibility features of SVG Inkscape inherits by default, such as having text stored as machine-readable text. Others require extra effort.

As of 0.91, Inkscape:

  • Allows users to set alternative text (<title> and <desc>) for graphics content in the object properties dialog.
  • Sets the document-level <title> element if the user has set a title in the metadata
  • Supports logical grouping of elements, and allows <title> and <desc> to be set on the group

Recently pushed to the dev branch was a fix so that text-to-path stores the original text content in an aria-label attribute, which will go a long way to preserving the accessibility of that content.

Doing Better

There is currently a {{#if: bug report | bug report (lp:170340)| lp:170340 }} regarding adding UI support for the core SVG accessibility features.

Two main issues (not yet implemented) are covered by that bug report:

  • A document-level title should be required, but it is currently hard to set and there is no prompting for it.
  • The language of the text (visible or alternative) needs to be easy to specify with the xml:lang attribute.

Language issues can get rather complex, and have benefits beyond accessibility, so there is a separate wiki page for them.

More advanced issues to consider:

  • Ensuring that text elements are preserved in a logical reading order. This will be easier once z-index is supported, for now the aria-flowto attribute could be used to define the reading order. However, there would need to be a user interface for setting the reading order -- the order that elements are added to the graphic may not be the logical reading order.
  • Adding WAI-ARIA widget roles for anything that has interactive scripting added to it.