NationStates

Hello, I was wondering if there was any way to employ alt text on NS. I'm namely interested on images on dispatches, but also in other areas where they can be displayed. Accessible design is a big priority for me, and I want to make sure that our region's dispatches are accessible to all viewers while, if possible, maintaining visual appeal.

Fujai wrote:Hello, I was wondering if there was any way to employ alt text on NS. I'm namely interested on images on dispatches, but also in other areas where they can be displayed. Accessible design is a big priority for me, and I want to make sure that our region's dispatches are accessible to all viewers while, if possible, maintaining visual appeal.

You mean like when you hover an image it displays text and if someone is blind and has accessibility control on it displays text instead?

Borovan entered the region as he wrote:

Fujai wrote:Hello, I was wondering if there was any way to employ alt text on NS. I'm namely interested on images on dispatches, but also in other areas where they can be displayed. Accessible design is a big priority for me, and I want to make sure that our region's dispatches are accessible to all viewers while, if possible, maintaining visual appeal.

You mean like when you hover an image it displays text and if someone is blind and has accessibility control on it displays text instead?

If you do mean this, I don't think that it's possible.

Good point, but no, it's not currently possible. There is a significant moderation issue with allowing users to embed mostly-invisible text in images.

Fujai wrote:Hello, I was wondering if there was any way to employ alt text on NS. I'm namely interested on images on dispatches, but also in other areas where they can be displayed. Accessible design is a big priority for me, and I want to make sure that our region's dispatches are accessible to all viewers while, if possible, maintaining visual appeal.

I know it's not ideal in every situation (hence the use of alt text), but you could use plain old captions for your images.

[violet] wrote:Good point, but no, it's not currently possible. There is a significant moderation issue with allowing users to embed mostly-invisible text in images.

That makes a lot of sense, thanks! If the alt text displayed as you hover over an image, would it help with being mostly invisible, or would that even be possible to implement?

Phydios wrote:I know it's not ideal in every situation (hence the use of alt text), but you could use plain old captions for your images.

Captions are usually enough for images in the body, but my specific reason for asking was about images used in headers. People tend to use images of logos or other wordmarks as headers so the dispatch looks official, but then someone using a screen reader probably won't know what the dispatch is about. The workaround I found here was to use a background block to make the area white (which has the advantage of providing contrast to the text for people on the dark theme) and put text of the dispatch title in white just above it. I also put a disclaimer about the use of hyphens to format space up in the purple area. You can see these when you highlight the text, but I don't see that being an issue.

Borovan entered the region as he wrote:You mean like when you hover an image it displays text and if someone is blind and has accessibility control on it displays text instead?

It doesn't necessarily show up when you hover, but I've seen that done before. Alt text tends to be mostly on the back end of websites for screen readers to read as a description of the image being displayed.