However I'd also point out that if that class, instead of being simply
'hidden', had been similar to Bootstrap's "sr-only", or even a more
fully spelled out "screen-reader-only", the later developer would have
been more likely to wonder "Hmm, maybe that's not simply hidden but
means something else, maybe I should try to look up or ask someone what
it means if I'm not sure"
Attempting self-documenting code always matters for successor
developers, not just in issues of accessibility. And labelling something
simply 'hidden' that is not fact always hidden is misleading your
successors.
I mean, in your example they left a comment with their thought process
-- the thing was labelled 'hidden' after all.
Jonathan
On 9/17/14 5:03 PM, Will Martin wrote:
To digress a bit from LibGuides ...
The biggest problem with accessibility is not technical: it's cultural.
Producing HTML that meets basic accessibility tests is not all THAT
difficult. The harder part is setting up a culture where everyone --
everyone! -- who writes content for the web is trained on how to do it
accessibly. A content editor who is clueless about accessibility can
very easily screw up their pages without even knowing they're doing so.
The same applies to developers. Once while reviewing a library site's
code, I came across a chunk of HTML that looked like this (roughly):
<!--
I don't know why this was here? It's invisible! Disabling.
<a href="#top" class="hidden">Return to top</a>
-->
An earlier developer had put that in to assist screen reader users in
getting back to the top of the page if they wanted. The "hidden" class
was a correctly written class for hiding content while leaving it
available for screen reader users. But the next person to fill that job
wasn't trained on WHY and took it out again.
If you really want to commit to accessibility, it needs to be a
criterion in the job description for your developers, and there needs to
be a training process in place for anyone who produces content for your
site. Probably with refreshers at intervals.
Will
