[NFBCS] Accessibility Overlays, what are they and can someone elaborate on them?

Fri Sep 25 17:01:20 UTC 2020

Hello Brian:

If you google "what is an accessibility overlay", you will find an
interesting article from the Paciello group about this.

Your specific problem occurs because the site assumes that you are a Windows
user and has made so-called provisions for those users who are blind. Here
is the accessibility statement from the company.

______________________________

Accessibility Statement

appliancepartspros.com 

22-Sep-2020 

Compliance status

We firmly believe that the internet should be available and accessible to
anyone, and are committed to providing a website that is accessible to the
widest possible audience, regardless of circumstance and ability.

To fulfill this, we aim to adhere as strictly as possible to the World Wide
Web Consortium's (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 (WCAG 2.1)
at the AA level. These guidelines explain how to make web content accessible
to people with a wide array of disabilities. Complying with those guidelines
helps us ensure that the website is accessible to all people: blind people,
people with motor impairments, visual impairment, cognitive disabilities,
and more.

This website utilizes various technologies that are meant to make it as
accessible as possible at all times. We utilize an accessibility interface
that allows persons with specific disabilities to adjust the website's UI
(user interface) and design it to their personal needs.

Additionally, the website utilizes an AI-based application that runs in the
background and optimizes its accessibility level constantly. This
application remediates the website's HTML, adapts Its functionality and
behavior for screen-readers used by the blind users, and for keyboard
functions used by individuals with motor impairments.

If you've found a malfunction or have ideas for improvement, we'll be happy
to hear from you. You can reach out to the website's operators by using the
following email tianad at appliancepartspros.com

Screen-reader and keyboard navigation

Our website implements the ARIA attributes (Accessible Rich Internet
Applications) technique, alongside various different behavioral changes, to
ensure blind users visiting with screen-readers are able to read,
comprehend, and enjoy the website's functions. As soon as a user with a
screen-reader enters your site, they immediately receive a prompt to enter
the Screen-Reader Profile so they can browse and operate your site
effectively. Here's how our website covers some of the most important
screen-reader requirements, alongside console screenshots of code examples:

1.            Screen-reader optimization: we run a background process that
learns the website's components from top to bottom, to ensure ongoing
compliance even when updating the website. In this process, we provide
screen-readers with meaningful data using the ARIA set of attributes. For
example, we provide accurate form labels; descriptions for actionable icons
(social media icons, search icons, cart icons, etc.); validation guidance
for form inputs; element roles such as buttons, menus, modal dialogues
(popups), and others.

Additionally, the background process scans all of the website's images and
provides an accurate and meaningful image-object-recognition-based
description as an ALT (alternate text) tag for images that are not
described. It will also extract texts that are embedded within the image,
using an OCR (optical character recognition) technology. To turn on
screen-reader adjustments at any time, users need only to press the Alt+1
keyboard combination. Screen-reader users also get automatic announcements
to turn the Screen-reader mode on as soon as they enter the website.

These adjustments are compatible with all popular screen readers, including
JAWS and NVDA.

2.            Keyboard navigation optimization: The background process also
adjusts the website's HTML, and adds various behaviors using JavaScript code
to make the website operable by the keyboard. This includes the ability to
navigate the website using the Tab and Shift+Tab keys, operate dropdowns
with the arrow keys, close them with Esc, trigger buttons and links using
the Enter key, navigate between radio and checkbox elements using the arrow
keys, and fill them in with the Spacebar or Enter key.

Additionally, keyboard users will find quick-navigation and content-skip
menus, available at any time by clicking Alt+1, or as the first elements of
the site while navigating with the keyboard. The background process also
handles triggered popups by moving the keyboard focus towards them as soon
as they appear, and not allow the focus drift outside of it.

Users can also use shortcuts such as "M" (menus), "H" (headings), "F"
(forms), "B" (buttons), and "G" (graphics) to jump to specific elements. 

Disability profiles supported in our website

.             Epilepsy Safe Profile:  this profile enables people with
epilepsy to use the website safely by eliminating the risk of seizures that
result from flashing or blinking animations and risky color combinations.

.             Visually Impaired Profile:  this profile adjusts the website
so that it is accessible to the majority of visual impairments such as
Degrading Eyesight, Tunnel Vision, Cataract, Glaucoma, and others.

.             Cognitive Disability Profile:  this profile provides various
assistive features to help users with cognitive disabilities such as Autism,
Dyslexia, CVA, and others, to focus on the essential elements more easily.

.             ADHD Friendly Profile : this profile significantly reduces
distractions and noise, to help people with ADHD and Neurodevelopmental
disorders browse, read, and focus on the essential elements more easily.

.             Blind Users Profile (Screen-readers):  this profile adjusts
the website to be compatible with screen-readers such as JAWS, NVDA,
VoiceOver, and TalkBack.

A screen-reader is installed on the blind user's computer, and this site is
compatible with it. 

.             Keyboard Navigation Profile (Motor-Impaired):  this profile
enables motor-impaired persons to operate the website using the keyboard
Tab, Shift+Tab, and the Enter keys. Users can also use shortcuts such as "M"
(menus), "H" (headings), "F" (forms), "B" (buttons), and "G" (graphics) to
jump to specific elements.

Additional UI, design, and readability adjustments

1.            Font adjustments -  users, can increase and decrease its size,
change its family (type), adjust the spacing, alignment, line height, and
more. 

2.            Color adjustments -  users can select various color contrast
profiles such as light, dark, inverted, and monochrome. Additionally, users
can swap color schemes of titles, texts, and backgrounds, with over 7
different coloring options.

3.            Animations -  epileptic users can stop all running animations
with the click of a button. Animations controlled by the interface include
videos, GIFs, and CSS flashing transitions. 

4.            Content highlighting -  users can choose to emphasize
important elements such as links and titles. They can also choose to
highlight focused or hovered elements only.

5.            Audio muting -  users with hearing devices may experience
headaches or other issues due to automatic audio playing. This option lets
users mute the entire website instantly. 

6.            Cognitive disorders -  we utilize a search engine that is
linked to Wikipedia and Wiktionary, allowing people with cognitive disorders
to decipher meanings of phrases, initials, slang, and others.

7.            Additional functions -  we provide users the option to change
cursor color and size, use a printing mode, enable a virtual keyboard, and
many other functions.

Browser and assistive technology compatibility

We aim to support the widest array of browsers and assistive technologies as
possible, so our users can choose the best fitting tools for them, with as
few limitations as possible. Therefore, we have worked very hard to be able
to support all major systems that comprise over 95% of the user market share
including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Opera and Microsoft
Edge, JAWS and NVDA (screen readers), both for Windows and for MAC users.

Notes, comments, and feedback

Despite our very best efforts to allow anybody to adjust the website to
their needs, there may still be pages or sections that are not fully
accessible, are in the process of becoming accessible, or are lacking an
adequate technological solution to make them accessible. Still, we are
continually improving our accessibility, adding, updating and improving its
options and features, and developing and adopting new technologies. All this
is meant to reach the optimal level of accessibility, following
technological advancements. For any assistance, please reach out to
tianad at appliancepartspros.com

Cordially,

Curtis Chong

-----Original Message-----
From: NFBCS <nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Brian Buhrow via NFBCS
Sent: Friday, September 25, 2020 1:07 AM
To: nfbcs at nfbnet.org
Cc: Brian Buhrow <buhrow at nfbcal.org>
Subject: [NFBCS] Accessibility Overlays, what are they and can someone
elaborate on them?

            hello everyone.  Below is a link to a web site that behaves very

strangely on Safari with iOS and, possibly, other browsers and operating

systems as well.  The behavior is as follows: 

            the first time you open it, the site works beautifully with
VoiceOver.

Then , the second time you open it, and every time there after, it goes

into a mode where VoiceOver can see no links at all and it says something

about using the website in screen reader mode.  There is nothing to click

on and nothing to get out of that page.  Visually, the sentence about Using

the website in screen reader mode does not appear and, if you turn off

voiceover, you can use the web site just fine.

A friend of mine suggested this might be due to something called an

accessibility overlay, which is loaded with the page and renders the page

useless with VoiceOver.  More confusingly, however, it seems to only get

loaded after the page has been loaded and used once.  I assume this is due

to the page seeing some stored cookie somewhere, but I don't actually know.

            So, my questions are: what is an accessibility overlay?  Who
makes and

sells them and how often are they used?

            Finally, can someone talk about how they work in general terms
and,

perhaps, give an example of one that works well and is well supported?

I've never heard of these things before and I'd like to know more about

them and how to use them, avoide them, etc.  So, any thoughts or discussion

would be greatly appreciated.

-thanks

-Brian

https://www.appliancepartspros.com/search-alt.aspx?pm=A712

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