Need help with accessibility based plug-in

[grapefruit]

I needed a plug-in that will not allow you to post a photo without adding alternative text. It either needs to be able to detect that alternative text has been added to the photo itself, or it needs to have a field where you add it. This is alternative text to describe a photo for screen reader users. For a video, it needs to have a field where you put the accessible transcript and you can't post it unless you do that. It needs to do It anytime like starting a new thread, comments, and even private messages if possible. I am dnew to this whole thing so if someone could help that would be great. Also, avatars count as photos as well. But like I said, I'm new to this, so I'm not sure all you can do, or if what I'm asking is even possible.

[Todge]

May 20, 2020 0:25:22 GMT -8 grapefruit said:

I needed a plug-in that will not allow you to post a photo without adding alternative text. It either needs to be able to detect that alternative text has been added to the photo itself, or it needs to have a field where you add it. This is alternative text to describe a photo for screen reader users. For a video, it needs to have a field where you put the accessible transcript and you can't post it unless you do that. It needs to do It anytime like starting a new thread, comments, and even private messages if possible. I am dnew to this whole thing so if someone could help that would be great. Also, avatars count as photos as well. But like I said, I'm new to this, so I'm not sure all you can do, or if what I'm asking is even possible.

Possible, but difficult. You would need to scan a post before it is posted to check on all the image tags to see if they have an 'alt' attribute, but that would be impossible to do with smileys as they use a code, and if you wanted to not include smileys, then there's no way to differentiate a photo from a smiley image if tags are used.

[grapefruit]

would it be possible then to have a field like a text box, and require that someone fill it in whenever they post a photo or a video? It could be a box that only screen readers could read, or it could be a box that everyone could see and they would just have to deal with it because I want to make things accessible. And I was also thinking of an unrelated thing as well. You know how some people want content warnings? I was thinking of some thing like the word censoring feature that we already have, but the opposite. They could automatically block threads with words or phrases of their choosing, or they could give themselves a content warning. I was thinking it would be helpful because lots of people want content warning's for lots of different things and it's very difficult to keep track of.

[Todge]

May 22, 2020 0:03:26 GMT -8 grapefruit said:

would it be possible then to have a field like a text box, and require that someone fill it in whenever they post a photo or a video? It could be a box that only screen readers could read, or it could be a box that everyone could see and they would just have to deal with it because I want to make things accessible. And I was also thinking of an unrelated thing as well. You know how some people want content warnings? I was thinking of some thing like the word censoring feature that we already have, but the opposite. They could automatically block threads with words or phrases of their choosing, or they could give themselves a content warning. I was thinking it would be helpful because lots of people want content warning's for lots of different things and it's very difficult to keep track of.

The default pop-up box to post images already has an 'Alternative Text' option, if we managed to make that option mandatory, it would still not stop them from physically typing the images in using the [img][/img] tags.

The only way that I can think of it working would be to allow them to post their images, but then strip them out after they have posted. We could check the image size, and if it doesn't have an 'alt' tag, remove it.

The problem with that is that you may be left with empty posts, where all the images have been removed.

As for your second query, it's not possible to check content at a thread level as threads span more than one page, and we can only see the content of the page currently being displayed. So to block a thread for content, I'm afraid not, But it would be possible to block individual posts in that way.

[grapefruit]

I didn't realize it was limited by the page. I thought it could just search the whole thing. That does seem hard. If they had to fill out the alternative text box before posting the image, that would at least be something. At least if it reminded them to fill it out, they would do so more often.

[Todge]

May 22, 2020 15:55:53 GMT -8 grapefruit said:

I didn't realize it was limited by the page. I thought it could just search the whole thing. That does seem hard. If they had to fill out the alternative text box before posting the image, that would at least be something. At least if it reminded them to fill it out, they would do so more often.

OK.. I'll see if I can find a way to enforce alternative text for images.

[grapefruit]

thank you so much. :-) I also had one more quick question. I am using a screen reader, and mostly everything is working great, but when you are trying to delete a plug-in or a board, apparently there is an x that is there, and I was having trouble selecting that with the keyboard. I'm not sure if it is just the browser I'm using or if there is some thing about that x that was causing it. I got some help to select the X, and since it is the only thing that is not working, and I shouldn't need to mess with things a lot once I get them set up, It should be fine. But I was just wondering if you have to press that X with the mouse, if it is the browser that I'm using, or if I can do anything so I can press it with the keyboard so that it can be a button like all of the other buttons. Like when I go to create a board, I can do that, but then if I want to delete the board, I can't because something was happening with the X. And then with a plug-in I can install one, but I can't delete it and I have to get someone to go with the mouse and press the X. Sorry if I was asking too many questions.

[Todge]

May 22, 2020 20:36:22 GMT -8 grapefruit said:

thank you so much. :-) I also had one more quick question. I am using a screen reader, and mostly everything is working great, but when you are trying to delete a plug-in or a board, apparently there is an x that is there, and I was having trouble selecting that with the keyboard. I'm not sure if it is just the browser I'm using or if there is some thing about that x that was causing it. I got some help to select the X, and since it is the only thing that is not working, and I shouldn't need to mess with things a lot once I get them set up, It should be fine. But I was just wondering if you have to press that X with the mouse, if it is the browser that I'm using, or if I can do anything so I can press it with the keyboard so that it can be a button like all of the other buttons. Like when I go to create a board, I can do that, but then if I want to delete the board, I can't because something was happening with the X. And then with a plug-in I can install one, but I can't delete it and I have to get someone to go with the mouse and press the X. Sorry if I was asking too many questions.

I'm afraid there is nothing that I can do about the X when you try to delete a plugin or board. The admin panel is out of bounds as far as plugins are concerned. Maybe you could submit this as a feature request foe when V6 comes out?

[grapefruit]

Thank you. How can I make a feature request? I wanted the ex to become an actual button, and I wanted to see if they could add links so that you can say move up or move down and you could re-order the plug-ins with the keyboard. I'm not even sure what I am saying makes sense though or if they would understand it if I did make a feature request.

[Lynx]

May 25, 2020 18:50:45 GMT -8 grapefruit said:

Thank you. How can I make a feature request? I wanted the ex to become an actual button, and I wanted to see if they could add links so that you can say move up or move down and you could re-order the plug-ins with the keyboard. I'm not even sure what I am saying makes sense though or if they would understand it if I did make a feature request.

Feature Requests get posted in the Support Board. Keep in mind that there is no guarantee that it'll be added, but that's the only place the PB Admins and Devs will acknowledge it.

[Todge]

May 25, 2020 18:50:45 GMT -8 grapefruit said:

Thank you. How can I make a feature request? I wanted the ex to become an actual button, and I wanted to see if they could add links so that you can say move up or move down and you could re-order the plug-ins with the keyboard. I'm not even sure what I am saying makes sense though or if they would understand it if I did make a feature request.

There used to be a feature request board, but I guess that has now gone.. You could always post your request in the Support Boardwhere an Admin should see it. They will be able to help you further.

ooops, sorry Lynx, I didn't notice your reply.

[grapefruit]

Thank you. I will try that.

[Todge]

May 27, 2020 8:38:35 GMT -8 grapefruit said:

Thank you. I will try that.

Good luck.

[grapefruit]

I have been thinking about this some more. Could the plug-in just look at the meta-data of a photo and see if anything has been written in the description property or the title property? If nothing has been written in either one, it could then say that you are not allowed to post the photo. Would that work or would it not? Would it work for avatars? The avatar builder here is not very accessible so I'm going to have to find an accessible one and then use a plug-in I found here to disable to one here and then use another plug-in where you can add menu items to add the accessible avatar builder. That is a bit off topic though. But if Meta-data is not stored when photos are uploaded, that might not work. If metadata is stored, that same plug-in could be used to add a message to someone that their location or other meta-data is on the photo and their privacy may be compromised.

[Kami]

Sept 22, 2020 18:16:51 GMT -8 grapefruit said:

I have been thinking about this some more. Could the plug-in just look at the meta-data of a photo and see if anything has been written in the description property or the title property? If nothing has been written in either one, it could then say that you are not allowed to post the photo. Would that work or would it not? Would it work for avatars? The avatar builder here is not very accessible so I'm going to have to find an accessible one and then use a plug-in I found here to disable to one here and then use another plug-in where you can add menu items to add the accessible avatar builder. That is a bit off topic though. But if Meta-data is not stored when photos are uploaded, that might not work. If metadata is stored, that same plug-in could be used to add a message to someone that their location or other meta-data is on the photo and their privacy may be compromised.

In theory, javascript can pull metadata off of a photo.

Practically speaking, however, I would not advise this route if your concern is accessibility. The primary purpose of alt text with regards to accessibility is making sure that screen readers are able to read the content of the photo. There are two issues at play here: a) while a majority of screen reader users do have javascript enabled, a not insignificant number of people do not (for reasons that may or may not be related to their disability); and b) not all photos HAVE metadata saved to them—many people remove photo metadata for privacy purposes—and not all images are photos or have meta data, so this wouldn't be comprehensively helpful.

Delegating an accessibility feature to javascript, especially something that provides content, is probably not the most accessible choice. Plugins will not function if someone is on the mobile version of the forum (which doesn't run plugins) or if they have javascript disabled, so even if you had a plugin that forced people to input alt text, it would only function if someone is using the desktop version of the forum with javascript enabled.

This is probably a situation where automation is not the best route, but rather a hand moderation to check all images and manually enforce the requirement. It's more tedious, yes, but it's the only way to be certain that people aren't circumventing things by disabling javascript (intentionally or not).

You can install a browser plugin that picks up the alt text on websites when toggled to make the job a little easier.