Re: Making Inkscpe SVGs accessible to screen readers

>> #1 - "Setting up the file" starts with ordering the layers.  You only have 
>> one
>> layer, so it might be that you need to make some more?

> Well, if you mean groups, ....

No, I think it means layers, not groups.  In that particular section, where it 
talks about "layer grouping" it's not the same thing as Inkscape's "Groups".  I 
think it means generally a grouping of layers.

> .... then I did add <g> elements with "role=list"
and "aria-label" properties to groups of text elements that are
related, but that doesn't seem to make the screen reader work.
I'm not sure what "role" I should use -- img, group, list, text?

For the most part, that html code is over my head, so I can't comment about it. 
However, I didn't see any code like that in your html file.  Oh, I see it's in 
the TXT file.  Maybe someone will be able to have a look at it?

Under that "#2 Let's make it accessible", the first thing it says is

"Screen reader traversable - Make sure the SVG is traversable in all browsers by 
adding role="group" to the <svg>. According to the new SVG spec, they should map 
to the graphics-document role. However, the spec is still in working draft mode, 
therefore, the browsers have not implemented that yet."

I don't know, it looks like the article is 2 or 3 years old.  Maybe browsers do 
implement it by now.  Or maybe that's part of the problem?

> I'm afraid I don't know much about SVG optimization :/ I guess I'll
have to read up on it.

The instructions look fairly easy, now that I took the time to read it closely. 
It looks like you just need to click the "prettify" button in the program they 
recommend.

Too bad that JAWS program doesn't have a free version.  Have you found any free 
screen readers?  If there is, I wouldn't mind diving into this, code and all.

brynn


-----Original Message----- 
From: Jonathan Busby
Sent: Thursday, June 06, 2019 11:23 AM
To: Inkscape User Community
Subject: Re: [Inkscape-user] Making Inkscpe SVGs accessible to screen readers

On Thu, Jun 6, 2019 at 9:15 AM brynn <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> Did you ever try using a screen reader on it yet?

Yes :) I used "JAWS"*, but, unfortunately, unlike the "non-accessible"
SVG file, the "screen reader accessible version" presents no text data
to JAWS and it isn't able to read it. For the plain unmodified SVG
though, JAWS rambles off the text rapidly and it's really quite bad.
:(

*( https://www.freedomscientific.com/products/software/jaws/ )

>
> Is the problem that you still can't select the text from the html page?
>

I don't know if that's the problem or not. According to the reference
specs from the W3C, the "aria-label" properties in the SVG file should
fix that, or at least make the SVG file screen reader accessible.

> I'm not sure, but I think I found the section of the CSS Tricks article you're
> using, which you need the most.  It's about halfway down the page (a little
> less) called "Complex images - An Accessible Graph".
>
> #1 - "Setting up the file" starts with ordering the layers.  You only have one
> layer, so it might be that you need to make some more?

Well, if you mean groups, then I did add <g> elements with "role=list"
and "aria-label" properties to groups of text elements that are
related, but that doesn't seem to make the screen reader work.

I'm not sure what "role" I should use -- img, group, list, text?

> It also mentions
> optimization (among several other things).  It recommends using a particular
> tool.  However, Inkscape has some optimization features as well.  You'll just
> have to sort through it and figure out what you need.

I'm afraid I don't know much about SVG optimization :/ I guess I'll
have to read up on it.

>
> It mentions something about using the keyboard to guide the screenreader 
> through
> the webpage.  So it sounds like you'll need some idea how screen readers work.
>
> #2 - "Let's make it accessible" sounds like your pot of gold!  But I wouldn't
> skip #1.

Well, I followed the examples and advice mentioned in the article, but
with no success :/

>
> You'll have to plow through it all yourself.  I didn't look past that point, 
> but
> you probably should.
>
> All best,
> brynn
>
>

Thanks and regards,

Jonathan


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