Hi all,
The topic list no longer shows as headings as it once did for screen readers. I don’t consider this a massive problem, and if it’s something that I should fix with themes/theme components that’s fine. Is there either a theme that I can install to enable this (some people don’t mind table-based topic nav, others do), a theme component, or should this be fixed in Discourse core?
Thanks for reporting it, we were recently advised by a customer’s accessibility team that the topic list should not use the heading role and this lead to the removal…
Seems like the headings were preferable, and I think we can add them back if there’s a good case for them from actual people using screen readers.
Are headings in a list of topics like this expected behavior you’ve experienced on other sites too? or is this sort of thing unusual but nice to have?
It very much depends on the forum in question. I would say that for some of us, it’s definitely expected. But then you have others who are comfortable with navigating table style (but some screen readers like NVDA do have weird bugs with tables that crop up in weird circumstances so…). Would it be possible to do this via a theme component? Or make it a configurable option that’s on by default? (I say on by default because IMO accessibility options for something like this should be an opt-out feature that people should have to go explicitly disable.)
Any updates on this particular problem? If there’s a way we can get around this with some kind of theme component I don’t mind doing that as a band-aid until this gets resolved in Discourse itself (I just don’t know how to do it in a theme component).
No updates yet, but I’m planning to look at it next week.
Hi, I’m also a screen reader user and recommend this setup. Table navigation is certainly doable, but what I’ve found is that messages that are pinned read their status indicators first before reading the message title. This is not a huge problem, but it certainly slows down navigation.
In NVDA — the screen reader that I use — the commands for tables require holding down CTRL+ALT and using the up and down arrows to traverse rows, and left/right for columns. So, having a header for each topic title is also preferable because it’s only one single key press. I also know several screen reader users who also have cerebral palsy, which limits the use of one hand. In such cases, having a single keystroke would also aid those people as well.
Thanks for the additional feedback, it’s hard to implement something contrary to an accessibility audit — but feedback from people regularly using screenreaders is invaluable.
Maybe we’ll add a toggle at some point, but in the meantime it seems like the best thing to do is add the heading back.
I’ve reverted the heading removal, so they’ll reappear the next time Discourse is updated.
I’m quite frankly surprised that the auditors would give such advice. I’ve thought it over, and the only possible negative I can think of is that by default, headings change the size of the font. However, they can be styled with CSS, negating that point.
If it’s not too much to ask, may I know what reasoning they gave as regards this recommendation? I’m curious if there’s something I haven’t thought of, but I am honestly thinking it was bad advice.
I don’t have specific reasoning for the recommendation, but I’ll definitely raise this feedback with the auditor and see if they can provide more context.