Bug 11566 - Fixing accessibility on OPAC
Summary: Fixing accessibility on OPAC
Status: CLOSED WONTFIX
Alias: None
Product: Koha
Classification: Unclassified
Component: OPAC (show other bugs)
Version: Main
Hardware: All All
: P5 - low enhancement (vote)
Assignee: Owen Leonard
QA Contact: Testopia
URL:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2014-01-16 00:29 UTC by Merllissia Manueli
Modified: 2018-06-04 20:11 UTC (History)
3 users (show)

See Also:
Change sponsored?: ---
Patch complexity: ---
Documentation contact:
Documentation submission:
Text to go in the release notes:
Version(s) released in:


Attachments
updated the accessability of opac-passwd.tt (2.74 KB, patch)
2014-01-16 00:50 UTC, Tom Houlker
Details | Diff | Splinter Review
Bug 11566: Fixing accessibility on OPAC in opac-authorities-home.tt (1.34 KB, patch)
2014-01-16 00:52 UTC, Aleisha Amohia
Details | Diff | Splinter Review
Bug 11566: Fixing accesssibility on OPAC in opac-memberentry.tt (1.34 KB, patch)
2014-01-16 00:53 UTC, Emma Heath
Details | Diff | Splinter Review
Bug 11566: Fixing accessibility on OPAC in opac-addbybiblionumber.tt (1.58 KB, patch)
2014-01-16 00:53 UTC, Aleisha Amohia
Details | Diff | Splinter Review
Improved accessibility by removing <fieldset> tags as they were unnecessary. (1.42 KB, patch)
2014-01-16 00:59 UTC, Merllissia Manueli
Details | Diff | Splinter Review
Improved Accessability by adding 'Order by Date' label (1.34 KB, patch)
2014-01-16 00:59 UTC, Merllissia Manueli
Details | Diff | Splinter Review
Improving Accessability of privacy page by adding <legend> tags (1.22 KB, patch)
2014-01-16 01:00 UTC, Merllissia Manueli
Details | Diff | Splinter Review
Improved Accessibility (1.31 KB, patch)
2014-01-16 01:00 UTC, Merllissia Manueli
Details | Diff | Splinter Review
improved accessibilty by adding legend for suggestion form and submit (3.88 KB, patch)
2014-01-16 01:06 UTC, AlexHorsman
Details | Diff | Splinter Review

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Description Merllissia Manueli 2014-01-16 00:29:25 UTC
We used wave.webaim.org toolbar to find errors on webpages
Comment 1 Tom Houlker 2014-01-16 00:50:41 UTC
Created attachment 24432 [details] [review]
updated the accessability of opac-passwd.tt

http://bugs.koha-community.org/show_bug.cgi?id=11558
Comment 2 Aleisha Amohia 2014-01-16 00:52:59 UTC
Created attachment 24433 [details] [review]
Bug 11566: Fixing accessibility on OPAC in opac-authorities-home.tt

Removed unnecessary fieldset around Submit button
Comment 3 Emma Heath 2014-01-16 00:53:15 UTC
Created attachment 24434 [details] [review]
Bug 11566: Fixing accesssibility on OPAC in  opac-memberentry.tt

Removed unnecessary fieldset around save button
Comment 4 Aleisha Amohia 2014-01-16 00:53:27 UTC
Created attachment 24435 [details] [review]
Bug 11566: Fixing accessibility on OPAC in opac-addbybiblionumber.tt

Removed unnecessary fieldset around save button
Comment 5 Merllissia Manueli 2014-01-16 00:59:35 UTC
Created attachment 24436 [details] [review]
Improved accessibility by removing <fieldset> tags as they were unnecessary.
Comment 6 Merllissia Manueli 2014-01-16 00:59:52 UTC
Created attachment 24437 [details] [review]
Improved Accessability by adding 'Order by Date' label
Comment 7 Merllissia Manueli 2014-01-16 01:00:09 UTC
Created attachment 24438 [details] [review]
Improving Accessability of privacy page by adding <legend> tags
Comment 8 Merllissia Manueli 2014-01-16 01:00:27 UTC
Created attachment 24439 [details] [review]
Improved Accessibility
Comment 9 Emma Heath 2014-01-16 01:05:38 UTC
Comment on attachment 24434 [details] [review]
Bug 11566: Fixing accesssibility on OPAC in  opac-memberentry.tt

Review of attachment 24434 [details] [review]:
-----------------------------------------------------------------

*submit button
Comment 10 AlexHorsman 2014-01-16 01:06:01 UTC
Created attachment 24440 [details] [review]
improved accessibilty by adding legend for suggestion form and submit
Comment 11 Owen Leonard 2014-01-28 15:17:53 UTC
(In reply to Aleisha Amohia from comment #2)
> Removed unnecessary fieldset around Submit button

I assume these patches are based on recommendations that a fieldset not be used without a corresponding <legend>. In this case the fieldset is being used as a somewhat-semantic grouping element in order to provide a logical hook for CSS. Removing the fieldset doesn't solve any accessibility problem in my opinion.
Comment 12 Magnus Enger 2014-05-07 07:05:29 UTC
Looks like this should be "Needs signoff"? (Or maybe "In discussion", based on the comment from Owen?)
Comment 13 Marc Véron 2014-08-31 08:07:07 UTC
The first patch does not apply:
CONFLICT (content): Merge conflict in koha-tmpl/opac-tmpl/bootstrap/css/opac.css
Failed to merge in the changes.
Patch failed at 0001 updated the accessability of opac-passwd.tt

There seems to be no need to alter opac.css, the patch does not contain substantial changes for it, and the patch introduces a CSS error (stray word 'browsers').
Comment 14 Marc Véron 2014-08-31 09:14:21 UTC
(In reply to Owen Leonard from comment #11)
> (In reply to Aleisha Amohia from comment #2)
> > Removed unnecessary fieldset around Submit button
> 
> I assume these patches are based on recommendations that a fieldset not be
> used without a corresponding <legend>. In this case the fieldset is being
> used as a somewhat-semantic grouping element in order to provide a logical
> hook for CSS. Removing the fieldset doesn't solve any accessibility problem
> in my opinion.

I did some research on the use of fieldsets:

"Fieldset and legend should only be used to associate groups of controls when a higher level description (i.e., the legend) is necessary. Single checkboxes or basic radio buttons (such as male/female for gender) that make sense from their labels alone do not require fieldset and legend. Nested fieldsets should generally be avoided."
Source: http://webaim.org/techniques/forms/controls


"There are [in addition to radio or check boxes, MV] other use cases, and in general the <fieldset> element can also be used to strongly section a form. Because of its influence over assistive technology, the <fieldset> element is one of the key elements to building accessible forms; however it is your responsibility not to abuse it. If possible, each time you build a form, try to listen to how a screen reader interprets it. If it sounds odd, it's a good hint that your form structure need to be improved."
Source: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Guide/HTML/Forms/How_to_structure_an_HTML_form#The_%3Cfieldset%3E_and_%3Clegend%3E_elements


My conclusion:

If I look now at the results of http://wave.webaim.org/  for e.g. .../cgi-bin/koha/opac-memberentry.pl, it does not complain about fieldset tags around single controls (e.g. Submit button). It only complains about a missing legend for it.
However, the fieldset has a style: <fieldset class="action">
This style used in opac.css:
fieldset.action {
    border: 0 none;
    clear: both;
    float: none;
    margin: 0;
    padding: 1em 0 0.3em;
    width: auto;
}

Simply removing the fieldset tag would have an impact on the look and feel of the website.

So in my opinion it is better to be very careful about removing tags and rather to add a legend where the validator complains about missing legends (as some of the patches do).
Comment 15 Marc Véron 2014-09-01 16:52:14 UTC
For adding legends (and other tags) that are not visible on screen, but screen-reader-readable, we should have a CSS class like 'sr-only' as provided by bootstrap version 3.

Koha uses Bootstrap 2.3.1. 

See: 
http://wiki.koha-community.org/wiki/Bootstrap_OPAC
http://getbootstrap.com/css/
Comment 16 Owen Leonard 2014-09-02 12:10:32 UTC
(In reply to Marc Véron from comment #14)

> So in my opinion it is better to be very careful about removing tags and
> rather to add a legend where the validator complains about missing legends

I think we need to use our best judgement in situations where a validator complains. Is the lack of a legend on the fieldset around a submit button really an accessibility problem, or is it just an item on a checklist?
Comment 17 Owen Leonard 2017-10-23 14:40:21 UTC
I'm closing this but because there has been no argument in favor of these changes for over three years. I think the goal is valid, but I this bug is doing no one any good as it stands.

If this is an issue you'd like to promote or fix, please file a bug specific to the problem you'd like corrected.