Accessibility question

[starwatcher]

I will soon be moving my fanfic to Archive of Our Own, and to a Dreamwidth fic-site. When moving the fics, I'd like to ensure that my code is accessible for screen-readers. I know some things, but have questions about others. I asked the questions in a post at my Studio, but have had no responses; apparently no one in my reading circle uses a screen-reader.

If you do, I'd appreciate it if you could drop by and educate me. Or perhaps point me toward a site that has the answers. Feel free to pass the link on to anyone who might know the answers. After I've learned what I need to know, I'll make a new post to share with my friends, and anyone else who needs or wants the information.

Thank you.

Comments

[starwatcher]

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style the tag with CSS

See, when I look at the link above (and others I've tried to understand), I just get more confused. Isn't CSS only when you're designing a website? I can't see how I would use a 'style sheet' when I'm posting fanfic to a current archive. I thought my only options would be to use various tags, and even those will be limited by what the archive allows.
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[jadelennox]

On AO3, that's true; their interface strips all CSS before you post. Which is a little bit aggravating, actually. I've filed a bug about it, although I can see why they do it.

but on dreamwidth, you can use your own CSS. Even if you don't use your own CSS to write an entire style, you can embed CSS in something else you say. For example, I'm styling the following paragraph:

This is an overly styled paragraph!

Code looks like:

<div style="margin-left:2em;margin-right:2em;font-family:cursive;font-style:italic;color:blue;">This is an overly styled paragraph!</div>

You can do that around anything you post in dreamwidth,so if something is a blockquote but you don't like the blockquote style by default, you can use your own style. If you reuse the style frequently, you can write a little style sheet of your own to embed. I'm not sure if you can embed it in your journal style without a paid account,but you can certainly embed it manually at the top of each post.Getting into the technical details of how to do that is a little bit complicated unless you are sure it's something you want to try, but you absolutely can do it.

[starwatcher]

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Thank you. I thought "CSS" by definition had to affect an entire page; I regarded <span style="font-style: italic"> as a 'tag' rather than 'CSS'. Maybe re-reading the comments will make a little more sense, now.

Getting into the technical details of how to do that is a little bit complicated unless you are sure it's something you want to try, but you absolutely can do it.

No; I'm happy just making very minor changes in my posts. Italics, bold, and blockquote are about all I need. (With the proviso that I'm trying to be sure I make those semantically accessible for screen-readers.)
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[starwatcher]

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By the way... I've gotten so hung up on italics that I've forgotten all about horizontal rule. Is there a way to make a horizontal rule, or some form of section-break, accessible to screen readers?
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[jadelennox]

I just checked, and by default, JAWS reads <hr /> as "dash dash dash dash". Presumably some JAWS users customize that, but my configuration is out-of-the-box, so by default the horizontal rule is accessible to screen readers.

And this, actually, is an extension of what people have been saying about semantic markup. Using the horizontal rule tag means that you can trust the screen reader to do what is necessary (configurable by the screen reader user). That means that if you've been using it, you are already being much more helpful to people who use screen readers than people who customize their own section break with something like "~~~~".

By the way, it's awesome that you are thinking about this so much!

[starwatcher]

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Well, I didn't use horizontal rule in my personal LJ fic-journal; I considered it 'too plain'. But when I move everything to a DW fic-journal and to AO3, I'll change all my section-breaks to <hr>, since I've just recently learned that 'cute' section-breaks aren't cool for screen-readers.

Speaking of dash-dash-dash-dash: is there a preference between using a single dash (-) or coding an n-dash (–)? Do they 'read' equally, or is one a better option?

it's awesome that you are thinking about this so much!

Thank you. Mostly, it's a recipe of wanting to do things 'right' + enjoyment of solving puzzles (if they're not too complicated) + sheer stubbornness. But once I've figured out the current 'best' way, and can explain it to others, I'll put all the information in a neat post for all my friends to read and share. Hopefully, a lot of fanfic authors - well, those in my circle - will start coding for accessibility, even if they don't go back and recode their older stories.
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