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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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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