Accessibility Tests Extended Descriptions - Version 1.1.1
Accessibility Tests for Extended Descriptions
The test book is created by the DAISY Consortium and the DIAGRAM Center in the support of the efforts of publishing working group and EPUB 3 Community group of World Wide Web Consortium.
Introduction to Extended Descriptions
Many types of structures in HTML require additional information to be used effectively by persons with disabilities. The term commonly used is "extended descriptions." Images are most frequently identified as needing extended descriptions, but other structures may also use this technique.
Images fall into several categories, and those that are merely decorative do not need to be presented to the user who is blind. Some images are adequately described in the surrounding text or in a caption and require no alternative (alt) text. Other images can briefly be described and "alt text" is normally used. However, some images that convey a great deal of information require extended descriptions.
In this Extended Description Test EPUB, we focus on the two leading options which most reading systems today support.
In HTML, the introduction of the details element with its summary element allows more information to be added. The summary provides a short description and this can be expanded. Normally the expanded feature is shown with a button that expands and collapses.
It is important to point out that publishers may choose not to clutter the page with extended descriptions. This is why our second test is linking the extended description to a separate file containing a single description.
Thank you to the Web Accessibility Initiative for the images we will use
The content of these examples comes from Web Accessibility Tutorials
Assistive Technology and Other Techniques for Reading
In this extended description title, we expect a wide range of Assistive Technology (AT) to be used. In addition we believe in many cases no Assistive Technology will be used. Instead the reader will rely on native features such as font enlargement and foreground and background changes to help improve the reading experience. Further, read aloud or other technology for presenting the information to users with learning disabilities or dyslexia will be employed. Collectively we refer to this in this title using the phrase "AT and other reading techniques."