POUR-CAFlexibility: configuring the accessible experience

[tonyfast]

an early influence in our development was "reader mode". that mode uses ARIA semantics to build views, but notebooks didn't work there. they do now, but they are ugly. anyway, not the point....

the point is that reader mode allows for configuration for:

• (sans?) serif
• change text size
• change the word spacing
• change the line spacing
• light, dark, sepia mode

we could offer those plus like hella more things.

please add your thoughts below.

[smythp]

This is cool. I use reader mode (and apps like Pocket) to get around accessibility issues quite frequently, and performance issues on mobile that are exacerbated by screen reader use. I personally think this is useful, but not sure about priority.

[tonyfast]

• show toolbars

this would allow folks to see metadata

• show cell numbers
• show execution count
• announce cell language
• exclude output types. remove inaccessible cells but announce their inaccessibility.

over in #63 @smythp were talking about announcing the language of a cell. my thoughts about that behavior are in that thread

[tonyfast]

I personally think this is useful, but not sure about priority.

definitely not a priority but a good reference for a flexibile accessiiblity toolbar.

[smythp]

Just thinking about what additional options might be useful. One option could be view width, as some do better with a narrower reading area but without zooming. Only other thing I can think of would be configurable spacing between cells.

Feel like adding screen reader options to a configuration bar like this is kind of new, haven't seen it in the wild, but a cool idea. One issue might be getting people to understand what the option does, the visual options would probably be more intuitive given that they're realtively more common.

[tonyfast]

cells are landmarks should be a toggle. folks might not like all of the cells in their landmarks.

[tonyfast]

in this application, we some configurations must be applied on the python side and not are configurable by the user while the javascript configurations are. we've introduced a settings panel that allows for rich flexibility in the interface.

one of the most innovative options we offer is the ability for screen reader users to toggle the role of the cell container changing their navigation to lists, tables, and landmarks. this gives the user agency over the structure rather than imposing a strict design constraint.

we have very constrained testing resources. complete configurability means that we can place several different design concepts in the application. during testing, users can change their preferences and customize their experience. the flexibility is to improve the ability to compare/contrast features in testing and provide readers with the most agency.

[tonyfast]

target areas introduce a need for a new configuration. wcag 2.1 had a 2.5.5 AAA required for target sizes, but there was no AA target size. that was added in 2.2 with 2.5.8. the target introduces two conditions at the AA and AAA. AA uses 24px min and AAA uses 44px min which is much better for low vision. the AAA styles can be included/excluded by toggling the wcag-aaa class; wcag-a and wcag-aa classes were added for completeness.

users should be able to configure the accessibility priority they desire for their experience. this offers another modality for configuration.

[tonyfast]

mathjax settings will need to be configurable. the first one that raises eyebrows to me is the tabindex being set on each equation. MathJax warns of disabling this feature for accessibility reasons and we want to be careful disabling things.

https://docs.mathjax.org/en/v2.7-latest/options/hub.html

[tonyfast]

it should be possible to turn off toolbar roles so arrow keys are not needed for navigation