Quote:
Originally Posted by KevinH
I have been reading up on links and returns from footnotes and the answers are not clear.
Although aria-label replaces the text of that node for Accessibility readers, it does not do that for Screen readers. In addition, using a single unicode character for the return link simply does not provide a big enough link area for that who have muscle or motion control issues.
Accessibility, it seems, covers many many dimensions.
The simplest answer is to use physical text to form the return link big enough for touch and mouse activation and that tells the person what clicking that link will do. Then an aria-label becomes redundant as the link text tells you enough.
Based on all of this reading, I think using a single unicode character as the basis for return link is not a good idea (especially for screen readers and for those with muscle/motion control issues).
So a footnote reference link minimum length becomes 3 characters long [N] making it clickable.
And I will make the backlink text "Return to [1]" (obviously translated to the Book's language), with no extra aria-label since the link text says enough and is unique.
And as I said I will make the Reference to the footnote to be "[1]" but this time add an aria-label that says "To Footnote 1" (again properly translated).
That should hopefully make accessibility readers, screen readers, and those with muscle or motion control issues all happy.
Thoughts?
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I confess to always having made the backlink text [1], but I can see this might be a small target for those with muscle control issues.
I've always just done the same thing in the text when making a link to a footnote - except I wrap the [1] in <sup> tags in an attempt to improve its visibility.
There's clearly a balance to be struck between what is difficult for 'handicapped' people and what is annoying for 'other' people. Given the different ways epub2 is implemented by the various makers of reading devices, it is very likely that the implementation of accessibility features will be just as varied and we can't satisfy all needs. Just as print books have 'large print' versions, maybe eBooks should have regular and accessible versions?
If the implementation of <aside> results in a pop-up, there is no need for a backlink. In the meantime, I'd go for "Return to [1]" as reasonably short and simple.