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@title Assistive Technologies
@group developer
Information about making Phabricator accessible to assistive technologies.
Overview
========
Assistive technologies help people with disabilities use the web. For example,
screen readers can assist people with limited or no eyesight by reading the
contents of pages aloud.
Phabricator has some support for assistive technologies, and we'd like to have
more support. This document describes how to use the currently available
features to improve the accessibility of Phabricator.
Aural-Only Elements
===================
The most common issue assistive technologies encounter is buttons, links, or
other elements which only convey information visually (usually through an icon
or image).
These elements can be made more accessible by providing an aural-only label.
This label will not be displayed by visual browsers, but will be read by screen
readers.
To add an aural-only label to an element, use `javelin_tag()` with the
`aural` attribute:
javelin_tag(
'span',
array(
'aural' => true,
),
pht('Aural Label Here'));
This label should be placed inside the button or link that you are labeling.
You can also use `aural` on a container to provide an entirely different
replacement element, but should be cautious about doing this.
NOTE: You must use `javelin_tag()`, not `phutil_tag()`, to get support for
this attribute.
Visual-Only Elements
====================
Occasionally, a visual element should be hidden from screen readers. This should
be rare, but some textual elements convey very little information or are
otherwise disruptive for aural users.
This technique can also be used to offer a visual alternative of an element
and a different aural alternative element. However, this should be rare: it is
usually better to adapt a single element to work well for both visual and aural
users.
You can mark an element as visual-only by using `javelin_tag()` with the
`aural` attribute:
javelin_tag(
'span',
array(
'aural' => false,
),
$ascii_art);
Previewing Aural Pages
======================
To verify aural markup, you can add `?__aural__=1` to any page URI. This will
make Phabricator render the page with styles that reveal aural-only elements and
mute visual-only elements.
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