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Allow users of screen readers to disable page previews
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Description

Currently, there is no way for a user using a screen reader to disable the page previews feature.

After analyzing options for making the cog keyboard accessible, T192489, we recommend the addition of an additional link/button to provide this function.

Proposed solution

  • A link is added to the top of the page that is only visible to screen readers
  • Clicking the link disables page previews (if anonymous) or navigates to Special:Preferences to allow disabling of the feature (if logged in)
  • For anonymous users clicking the link in the footer restores page previews.

Event Timeline

Are there any user groups, accessibility auditors/testing companies that we've worked with, or standards bodies that could provide guidance here?

From @bwang on other ticket:

Sorry to complicate this convo, but my understanding is that screenreader users aren't able to access page previews to begin with, so is there a point in adding a link to the settings cog? There's some relevant discussion in https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T192627 (1 https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T192627#4145651, 2 https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T192627#4478146) with more context about this.

My understanding was that page previews were keyboard accessible via tabbing, so would be interested to learn otherwise if that's not the case.

Remember that they weren't keyboard accessible and also not virtual cursor accessible. With the feedback like the one provided by Graham87 in T192627#4522754

I can't think of any scenarios where I would want a popup link. With user pages, if I want to know more info about a user (e.g. their edit count), I have ways of doing that quickly.

we've stopped exploring aria-describedby functionality for popups. They are invisible to screenreader users.

So sounds like there's nothing we need to do here? Please feel free to file a new ticket if there's something we can do to improve things.