Describe your icons - be accessible!

[jeshyr]

Dear Dreamwidth Users,

One of the nifty new features Dreamwidth has that you probably haven't noticed, unless you use a screen reader, is that all our user icons can have proper descriptions.

For example the icon I've used on this post has the description "Generic glyphs for wheelchair, blindness, sign language & information access". Blind users and others who can't see graphics can read the text instead. Since the icons we choose for posts are often important commentary on the post, it's great that Dreamwidth has this way to make them accessible in text.

BUT these descriptions only work if you enter them on your icon editing page.

To see some example descriptions, you can check out all my icons which tells you the keywords and comments as well as the new description field. The descriptions are meant to be a text equivalent to the icon, so you don't have to describe everything in the icon - just the parts that matter. Once you've read some people's descriptions it should be clearer.

Here are links to the icon pages for some people who have entered icon descriptions, so you can have an idea of what we're doing:
rb's icons
xb95's icons
acelightning's icons
sheelal's icons

Now you can go and add descriptions to your own icons. Start by describing your default icon, or whatever one you use most often. If you have lots, you can always do a few now and a few in a while! Any descriptions are better than no descriptions.

If you have any problems with specific icons, or any other questions, leave a comment and a link so I can find the icon and I'll try to give you a hand. If you have neuro issues that make it hard to come up with descriptions, feel free to leave a comment and somebody may volunteer to help you.

Then please go tell all your friends to describe their icons too!


Happy Accessibility,
Ricky

[Crossposted mostly from my personal journal here]

Comments

Re: Icon descriptions

[jeshyr]

Cesy, most of them are fantastic but there's a few that you've got mixed up.

The text equivalent goes in the Description field, and it's what people who can't see the icon will read instead. So you're answering the question "what does it look like", more or less. Here are a few suggestions:

For the "Serve me" cat:
A cute cat with the text, "Serve me you pathetic human"

For your default icon:
Picture of an old fashioned quill and ink, with the word "Cesy"

For the "Dance" one:
A butterfly flying from a person's cupped hands.

Lots of those are already great, but some of the others are a little confused. Let me know if you'd like more help - happy to do that.