How to maximise badge accessibility?

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Assessment

Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Newbie friendliness
30/100
Issue type
Documentation
Clarity
Needs clarification
Activity status
Stale
Tech stack
github, markdown

Research direction

Start by reviewing the repository's badge usage and the WCAG 1.4.5 Images of Text guidance linked in the issue. Evaluate the listed alternatives with screen-reader testing, then document an explicit decision for static badges and suitable alt-text or plain-text treatment.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Description

Badges - the SVG images we use to communicate repository health - are images of text, which are discouraged by WCAG 1.4.5 Images of Text since plain text is more accessible. But they are the only way to display dynamic content in a GitHub-flavoured-Markdown. We are probably forced to use these, with appropriate alt-text to maximise accessibility.

The more tricky question is what should be done with the static badges (e.g. 'this repository uses ASV' or whatever). We use these since so that they are consistent with the dynamic badges, making for a more visually readable list of repository health markers. But for 'non-visual' reading (screen readers) they are LESS readable. We should make an explicit decision on these, possibly based on testing with a screen reader:

  • Replace with plain text?
  • Keep as a badge, with the best alt-text we can manage?
  • Discourage users of screen readers from attempting to read the health section?

Again, the most important thing is to consider this, even if measured decision is to leave it.

Dominant language
Python
Stars
3
Forks
7
PR merge metrics
No merged PRs in 30d

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First steps

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  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

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