Accessibility report from Wendi

S296 A Short Introduction to Galaxy (Tutorial)
Accessibility Assessment

Date: Since Feb 13
The tutorial can be found here: https://training.galaxyproject.org/training-material/topics/introduction/tutorials/galaxy-intro-short/tutorial.html
The tutorial website was tested against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1
Tested on HP ProBook 650 using Chrome Version 110.0.5481.104 (Official Build) (64-bit) and JAWS 2023.2212.23
Summary
Since this tutorial was last tested in February 2022, keyboard access has been added to the expandable text boxes. However, these text boxes are not fully accessible to screen reader users.
The colour scheme has been changed, but in some places, colour is used to convey information.
The tutorial relies heavily on the use of screenshots and images of buttons to demonstrate visually how the Galaxy platform should be used. More effort needs to go into providing clear and detailed written instructions for users without good vision.
Text alternatives have been added to images, but many are unhelpful and do not improve comprehension for screen reader users. More care needs to go into ensuring that the text alternatives provided for icons and buttons etc, match those provided when using the Galaxy platform.
Outstanding Issues

## Success Criterion 4.1.2

The state of user interface components (controls) must be programmatically determinable by assistive technologies.
Failure
The expanded/collapsed state of the toggle-type elements is incorrect.
Details
There are 7 collapsed text boxes that users can expand to reveal additional text. When accessing the tutorial using a screen reader the screen reader incorrectly announces that the text boxes are expanded when they are collapsed and vice versa.

fixed in https://github.com/galaxyproject/training-material/pull/3799

## Success Criterion 1.4.1
Colour alone must not be used to distinguish links from surrounding text unless the contrast ratio between the link and the surrounding text is at least 3:1.
Failure
Link text and static text are differentiated only by colour. The contrast ratio between default link text and surrounding text is not at least 3:1.
Details
The orange links have a colour contrast ratio of 1.7:1 with the surrounding pale grey text and have no styling to distinguish them from the surrounding text.

fixed in https://github.com/galaxyproject/training-material/pull/3799

## Success Criterion2.1.1
Page functionalities must be available using the keyboard.
Failure
The Feedback section is not accessible by keyboard alone.
Details
The Feedback section cannot be given keyboard focus.

fixed in https://github.com/galaxyproject/training-material/pull/3799

## Success Criterion 1.1.1
Images that convey content must have a descriptive text alternative that serves the same purpose and presents the same information as the image.
Failure
The alternative text for several icons is not appropriate.
Details
The text alternative for icons should describe the function of the icon rather than its appearance e.g., the text alternative for the ‘Edit’ icon is ‘galaxy dash pencil’, for the ‘Display’ icon it’s ‘galaxy dash eye’ and for the ‘View all histories’ icon it’s ‘galaxy dash columns’. The text alternative given in the tutorial must match the one used on the Galaxy platform, otherwise screen reader users will not be able to locate the icon they require.
The text alternative for many of the icons include the superfluous text ‘galaxy dash’.

unfixed

The ‘FastQC Tool’ icon has the unhelpful text alternative: ‘toolshed.g2.bx.psu.edu/repos/devteam/fastqc/fastqc/0.73+galaxy0’
The ‘Filter by quality Tool’ icon has the unhelpful text alternative: ‘toolshed.g2.bx.psu.edu/repos/devteam/fastq_quality_filter/cshl_fastq_quality_filter/1.0.2+galaxy0’

fixed in https://github.com/galaxyproject/training-material/pull/3799

## Success Criterion 1.1.1
Images with content that is already conveyed in text must be coded to be ignored by assistive technology.

Failure

Redundant images are not hidden from screen readers.

> Details
The tutorial includes numerous screenshots of the Galaxy platform. These are helpful for sighted users but are redundant for screen reader users. The information that they present visually is provided by the accompanying text instructions. Rather than include lengthy but unhelpful text alternatives to the screenshots they should be coded to be ignored by assistive technology.
As an example, the screenshot that accompanies the section on getting metadata about a file has the following text alternative:
‘filter1 with 3 arrows click on filename to expand, click filter settings and how many reads were filtered out.’
If you replaced the screenshot with the text alternative above, you would not have access to all the meaningful information in the screenshot.

fixed in https://github.com/galaxyproject/training-material/pull/3799

> It’s unnecessary to provide a text alternative for icons if their function is already conveyed in text as this creates a stutter effect e.g., Click on the galaxy-eye (eye) icon next to the dataset name, to look at the file content

might be impossible to fix.