matrix-org / matrix-org/matrix.org

Enhance Footer Social Media Icon Usability & Accessibility

Open
#3,179 7 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub
accessibility needs decision
Dominant language
JavaScript
Stars
616
Forks
463
Avg merge
2d 3h
Merged PRs (30d)
19

Description

### Problem
The website footer displays social media links as icons only (e.g., GitHub, Mastodon, etc.), but these have several usability and accessibility challenges:
- Icon-only links rely on user familiarity; users may not recognize all icons
- No label appears on hover, so destinations are not clearly communicated for sighted users
- Accessibility is limited for screen reader and keyboard users (insufficient labeling, ambiguous links)

### Proposed Enhancement
- Ensure each social icon link is a proper `` so that browsers show the destination URL on hover
- Add a hover label (tooltip or `title` attribute) indicating the platform name
- Add appropriate `aria-label` attributes to each link for accessibility
- Keep styling minimal and consistent with the current design

### Expected Outcome
- Footer social link usability, discoverability, and accessibility are improved
- No major layout change or alteration to interaction, just additional cues and assistive labeling
- Changes are limited to footer markup and minor CSS adjustments if needed

### Scope
- Update restricted to the website footer only
- No impact on site-wide visual design or site structure

Image

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

Research direction

Start by locating the website footer markup and its existing social-media links, then inspect the rendered footer and current styles. Update only the footer links so each has a destination, platform-specific hover text, and an accessible label while preserving the existing appearance. Done means the links are clear on hover and usable with screen readers and keyboards without a major layout change.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
javascript
Domain
accessibility, frontend, web-dev
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
2/5
Estimated time
1-3 hours
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
55/100

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