Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Accessibility

This is the talk page for discussing WikiProject Accessibility and anything related to its purposes and tasks.

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WikiProject Accessibility was featured in a WikiProject Report in the Signpost on 6 November 2013.

Flags allowed in infoboxes

Flags in infoboxes are allowed on essentially all other Wikipedias but the English one. They are not only decorative and make the page more interesting to view, but to someone like me, who has ADHD (specifically ADD), it helps my eyes navigate and find useful information much faster. In short, people with ADHD (at least the way i have been tought, but i cant speak for all) see details first and the full picture later. With just words, country names blurr with all the other text and becomes harder to find, where as a flag is direct and also acts as a useful separator. Blockhaj (talk) 01:06, 6 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

An assumption here is that the country or countries in an infobox are information more critical than the other information in an infobox, and thus should stand out more compared to other information. This is sometimes the case, for example with sports where athletes compete as representatives of countries and countries are sometimes used to tally results, but it may not be applicable to other situations. CMD (talk) 01:16, 6 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Should also be made clear that English Wikipedia has many many more policies and guidelines then other Wikipedia's. The huge amount of articles and editors in English Wikipedia have led to many more discussions about the proper way to incorporate and format information.... be they right or wrong. Moxy🍁 01:48, 6 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Well, as per the discussion were this began: Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style/Icons#Avoid flag icons in infoboxes, the original decision to block them appears both to be old and not very thought through (at least not with accessibility in mind), thus it is worth re-examining. I mainly want to be able to use it in infoboxes about weapons and vehicles. Compare these articles for example:

Blockhaj (talk) 01:57, 6 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

To further elaborate, in the case of users (of a military system), a long list of flags is not wanted. In such a case, the userlist should be covered elsewhere in the article and section-linked in the infobox. See here for example sv:Carl Gustaf 84 mm granatgevär.--Blockhaj (talk) 02:00, 6 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

So, looking at Mitrailleuse d'Avion Browning - F.N. Calibre 13,2 mm and sv:13,2 mm automatkanon m/39, I'm not seeing inherent accessibility benefits to flags. A flag alone doesn't indicate what the field means, as shown here where there are two separate lists of countries, so any user has to read the surrounding text anyway. Then to my point above, how is the reader helped by the emphasis of seeing Romania as compared to learning it is an aircraft ordnance, or that it was used by the Swedish Air Force, or that it could fire up to 1,500 rpm? If the eye is to be drawn somewhere, there should be a good reason for it. CMD (talk) 03:20, 6 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Quickly being able to see the country of origin and primary user can help a user quickly descipher if the article is the correct one the user is looking for. A flag alone can indicate what the field means if there is a convention where an infobox with a single flag always entails origin, and if more flags are present, then the top flag always represents origin. Memorizing this pattern is easy and aids quick navigation. Following this, the ordnance type will always be displayed over the top flag, thus the flag has an extended use. Blockhaj (talk) 03:42, 6 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

In comparison, learning the exact order of the given data without flags is harder, especially since it differs between templates and different language Wikis. With flags, it is obvious from the start were the origin is, also allowing the user to keep track of which data he/she has already read, since text otherwise can blurr together, forcing u to re-read values if you loose ur tracking. I now realise this might be useful for people with dyslexia too.--Blockhaj (talk) 03:53, 6 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Colour is the only means of conveying information in the tables of the article Member states of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie

Hello

The Member states of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie tables should be modified because they use colours only to differentiate countries, which is contrary to the MOS:COLOR guidelines.

I won't make the change myself, as I'm not familiar with wp.en usage.

Kind regards, Şÿℵדαχ₮ɘɼɾ๏ʁ 09:53, 22 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

There is a key at the bottom, and the information is in fact conveyed by text in the detailed column. The requirement from WCAG and elsewhere does not actually require its own column, if perhaps that is confusing. Izno (talk) 16:12, 22 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@Izno : then tell me how a blind person using a screen reader can know that Madagascar withdrew in 1977 but rejoined in 1989, when it's not written on its line, but only in the legend? Şÿℵדαχ₮ɘɼɾ๏ʁ 16:36, 22 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

That can be fixed on the one line. The other colored lines looked fine to me. Izno (talk) 16:43, 22 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Looking for input anyone good at coding?

Template_talk:Infobox_election#Accessibility Moxy🍁 15:22, 19 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Discussion at Template talk:Infobox book § Code read out when using a screen reader

You are invited to join the discussion at Template talk:Infobox book § Code read out when using a screen reader, which is within the scope of this WikiProject. KaraLG84 (talk) 11:13, 27 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Script to read articles aloud

Hello everyone, some of you might be interested in WikiNarrator, a new user script to read selected passages or whole articles aloud. More information on installation and usage can be found at User:Phlsph7/WikiNarrator. Please let me know if you have new feature ideas for the script or encounter problems. Phlsph7 (talk) 10:10, 20 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@Phlsph7 Apologies for the late reply, but this is a low traffic talk page and very few people watch this talk page. But Wikimedia Sverige is developing a MediaWiki extension called Wikispeech, a text-to-speech solution aimed at increasing accessibility of Wikipedia's articles.

Maybe you can chat to them? waddie96 ★ (talk) 09:04, 23 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Hello Waddie96 and thanks for the info! I started a discussion at https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikispeech#User_script_to_read_articles_aloud . Phlsph7 (talk) 10:13, 23 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Discussion at meta:Module talk:Message box § c-Waddie96-20250823092200-Edit protected 2025-08-23

You are invited to join the discussion at meta:Module talk:Message box § c-Waddie96-20250823092200-Edit protected 2025-08-23. Relating to giving messageboxes/mbox's the role=note as currently they have the role=presentation which means the accessibility API in implementing WAI-ARIA just skips past all messagebox content. waddie96 ★ (talk) 09:27, 23 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Your feedback would be appreciated at Template talk:Tooltip#Accessibility enhancement investigation regarding a possible method of making the hidden pop-up messages in the {{Tooltip}} template accessible to screen readers. Thanks, Mathglot (talk) 03:48, 30 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Trial: Replacing Wikipedia's CAPTCHA with a new bot detection service

Readers of this page might be interested in this WMF village pump post: Wikipedia:Village pump (WMF) § Trial: Replacing our CAPTCHA with a new bot detection service. Any comments should be left there, not here. Graham87 (talk) 14:52, 7 September 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Removing alt text from portal icons

Over at Template talk:Portal, Waddie96 suggested using empty alt tags for all portal icons, because the current usage (typically alt=icon or alt=flag adds verbal clutter to the experience of their screen reader.

Using a blank alt field is recommended by the W3C for purely decorative images. I think portal icons qualify for that.

What do other editors think? Are there any unintended consequences of setting alt=|?

— hike395 (talk) 00:17, 12 September 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks @Hike395 for asking this! 😄 waddie96 ★ (talk) 00:21, 12 September 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Discussion is proceeding at Template talk:Portal#Edit request 11 September 2025, feel free to join in. — hike395 (talk) 06:34, 12 September 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Light-on-dark color scheme listed at Requested moves

A requested move discussion has been initiated for Light-on-dark color scheme to be moved to Dark mode. This page is of interest to this WikiProject and interested members may want to participate in the discussion here. —RMCD bot 16:47, 16 September 2025 (UTC)[reply]

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