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No Accessibility in New Internet Archive Layout (self.Blind)
submitted 7y ago by fastfinge
Update: want to help? Contact info@archive.org and let them know that not only does accessibility matter, it's something they're obligated to provide.
So, tonight I went to download something from The Internet Archive (www.archive.org), and discovered that they have launched a new layout. I don't know how recent this is, as I only access the Internet Archive once every month or two. Unfortunately, the new site layout The Internet Archive has released has absolutely no screen-reader support what so ever. The problems include:
1. Incorrect use of headings. Many headings on a collection page are just random numbers, with no way to tell what they mean at all. Major sections on the page are not headings at all, either. Just these various unidentified numbers.
2. No alt-text. There are multiple images without any alt-text at all.
3. Unlabeled links. Nearly all links on a collection page have no textual labels what so ever, so it is impossible to identify what they're for.
4. No ARIA landmarks, or any other way of identifying parts of a page.
See this page for a good example of the problems:
https://archive.org/details/attentionkmartshoppers
After half an hour of trying, I have no idea at all how to view or download any part of that collection. And I can find no way to revert to the old layout, if that's even possible.
The accessibility of the site is so terrible that I'm even having trouble finding anyone to contact about this betrayal of the Internet Archive's mission of "universal access to information". They're @internetarchive on Twitter, but that's really all I've found, and thus far, I have gotten no response from that account. I know that Jason Scott (@textfiles) works for them, and is active on Twitter, but I don't think he's actually responsible for any of the issues.
As The Internet Archive gets funding from the Boston Library Consortium, The Library of Congress, and Harvard, as well as many many other US organizations, I believe they are absolutely required to comply with the Americans With Disabilities act. Unfortunately, I'm Canadian, so I can't pursue this.
So, Reddit, what's our next step? Can someone with some vision find an email address we can use for petitions? Can American readers sort out/go after the ADA violations? This should have never happened, and as the Internet Archive is the closest thing The Internet has to a public library, we need to do everything in our power to make sure that fixing this issue becomes the Archive's top priority.
Edit: after some more fiddling, I have a bit of it figured out. You need to go down under the heading that reads "language". Just above the random number headings, you'll find text like "by Tape-A-Thon". Go up from there, and click on the totally unlabeled link that's just under the link that's labeled with the name of the collection. Then you will get a semi-accessible page that will give you the opportunity to download that single file in multiple formats. $1. That page will have a totally inaccessible audio player, and a bunch of entirely unlabeled links. But it will have links labeled "1 file" and so on, just above the file format they will download. As yet, I still have no idea how to download the entire collection, how to skip to the next page of results (I think it might be an infinite scroll?), etc. I'll update if/when I find out anything knew, or hear from anyone at the IA.
Second edit: you can revert to the old Internet Archive, "for a limitted time", by using this link:
https://archive.org/services/exit.php
Info thanks to @adamdicarlo on Twitter. There is also a pop-up that allows you to revert, that was discovered thanks to /u/geoffisblind, but it doesn't work at all with NVDA, only magnification.
Third edit: I've also heard back from @textfiles. Apparently, the address to contact is info@archive.org. I couldn't find that listed on an accessible part of the site, so thanks @textfiles.
Fourth Edit: Thanks to @Simon818 on Twitter for discovering that The Internet Archive lists it's email address in plain text on the terms page. Because why wouldn't you think to try there? But if you want to verify the address in this post, clicking the terms link is the way to do it.
So, tonight I went to download something from The Internet Archive (www.archive.org), and discovered that they have launched a new layout. I don't know how recent this is, as I only access the Internet Archive once every month or two. Unfortunately, the new site layout The Internet Archive has released has absolutely no screen-reader support what so ever. The problems include:
1. Incorrect use of headings. Many headings on a collection page are just random numbers, with no way to tell what they mean at all. Major sections on the page are not headings at all, either. Just these various unidentified numbers.
2. No alt-text. There are multiple images without any alt-text at all.
3. Unlabeled links. Nearly all links on a collection page have no textual labels what so ever, so it is impossible to identify what they're for.
4. No ARIA landmarks, or any other way of identifying parts of a page.
See this page for a good example of the problems:
https://archive.org/details/attentionkmartshoppers
After half an hour of trying, I have no idea at all how to view or download any part of that collection. And I can find no way to revert to the old layout, if that's even possible.
The accessibility of the site is so terrible that I'm even having trouble finding anyone to contact about this betrayal of the Internet Archive's mission of "universal access to information". They're @internetarchive on Twitter, but that's really all I've found, and thus far, I have gotten no response from that account. I know that Jason Scott (@textfiles) works for them, and is active on Twitter, but I don't think he's actually responsible for any of the issues.
As The Internet Archive gets funding from the Boston Library Consortium, The Library of Congress, and Harvard, as well as many many other US organizations, I believe they are absolutely required to comply with the Americans With Disabilities act. Unfortunately, I'm Canadian, so I can't pursue this.
So, Reddit, what's our next step? Can someone with some vision find an email address we can use for petitions? Can American readers sort out/go after the ADA violations? This should have never happened, and as the Internet Archive is the closest thing The Internet has to a public library, we need to do everything in our power to make sure that fixing this issue becomes the Archive's top priority.
Edit: after some more fiddling, I have a bit of it figured out. You need to go down under the heading that reads "language". Just above the random number headings, you'll find text like "by Tape-A-Thon". Go up from there, and click on the totally unlabeled link that's just under the link that's labeled with the name of the collection. Then you will get a semi-accessible page that will give you the opportunity to download that single file in multiple formats. $1. That page will have a totally inaccessible audio player, and a bunch of entirely unlabeled links. But it will have links labeled "1 file" and so on, just above the file format they will download. As yet, I still have no idea how to download the entire collection, how to skip to the next page of results (I think it might be an infinite scroll?), etc. I'll update if/when I find out anything knew, or hear from anyone at the IA.
Second edit: you can revert to the old Internet Archive, "for a limitted time", by using this link:
https://archive.org/services/exit.php
Info thanks to @adamdicarlo on Twitter. There is also a pop-up that allows you to revert, that was discovered thanks to /u/geoffisblind, but it doesn't work at all with NVDA, only magnification.
Third edit: I've also heard back from @textfiles. Apparently, the address to contact is info@archive.org. I couldn't find that listed on an accessible part of the site, so thanks @textfiles.
Fourth Edit: Thanks to @Simon818 on Twitter for discovering that The Internet Archive lists it's email address in plain text on the terms page. Because why wouldn't you think to try there? But if you want to verify the address in this post, clicking the terms link is the way to do it.
geoffisblind 2 points
I received the following email:
Hi,
Thanks for contacting us. We do appreciate your feedback.
We do expect to address accessibility in the near future. It is high on the priority list.
In the meantime I'd suggest using the legacy site which can be accessed by clicking the "Exit Beta" button on the right side of the black navigation bar.
Hopefully they address it soon.
Hi,
Thanks for contacting us. We do appreciate your feedback.
We do expect to address accessibility in the near future. It is high on the priority list.
In the meantime I'd suggest using the legacy site which can be accessed by clicking the "Exit Beta" button on the right side of the black navigation bar.
Hopefully they address it soon.
fastfinge [OP] 1 points
Now, if only the exit beta thing was accessible! Sigh.
geoffisblind 2 points
That's what I was thinking... Hopefully they will make good on what they said and fix the problem quickly.
geoffisblind 2 points
I've been looking over the website with my magnification software. It looks like there is an option to revert back to classic but only for a limited time, upper right hand corner of the page when you go on their homepage. I'm sorry I can't communicate more specifically and I had a hard time finding it myself with the way the site was laid out and how it interacted with Zoomtext. It's a few button presses to revert back as well. It also sounds like you will have a hard time getting to it with a screen reader and the popup that allows you to revert doesn't work *at all* with NVDA, not even a limited amount, it just flat out doesn't work.
I sent feedback on the new system indicating the flaw and I will also email them. If they don't get back to me I will be happy to file a complaint with the Justice Department, but it's best to attempt to make contact first to address the problem. If an attempt isn't made to resolve the issue with the entity in question they will likely suggest that we contact them first.
I sent feedback on the new system indicating the flaw and I will also email them. If they don't get back to me I will be happy to file a complaint with the Justice Department, but it's best to attempt to make contact first to address the problem. If an attempt isn't made to resolve the issue with the entity in question they will likely suggest that we contact them first.
fastfinge [OP] 2 points
Yes, the reason I didn't start by contacting them was because the only contact method I could even find was an inaccessible form. I'm glad you found a way to contact them.
I also updated the post with a direct link to revert back, thanks to a kind person on Twitter.
I also updated the post with a direct link to revert back, thanks to a kind person on Twitter.
EnsignN7 1 points
I'm a developer that does some accessible front-end coding and this was my experience doing accessibility testing with NVDA. The lone test case was just to exit the beta site.
TLDR Analysis: I do not believe screen reader users will be able to exit the beta site at all. I tried with NVDA and even with sight, the focus management was non-existent and I gave up.
On the page linked in the OP, the focus dumps you on the body element. The first tab is the skip to main content link. After that there are two list of links (one on the left and one on the right) that are glyphicons without any hidden text to announce what they really are to screen readers (end results is just the word "link" being announced back). Nothing wrong with glyphicons but they absolutely need hidden text to back them up.
There is one that will announce back which is "Sign in" since it's printed there in text. A user relying on a screen reader would have to find this and know to do a shift+tab once to land on the Exit button (announces as "link"). This requires prior knowledge of this or having a sighted user help (which defeats the purpose of web accessibility).
This is where it really hits the fan. Upon activating that Exit link, a modal pops up but focus does not go to it at all. A screen reader user will be waiting here forever and never know a modal popped up. After fumbling with tabbing through, I found the modal to be all the way at the start of the DOM which again requires either prior knowledge or a sighted user helping out.
For whatever reason the textareas have no labels and instead have heading level 4 text to mark what they are. NVDA had no idea what it was and just said it was an editable field. None of the buttons on the modal were properly labeled either and instead announce as "button" for all of them. I couldn't find any nearby items to go off of so at this point I gave up. For a final kick in the balls, the focus element was not visible to the user so sighted users that can only rely on a keyboard will probably not succeed in exiting the beta either.
Another weird design choice (going off on a mini tangent) was all the heading level 6 elements. For screen readers examining it, I'm sure you encountered a million random numbers being called out as heading levels. For each sound byte file, they coded the view, favorite, and comment counters as a heading level 6. This is probably the least of their concerns with accessibility though.
I've sent feedback with a developer commentary on that exit button and strongly urged them to remove opt-out style beta testing as they are not even close to ready for that. The site design visually does not look bad but they completely threw out HTML semantics to get it there instead of using CSS like they should. This HTML should have never passed internal code reviews nor internal testing.
TLDR Analysis: I do not believe screen reader users will be able to exit the beta site at all. I tried with NVDA and even with sight, the focus management was non-existent and I gave up.
On the page linked in the OP, the focus dumps you on the body element. The first tab is the skip to main content link. After that there are two list of links (one on the left and one on the right) that are glyphicons without any hidden text to announce what they really are to screen readers (end results is just the word "link" being announced back). Nothing wrong with glyphicons but they absolutely need hidden text to back them up.
There is one that will announce back which is "Sign in" since it's printed there in text. A user relying on a screen reader would have to find this and know to do a shift+tab once to land on the Exit button (announces as "link"). This requires prior knowledge of this or having a sighted user help (which defeats the purpose of web accessibility).
This is where it really hits the fan. Upon activating that Exit link, a modal pops up but focus does not go to it at all. A screen reader user will be waiting here forever and never know a modal popped up. After fumbling with tabbing through, I found the modal to be all the way at the start of the DOM which again requires either prior knowledge or a sighted user helping out.
For whatever reason the textareas have no labels and instead have heading level 4 text to mark what they are. NVDA had no idea what it was and just said it was an editable field. None of the buttons on the modal were properly labeled either and instead announce as "button" for all of them. I couldn't find any nearby items to go off of so at this point I gave up. For a final kick in the balls, the focus element was not visible to the user so sighted users that can only rely on a keyboard will probably not succeed in exiting the beta either.
Another weird design choice (going off on a mini tangent) was all the heading level 6 elements. For screen readers examining it, I'm sure you encountered a million random numbers being called out as heading levels. For each sound byte file, they coded the view, favorite, and comment counters as a heading level 6. This is probably the least of their concerns with accessibility though.
I've sent feedback with a developer commentary on that exit button and strongly urged them to remove opt-out style beta testing as they are not even close to ready for that. The site design visually does not look bad but they completely threw out HTML semantics to get it there instead of using CSS like they should. This HTML should have never passed internal code reviews nor internal testing.
geoffisblind 3 points
This is incredibly thorough, thank you for posting. I am not a full time NVDA user, it is supplementary to Zoomtext for me. /u/fastfinge is a full time screen reader user though so this may be helpful for him, tagging just in case he wasn't notified of this comment. Hopefully they take all of this into account and are able to fix it soon. Again thanks, this was a really good, well thought out comment.
fastfinge [OP] 2 points
Thanks for the post, and thanks for being another voice contacting them about the problem! Do let us know if you hear back with anything more useful than the stock email encouraging us to click the totally inaccessible exit button.
EnsignN7 1 points
I got something back that stated that it was in the works but no timeline. There was no mention of clicking the exit button though so at the very least that tells me that they are reading the feedback which is a step in the right direction. Unfortunately it does not look like they will take the advice of removing the opt-out beta style testing.
fastfinge [OP] 1 points
And that makes me doubt that any other improvements will ever be made, without an ADA threat from a lawyer. The fact that the beta didn't go through any tests at all, and they aren't interested in acting on any feedback no matter how simple (even changing a beta from opt-out to opt-in), means that the accessibility improvements are obviously at "never" on the timeline. I'm contacting the Canadian universities they partner with today; while we have no equivalent of the ADA inn Canada, they may never-the-less have there own policies about funding inaccessible projects. I doubt any of us can afford lawyers, so the best we can do is try and get organizations that fund the IA to start applying pressure.
jalbertbowden 1 points
they're on github. i was hoping to find the site and try and do this ourselves, but the repo they have for it hasn't been updated in years. gonna push this down the pipeline and see what i hear back. here's github if you care
https://github.com/internetarchive
https://github.com/internetarchive
TotesMessenger 1 points
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