about:startpage: Missing alt text on "Google" image

[Alan Jenkins]

Noticed while using a screen-reader - using "1" to skip to the level 1 header - it reads "link heading level 1", and nothing else.

It's image that says Google, it's used as the level 1 heading, and it acts as a link to google.com. It should probably have an alt text of "Google" :-).

That would also fix the appearance when "load images automatically" is disabled (preferences -> content). A bit like the screen-reader, it leaves you with less information that you should have - and also the image is still there, as a link, so you get a mysterious patch of white space that turns out to be a link if you move the cursor over it.

I think there are other possible improvements as well. There would ideally be a label associated with the search text box, which the screen reader would read to provide some context. You probably don't want just "Google"; you want to say "Google search". (ARIA hint: aria-labelled-by="id-of-google-image id-of-search-button" sounds cool).

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.04
Package: firefox 5.0+build1+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.11.04.2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.38-8.42-generic 2.6.38.2
Uname: Linux 2.6.38-8-generic x86_64
Architecture: amd64
Date: Tue Jun 28 11:40:57 2011
FirefoxPackages:
 firefox 5.0+build1+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.11.04.2
 flashplugin-installer N/A
 adobe-flashplugin N/A
 icedtea-plugin N/A
ProcEnviron: SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: firefox
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to natty on 2011-06-19 (8 days ago)

[Micah Gersten (micahg)]

Thank you for reporting this to Ubuntu. This is actually a problem with Ubuntu Start Page itself, so I opened a task against that project. I am therefore closing the Firefox task since there's nothing for us to fix there. Please report any other issues you may find.

[Martin Albisetti (beuno)]

Since the logo is embedded from CSS, how do you propose we add alt text? Is there anything else we can do for screen readers?

[Alan Jenkins (aj504)]

Perhaps you have answered your own question :).

I don't know what the best solution is, just that it's wrong at the moment. <h1> should never be empty! (even if later styled by CSS).

That said, I'm looking at the vanilla Firefox about:startpage at the moment. (Not deliberately; I just seem not to be using ubufox). The source code doesn't include any <style> elements or attributes, and the images stay visible after View->Page Style->None. It uses <img> tags. If you look at the javascript (chrome://browser/content/aboutHome.js), you'll see how they populate the img src & alt attributes. It looks reasonable enough to me.