Asking the internet: blog accessibility

[sami]

So, I'm gradually nudging my Proper Blog into shape, which includes having just changed the (WordPress) theme because the one I had did not work at all for posting pictures, for a start.

My new theme is a *bit* flawed - I don't love the colours, mostly - but it has nice clean lines, variable width, and is (or claims to be) accessible for screenreaders etc.

I don't have a screen reader thingy, so I'm not sure how I verify this.

Which results in two primary questions to ask the internet:

1) Is there some kind of website or the like that, I don't know, has a script that can check your page and tell you if it's genuinely accessible?

I'd like it to be - for purely abstract reasons, realistically, since at present I'm fairly sure no-one at all reads my Proper Blog, and therefore no matter how high, the proportion of my blog readership that might prefer accessible web design still works out to zero people. But as I put content there and stuff people might start reading it, you never knwo.

2) What's the best way to make image tags be helpful on this point? I'd like to include a description of images I post, for the benefit of people who for whatever reason can't see the images themselves, but I like elegance in things. Is it alt text, or what, that I should be using to try and include that data in the tag, where it won't break into the flow of post text?

Or is that not possible? In which case the question becomes: If I put image descriptions in a smaller font, so they seem (to me) less intrusive, is that going to interfere in any way with accessibility, or does that not matter?


Seriously, nobody reads my Proper Blog, so this isn't important, but at the same time, I AM CURRENTLY A CRAZY PERSON AND MY BRAIN HAS FIXATED ON THIS BEING VERY IMPORTANT so I'm asking the internet.


And no, it's not an ablist thing to make reference to craziness, I am a person with some mental illness issues who is completely off her meds and not able to take more for another couple of days, I am, in fact and actually, currently as crazypants as any one person can realistically get away with.

Comments

[velithya]

I think it's alt text.

[susanreads]

Lynx Viewer shows you approximately what your web pages will look like in a text-only browser; if it makes sense in that, I think it would work in a screen-reader. I'd try that in the first instance, but I suspect the only way to tell for sure is to ask someone who has one. Have you looked in dw_accessibility?

I got the Lynx Viewer link from the accessibility course that amadi, I think, pointed me at; they have a page about alt text, Providing text equivalents for images, and advice on making sure people don't have to listen to all your navigational links before getting to the content.