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Accessible Logi Applications

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Accessible Logi Applications

This topic discusses features in Logi managed reporting products that make applications accessible to users with cognitive impairments or disabilities.

About Section 508 and Accessibility

The Section 508 amendment to the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, a law in the United States, was enacted to eliminate barriers in information technology, to make available new opportunities for people with disabilities, and to encourage development of technologies that will help achieve these goals. The law applies to all U.S. Federal agencies when they develop, procure, maintain, or use electronic and information technology.

Section 508 raises awareness of the need to be able to create "accessible" software in order to make it available to users with cognitive impairments or other disabilities. The W3C's Web Accessibility Initiative defines the following requirements. Accessible software needs to be:

Perceivable

  • Provide text alternatives for non-text content.
  • Provide captions and other alternatives for multimedia.
  • Create content that can be presented in different ways, including by assistive technologies, without losing meaning.
  • Make it easier for users to see and hear content.

Operable

  • Make all functionality available from a keyboard.
  • Give users enough time to read and use content.
  • Avoid content that causes seizures.
  • Help users navigate and find content.

Understandable

  • Make text readable and understandable.
  • Make content appear and operate in predictable ways.
  • Help users avoid and correct mistakes.

Robust

  • Maximize compatibility with current and future user tools.

Logi Info and Logi Report provide a fully 508-compliant and 508-capable development environment. However, it's the developer's responsibility when building reports to ensure that they create 508-compliant applications. The HTML output generated by the Logi Engine can be crafted by the developer using Logi Studio to produce accessible reports and analyses.

In broad terms, this means, that developers shouldn't use elements that wouldn't pass 508-compliance testing. These include, for example, Java applets and Flash objects. Reporting and BI rely heavily on "visual" presentations, so building a 508-compliant BI application is restrictive, but very possible.

Logi Info is used in many government agencies to produce applications that are fully-compliant with 508 standards. In addition, several of our customers have commissioned 3rd-party audits of our products, which we've passed, to ensure their 508-compliance.

Specific Accessibility Features

In addition, the following specific accessibility features are available in Logi Info and Logi Report.

Accessibility Features in Logi Info and Logi Report

ElementsDescription
v11.4.046 Elements 
Fieldset Box

A container element that wraps its contents in a single-line rectangle with a caption at the top left. Facilitates use of screen readers, in particular with grouped input elements such as Input Checkbox and Input Radio Buttons.

v11.3.049 Elements 

Data Table

Includes an Accessible Headers attribute which, when enabled, adds the headers attribute to the <TD> tag. This is another way to associate data cells and headers, even though scope is usually sufficient for most tables.

In very complex tables, scope may cause table headers to apply to (be "scoped for") cells that aren't associated with that header. In these cases, headers and id may make the table accessible to a screen reader user.

With this approach, every <TH> tag is assigned a unique id attribute value. Then, each and every <TD> cell within the table is given a headers attribute with values that match each <TH> id value the cell is associated to.

Data Table
Crosstab Table

Includes an Accessible Summary attribute, which adds the summary attribute to the <TABLE> tag. The arbitrary text you enter in this element attribute, which usually describes the table's contents or purpose and functions like an extended table title, is consumed by screen readers. It has no visual effect in browsers.

Interactive Paging

Includes four attributes to support Alternate Text:

The First Page Alternate Text, Last Page Alternate Text, Next Page Alternate Text, and Previous Page Alternate Text attributes specify text to be displayed by browsers with their image display disabled and by screen readers. Their default values are, respectively, First page, Last page, Next page, and Previous page.

Label

Includes two attributes for improved accessibility:

Label caption text is usually generated in our HTML as plain text. With the use of the Html Tag attribute, the text will be generated enclosed in opening and closing tags of the specified variety. You can select a tag type from a list of common options or just type one in (just the tag name, do not include its < and > brackets).

The For attribute improves accessibility with some browsers. When a Label is used as the caption of an input element, the For attribute specifies which form element the label is bound to. Set it to the ID of its related input element. Here's an example of the generated HTML when this attribute is given a value of male:

    <label for="male">Male</label>
    <input type="radio" name="sex" id="male" value="male">


A benefit of using Labels for input captions is that the user can click on the label itself to set focus to the form element. This is useful to some with motor disabilities, particularly when selecting small checkboxes and radio buttons.

Report Root

Includes a Language attribute which can be used to declare the language of a web page, in order to assist search engines and browsers. For example, once this attribute is set, this HTML will be generated:

    <HTML lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">


The language should be specified using one of the ISO 639-1 language codes.

User Input

If a Caption attribute value is provided, all User Input elements generate a Label tag with a For attribute to display the caption. This associates the caption with the UI element. For example, the HTML generated might be:

    <label for="name">Name:</label>
    <input id="name" type="text" name="textfield">


A benefit of using Labels for input captions is that the user can click on the label itself to set focus to the form element. This is useful to some with motor disabilities, particularly when selecting small checkboxes and radio buttons.

v11.2.040 Elements 
Image

Unless an Alternate Text attribute value is provided, this element generates a tag that includes a blank "alt" attribute: <IMG alt="">

Data Table Column

Includes a Scope Row Header attribute which, when enabled, includes header information for each HTML row generated, changing <TD> tags to <TH scope="Row"> tags. This attribute tells the browser and screen reader that everything within a column that is associated to the header with scope="col" in that column, and that a cell with scope="row" is a header for all cells in that row.

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