Accessibility and Warnings

There is a Warnings tab in the Target Editor for all outputs, as well as a Build tab in the Options dialog (File > Options) for global settings. These tabs contain check boxes that let you choose whether to be informed when certain issues occur while building output. Some of these warnings are related to accessibility for the following output types:

  • HTML5 and WebHelp outputs
  • Adobe PDF
  • Eclipse Help
  • Microsoft HTML Help

In other words, the accessibility warnings let you know ways that your output may not be as accessible as it could be.

Accessibility Warnings

The following warnings are available for Adobe PDF, Eclipse Help, Microsoft HTML Help, HTML5, and the WebHelp outputs:

  • Table has no header elements
  • Table element does not contain a caption or summary
  • QR code element does not contain alt text
  • Equation element does not contain alt text
  • Image element does not contain alt text

Web Accessibility Warnings

The following additional web accessibility warnings are available for Eclipse Help, Microsoft HTML Help, and the WebHelp outputs:

  • Frame element has no title or name
  • Input element has no associated label element
  • Image button element does not contain alt text
  • Server-side image map entry found
  • Area element does not contain alt text

Taking Action on Warnings

If you receive one or more of these types of compiler warnings, what should you do? That depends on the type of warning you receive:

  • Image Elements If you receive this type of warning, you can fix the issue by editing the image and entering a description in the Alternate Text field. See Editing Images.
  • Equation Elements If you receive this type of warning, you can fix the issue by editing the equation and entering a description in the Alternate Text field. See Editing Equations.
  • QR Code Elements If you receive this type of warning, you can fix the issue by editing the QR code and entering a description in the Alternate Text field. See Editing QR Codes.
  • Tables If you receive this type of warning, you can fix the issue by editing the table properties and entering caption text (above the table) and/or adding a header row. See Editing Table Properties.
  • Form Elements If you receive this type of warning, you can fix the issue by opening the markup for the document and adding a label to the form. To edit the markup, you can use the Internal Text Editor or Notepad. For more information about working with form elements (and labels within them), see w3.org.
  • Frame Elements If you receive this type of warning, you can fix the issue by opening the markup for the document and adding a title to the frame element. To edit the markup, you can use the Internal Text Editor or Notepad. For more information about working with frame elements (and titles/names within them), see w3.org.

Ignoring Warnings

By default, all warnings (both those for accessibility and others) are enabled. However, can disable any warnings you want, telling Flare to ignore those warnings so that they do not display as such in the Builds window pane when generating output. This can be done globally for all targets in all projects. You can also override those global settings for a specific target in a project. See Ignoring Warnings When Building Output.