More accessible badges

[jennybc]

Since usethis is the package that adds a lot of badges to READMEs, maintainers have asked us to help make those badges more accessible to screen readers.

I suspect the best way to do this is via the badge SVGs themselves.

@gaborcsardi already added this to METACRAN's badges:

library(tidyverse)

show_aria_label <- function(badge) {
  badge %>%
    xml2::read_xml() %>%
    xml2::as_list() %>%
    pluck("svg") %>%
    attributes() %>%
    pluck("aria-label")
}

show_aria_label("https://www.r-pkg.org/badges/version/usethis")
#> [1] "CRAN 2.1.5"

show_aria_label("https://www.r-pkg.org/badges/last-release/usethis")
#> [1] "CRAN 2021-12-09"

show_aria_label("https://cranlogs.r-pkg.org/badges/usethis")
#> [1] "CRAN downloads 270K/month"

Any badge produced via https://shields.io/ is already accessible:

show_aria_label("https://img.shields.io/github/workflow/status/r-lib/usethis/R-CMD-check?label=R-CMD-check")
#> [1] "R-CMD-check: passing"

show_aria_label("https://img.shields.io/badge/my__label-my__message-orange")
#> [1] "my_label: my_message"

The features of https://shields.io/ badges mean we can often substitute an accessible badge, even if the "native" badge is not (e.g. for GitHub or Codecov). I am about to explore that idea further in a pull request.

I've already placed requests with the lifecycle package (https://github.com/r-lib/lifecycle/issues/117) and with GitHub Actions (community post, post in Actions and Packages Feedback).

[jennybc]

I'm going to try to do something about these:

• [ ] use_bioc_badge() I've reached out to Bioconductor and it looks like they can address it early in the new year.
• [x] use_cran_badge() already handled via METACRAN
• [ ] use_github_actions_badge() request made; will use shields.io in a PR
• [x] use_lifecycle_badge() usethis already writes a shields.io badge; request made for the lifecycle package to update its svgs
• [ ] usethis:::use_codecov_badge() will use shields.io in a PR

I'm not tackling these:

• use_appveyor_badge()
• use_circleci_badge()
• use_travis_badge()
• use_binder_badge()

[jennybc]

This new article contains my analysis of where things stand:

https://usethis.r-lib.org/dev/articles/badge-accessibility.html