Make HCL more accessible to (color-)blind.

[SvenSemmler]

How to file a helpful issue

The problem you're addressing (if any)

The crucial 'works' information is currently not shown as text but only as color-coding. Since I recently started using an eInk monitor I realized this must be an issue not only for me but basically everyone not able to see colors or reading the screen with other methods (screen reader).

The solution you'd like

Add a column with the 'works' information.

The value to a user, and who that user might be

Improve accessibility

[SvenSemmler]

@andrewdavidwong feel free to assign this task to me, I'll figure it out.

[andrewdavidwong]

Sounds good. Thank you for identifying this issue and volunteering to address it!

[unman]

If it helps, edbrowse has, (e.g) ``` {Lenovo ThinkPad X230 (23066CC) i7-3612QE Ivy Bridge Integrated Graphics (HD 4000)}|coreboot 4.14-1549 + ***@***.***} ``` Orca skips that empty cell. Switching up punctuation level will show the empty cell with repeated "vbar". On Firefox Orca has similar problems on row read mode with empty cells, since it doesn't indicate cell breaks. You can switch to cell read, but there's no sensible way of moving from cell to cell in that table. I'm not sure what the 'works' information is, or what would be included in the proposed column. Ensuring that every cell contained relevant text would help with screen reading. (Although this table is pretty difficult to deal with.)

[unman]

Well, that wasn't what I wanted - I forget that GitHub email parsing is interesting, to say the least.
Let's see what gh does.

here are some sample lines from edbrowse:
{Dell XPS 13 9305 i7-1165G7 Tiger Lake Integrated Graphics (Iris
Xe)}|1.0.9|yes|yes|yes|unknown|R4.1-RC3|4.14.3|5.10.76-1|Needs {suspend
troubleshooting}.|{@M4Us}

{Hewlett-Packard Z800 Xeon E5540 Tylersburg Quadro 600 & FX 580 & GeForce GTX
460}|786G5 v03.60|yes|no|yes||R3.2|4.6.4|4.4.38-11|Intel IOMMU errata|{Emer
GencyMexican}

{Lenovo ThinkPad T480 (20L6S5FM00) i7-8650U Kaby Lake Integrated Graphics (HD
620)}|N24ET72W (1.47 )|yes|yes||unknown|R4.1|4.14.5|5.15.94-1||

I hope you can see that most fields are completed and readable.
Where data is missing, orca just reads what is there, with no indication that a cell is empty, unless punctuation level is high, when the repeated "vbar" is a cue. i.e. the T480 is yes-yes-unknown ; with punctuation set, yes-vbar-yes-vbar-vbar-unknown .

[SvenSemmler]

Thanks @unman. The current table structure is Model, BIOS, HVM, IOMMU, SLAT, TPM, Qubes, Xen, Kernel, Remark, Credit which would map to ... Model = Dell XPS 13 9305 i7-1165G7 Tiger Lake Integrated Graphics (Iris Xe) BIOS = 1.0.9 HVM = yes IOMMU = yes SLAT = yes TPM = unknown Qubes = R4.1-RC3 Xen = 4.14.3 Kernel = 5.10.76-1 Remark = Needs suspend troubleshooting Credit = @M4Us The respective HCL report in YML looks like this: ``` --- layout: 'hcl' type: 'laptop' hvm: 'yes' iommu: 'yes' slat: 'yes' tpm: 'unknown' remap: 'yes' brand: | Dell model: | XPS 13 9305 bios: | 1.0.9 cpu: | 11th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-1165G7 @ 2.80GHz cpu-short: | i7-1165G7 chipset: | Intel Corporation 11th Gen Core Processor Host Bridge/DRAM Registers [8086:9a14] (rev 01) chipset-short: | Tiger Lake gpu: | Intel Corporation TigerLake-LP GT2 [Iris Xe Graphics] [8086:9a49] (rev 01) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller]) gpu-short: | Integrated Graphics (Iris Xe) network: | Intel Corporation Wi-Fi 6 AX200 (rev 1a) memory: | 16111 scsi: | usb: | 3 versions: - works: 'yes' qubes: | R4.1-RC3 xen: | 4.14.3 kernel: | 5.10.76-1 remark: | Needs <a class='ext-link' href='https://forum.qubes-os.org/t/5191'><span class='icon'></span>suspend troubleshooting</a>. credit: | @M4Us link: | https://forum.qubes-os.org/t/8354

…

--- ``` The `works` field can be either `yes`, `partial` or `no` which is currently only visually mapped to green, orange, red. Based on your examples I think this rather crucial information gets lost entirely when using a screen reader. Maybe let's have a discussion about restructuring the HCL display on the website. I have a few thoughts: 1) the `works` indication needs to be readable and not just color 2) maybe it would be helpful to have a link to the actual YML file containing all the details 3) not sure HVM, IOMMU, SLAT, TPM add much value in the table style overview 4) including the number of USB controllers and memory size would add value 5) what other steps can be taken to make this more screen reader friendly? 6) does this link read well in a screen reader? : https://raw.githubusercontent.com/QubesOS/qubes-hcl/main/Dell-XPS_13_9305-20211226-111517.yml I will spend some time understanding screen reader software and the output they produce to make sure we are doing this well.

[unman]

I was trying to emphasise the fact that *every* cell needs content, and this isn't the case currently. Actually the "Remark" cell can be blank. For the new column, can I suggest a restructure? Model Qubes Works ...... This brings the important information to the front, followed by the detail.

[SvenSemmler]

_empty fields_ Thanks, I get it now. I could "just" make sure that the data (YML files) contain something for each field, however that would easily break down if other people commit HCL reports or if at some point someone else takes over the HCL maintenance. So a change in the website code to fill in a default text in case the YML field is empty would be more robust. I'll look into that. _restructure_ Now: Model, BIOS, HVM, IOMMU, SLAT, TPM, Qubes, Xen, Kernel, Remark, Credit Proposal 1: Model, Qubes, Works, RAM, USB Ctl, Remarks, Credit, Link to YML file

[unman]

I should say that it's possible to toggle color descriptions on in edbrowse,but your proposed "Works" column would be far easier to parse.

[SvenSemmler]

Sorry, have to step back from this one.