Making Mapbox GL JS screenreader friendly
Gist: right now base maps - the cities and features below map overlays - don't have a text-based equivalent. They typically never have alt-text or title text to indicate what they display. Would it be worthwhile to add text? For instance, a map might have alt text like:
Map of Atlanta Georgia
Potential technical specifics:
- Could we use Mapbox GL JS's feature index to add dynamic alt text to maps
- Could we use the Geocoder to do the same, more reliably?
- Creating a non-visual alternative representation of some map data might be straightforward (e.g. a table), but what about other map information? What is the industry standard/expectation for communicating context, direction, etc., to non-sighted users?
If this isn't the best place to improve accessibility of maps, where should energy be spent instead in order to boost accessibility?