Re: Markup to Support Navigation

I believe we talked on the list about several techniques and one is
documented in the techniques document under "4.6.1 Grouping and bypassing
links" at http://www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT-TECHS/#group-bypass

TABLE summary="type of table" technique proposal:

In addition to the "skip navigation links" I also add a summary attribute
to the TABLE element that is used to layout the navigation links.  I use
the summary attribute in the same way I use the title attribute on frames,
to provide the user with a summary of the table - in this case, some
collection of links for navigation purpose.  For example, if it is a site's
footer navigation bar, I put TABLE summary="footer navigation".  I use the
summary attribute because it is support by more user agents and assistive
technologies, while title attribute is not as popular.  When the user is in
the layout table, they could ask for "where am I" and the assistive
technology announces the summary.  I would only use headers if it were a
more complex navigation bar with two levels - which I wouldn't recommend in
the first place.  The more common approach is to have a site or company
wide header navigation under the mast head, a side bard navigation for the
local topic or brand, and a footer navigation for the copyright and legal
links.  For really complex sites there may also be a right-hand
sub-navigation bar in addition to the left-hand side navigation.  Each
TABLE element would have the appropriate summary attribute identifying the
navigational purpose of the group of links.  There are other possible
schemes that might follow the spec, [SPAN, DIV, title=, etc.] but none that
I know of that really work today.

Regards,
Phill Jenkins

Received on Tuesday, 14 March 2000 12:51:22 UTC