RE: Re-post: Influence of valid code on screen readers

Regarding Joe Clark's email sent Monday, June 13, 2005 @4:34PM: I'd like
to chime in and affirm the idea that valid code *is* an accessibility
issue. 

I have had examples where incorrect HTML coding has caused the screen
reader to not gain access to the information presented in a web browser.
Nested tables and comments within tables caused the information to be
inaccessible. Pushing the code through a validation (W3C validator in
this instance) and changing a few tags to produce valid HTML 'fixed' the
problem.

I'm not sure if it was the browser, the assistive technology, or a
combination of the two that caused the defect, but changing the source
HTML and reloading the page provided access. That is to say whatever the
state of the assistive technology, the operating system, or the browser,
it was the same in both instances and valid code was the solution to
provide access.

I would have liked to provide more than anecdotal evidence but I don't
have a record of the code. I'll try to capture it an provide it as an
example if I can reproduce.

Regards,


Norman B. Robinson
Section 508 Coordinator 
IT Governance, US Postal Service

Received on Tuesday, 14 June 2005 12:01:52 UTC