J the Z on CSS transparency and Jaws

We have Jeffrey Zeldman making this impassioned plea:

<http://www.zeldman.com/daily/0203c.shtml#cssbgproblems>

>We would encourage the makers of JAWS to reconsider the value of 
>observing CSS rules from which their users cannot possibly benefit 
>short of divine intervention in the form of a miraculous restoration 
>of sight (in which case, they would no longer need JAWS).

Now, what is J the Z talking about?

Doug Bowman, who is just a young fella, and who verily radiates 
goodness, and really should be much more gainfully employed down in 
San Francisco, had written a stunningly clever explanation of how to 
use images that disappear in non-CSS environments to reveal 
straight-text heading elements:

<http://www.stopdesign.com/articles/css/replace-text/>

...since updated to include the bits about screen-reader support of 
CSS, which I hipped Doug to the other day. In my opinion, the 
distinction here is between display: none, which essentially exempts 
the item from the page, and visibility: none, but they don't behave 
the same way. At any rate, Doug also writes:

<http://www.stopdesign.com/log/default.asp?date=20030313>
<http://www.stopdesign.com/log/default.asp?date=20030314>

All the leading-edge standards-compliant development of highly 
accessible but also visually sophisticated sites is coming from 
*indie* developers, the kind whom WAI-IG subscribers really ought to 
read more. The blogrolls of Zeldman, Tantek Çelik, and Craig Saila 
are good places to start.

<http://www.zeldman.com/#outside2>
<http://tantek.com/log/> (I cannot figure out his page-anchor structure)
<http://www.saila.com/columns/lcky/> (ditto)
-- 

     Joe Clark | joeclark@joeclark.org
     Accessibility <http://joeclark.org/access/>
     Weblogs and articles <http://joeclark.org/weblogs/>
     <http://joeclark.org/writing/> | <http://fawny.org/>

Received on Friday, 14 March 2003 16:28:24 UTC