Re: Techniques for 3.3.6 Orientation to Frames

As an asside on this topic, I was shocked to find that both Lynx and HPR ignore
the title attribute and use the name if present, src otherwise.

Jim Thatcher
IBM Special Needs Systems
www.ibm.com/sns
HPR Documentation page: http://www.austin.ibm.com/sns/hprdoc.html
thatch@us.ibm.com
(512)838-0432


Jon Gunderson <jongund@staff.uiuc.edu> on 10/05/99 02:34:10 PM

To:   w3c-wai-ua@w3.org
cc:   ij@w3.org
Subject:  Techniques for 3.3.6 Orientation to Frames




3.6.6 Frames

Frames were originally designed for use by graphical user interfaces to allow
the graphical view to be broken up into independently controllable views of
documents on the same page.  Actions in one frame can change the contents of
another set of frames in a frame set.  For people who use speech, refreshable
Braille and magnified views need to have access to the frame information.

Users need to know:
a. Are frames present in the document?
b. If there are frames, how many?
c. What (if any) descriptive information is available about the frame?
d. Which frame has the current programmatic focus?

This information should be available through the DOM and appropriate
accessibility interfaces.  Using DOM and operating specific accessibility API
to expose frame information provides one means for assistive technologies to
provide alterantive control of frames and rendering of frame information. The
user agent should fully implement the DOM level 1 recommendations related to
FRAME elements, including:

HTMLFrameSetElement
http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-DOM-Level-1/level-one-html.html#ID-43829095

HTMLFrameElement
http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-DOM-Level-1/level-one-html.html#ID-98869594

HTMLIFrameElement
http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-DOM-Level-1/level-one-html.html#ID-50708718

For people with visual impairments who are enlarging fonts on the screen to
improve readability, frames become distorted and unusable.  Other users with
cognitive disabilities sometimes become disoriented when frames are rendered
simultaneously.  To improve access to frames user agents should allow frames to
be viewed as a list so the user can identify the number of frames and the
functions of each frame.   If no frames information is present it should also
be rendered so the user can optionally use that view of the information.

The following HTML code is used to illustrate accessible frames:
<HTML>

 <HEAD>
<META NAME="GENERATOR"
 CONTENT="Microsoft Internet Assistant for PowerPoint 97">
<TITLE>Time Value of Money</TITLE>
</HEAD>

<FRAMESET COLS="*, 388">

<FRAMESET ROWS="51,*">
<FRAME SRC="sizebtn.html" MARGINHEIGHT="5" MARGINWIDTH="1" NAME="Size buttons"
TITLE="Size buttons">
<FRAME SRC="outlinec.html" MARGINHEIGHT="4" MARGINWIDTH="4" NAME="Presentation
Outline" TITLE="Presentation Outline">
</FRAMESET>

<FRAMESET ROWS="51, 280, *">
<FRAME SRC="navbtn.html" MARGINHEIGHT="5" MARGINWIDTH="1" NAME="Navigation
buttons" TITLE="Navigation buttons">
<FRAME SRC="slide001.html" MARGINHEIGHT="0" MARGINWIDTH="0" NAME="Slide Image"
TITLE="Slide Image">
<FRAME SRC="note001.html" NAME="Notes" TITLE="Notes">
</FRAMESET>

</FRAMESET>
<NOFRAMES>

<BODY>
<P>List of Presentation Slides</P>
<OL>
<LI><A HREF="slide001.html"> Time Value of Money </A><BR>
</LI>
<LI><A HREF="slide002.html"> Topic Overview </A><BR>
</LI>
<LI><A HREF="slide003.html"> Terms and Short Hand
</A><BR>
</LI>
<LI><A HREF="slide004.html"> Future Value of a Single CF
</A><BR>
</LI>
<LI><A HREF="slide005.html"> Example 1: FV example:The
NBA&#146;s new Larry Bird exception </A><BR>
</LI>
<LI><A HREF="slide006.html"> FV Example: NBA&#146;s Larry
Bird Exception (cont.) </A><BR>
</LI>
<LI><A HREF="slide007.html"> SuperStar&#146;s Contract
Breakdown </A><BR>
</LI>
<LI><A HREF="slide008.html"> Present Value of a Single
Cash Flow </A><BR>
</LI>
<LI><A HREF="slide009.html"> Example 2: Paying Jr, and
A-Rod </A><BR>
</LI>
<LI><A HREF="slide010.html"> Example 3: Finding Rate of
Return or Interest Rate </A><BR>
</LI>
<LI><A HREF="slide011.html"> Annuities </A><BR>
</LI>
<LI><A HREF="slide012.html"> FV of Annuities </A><BR>
</LI>
<LI><A HREF="slide013.html"> PV of Annuities </A><BR>
</LI>
<LI><A HREF="slide014.html"> Example 4: Invest Early in
an IRA </A><BR>
</LI>
<LI><A HREF="slide015.html"> Example 4 Solution </A><BR>
</LI>
<LI><A HREF="slide016.html"> Example 5: Lotto Fever
</A><BR>
</LI>
<LI><A HREF="slide017.html"> Uneven Cash Flows: Example
6:Fun with the CF function </A><BR>
</LI>
<LI><A HREF="slide018.html"> Example 6 CF worksheet
inputs </A><BR>
</LI>
<LI><A HREF="slide019.html"> CF inputs continued
</A><BR>
</LI>
<LI><A HREF="slide020.html"> Non-Annual Interest
Compounding </A><BR>
</LI>
<LI><A HREF="slide021.html"> Example 7: What rate are
you really paying? </A><BR>
</LI>
<LI><A HREF="slide022.html"> Nominal to EAR Calculator
</A><BR>
</LI>
<LI><A HREF="slide023.html"> Continuous Interest
Compounding </A><BR>
</LI>
<LI><A HREF="slide024.html"> FV and PV with non-annual
interest compounding </A><BR>
</LI>
<LI><A HREF="slide025.html"> Non-annual annuities
</A><BR>
</LI>
<LI><A HREF="slide026.html"> Example 8: Finding Monthly
Mortgage Payment </A><BR>
</LI>
<LI><A HREF="slide027.html"> solution to Example 8
</A><BR>
</LI>
</OL>
<!--  The text to be displayed when the browser does not support frames -->
</BODY>
</NOFRAMES>
</HTML>

This following is a rendering of this code using Microsoft Internet Explorer
5.0

**** insert image: finance-frame-explorer.gif ****
ALT=?Image shows a web page with five frame panes in Microsoft Internet
Explorer?

A configuration option in the user agent could allow the user to render the
information as a list of links.  The following two examples indicate how Lynx
and IBM Home Page reader render frame sets.  The TITLE (NAME can be used it
TITLE is missing) attributes are used to label each of the frames.  The
NOFRAMES information is rendered after the links to the frames.

*** insert image: finance-frame-lynx.gif ****
ALT=?Image shows a web page with five links for each of the frame elements in
the lynx browser?

*** insert image: finance-frame-hpr.gif  ****
ALT=?Image shows a web page with five links for each of the frame elements in
IBM home page reader?

Another way to indicate the number of frames in a document and which frame has
the focus is to use the menu bar or popup menus.  Users can configure the user
agent to include a FRAMES menu item in their menu bar.  The use of the menu bar
makes the information highly visible to all users and is very accessible to
assistive technologies.  In the following example the menu bar indicates the
number of frames and a check next to the name of the frame element indicates
which frame has the current focus.

*** insert image: finance-frame-awb.gif ****

ALT=?Image shows a pull down menu indicating the number of frames in a
document, the labels associated with each frame and a check mark to indicate
the frame with the current focus ?

Jon Gunderson, Ph.D., ATP
Coordinator of Assistive Communication and Information Technology
Chair, W3C WAI User Agent Working Group
Division of Rehabilitation - Education Services
University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign
1207 S. Oak Street
Champaign, IL 61820

Voice: 217-244-5870
Fax: 217-333-0248
E-mail: jongund@uiuc.edu
WWW: http://www.staff.uiuc.edu/~jongund
          http://www.w3.org/wai/ua
          http://www.als.uiuc.edu/InfoTechAccess

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Received on Tuesday, 5 October 1999 15:10:15 UTC