- From: Jason White <jasonw@ariel.ucs.unimelb.EDU.AU>
- Date: Sun, 9 Nov 1997 19:01:17 +1100 (AEDT)
- To: HTML Guidelines Working Group <w3c-wai-gl@w3.org>
When accessing the web via a braille display, I would prefer that bullets indicating list items be represented by the asterisk character, as in Lynx 2.7.1. In such a case, it would be best to use the UL and LI elements, and a null ALT value if the bullet is to be represented by an image. For example: <ul> <li> <img alt="" src="bullet.jpg"> Item 1 [...] </ul> Unfortunately, braille displays are often overlooked when designing HTML access guidelines. This situation also indicates that the sooner audio and braille style sheet mechanisms are implemented, the easier it will be for HTML authors to design their documents in such a way as to meet everyone's needs. If the word "item" preceded every item in a list, this would undoubtedly be detrimental to the efficiency with which the document could be read via a 40-cell braille display, even if the software is configured to apply braille contractions automatically. The fact that solutions which are appropriate for speech synthesizers are not necessarily convenient when when using a braille display, and that such conventions are different again from those which are most effective on screen or in print, highlights the need for a flexible and sophisticated style sheet mechanism for controlling the presentation of HTML documents.
Received on Sunday, 9 November 1997 03:01:39 UTC