RE: 3rd try: proposal for marking up groups of links

GV wrote:
>Suggesting that the SKIP link is invisible unless graphics is turned off
however, seems to >indicate that only people who were blind and turn off
their graphics really need this fix.  The >example included a person with a
physical disability who would have to turn off graphics to take >advantage
of a "hidden" link.  
>/GV
good point.  however, a 1 pixel image that is a link will be in the tab
order.  therefore a person using a keyboard could get to it but they would
not know its use if images are loaded.  scripting could be employed on
those platforms that support it to react to focus changes to display the
alt-text.  

Perhaps we recommend that a small icon is used rather than a 1 pixel image?
 For example, it seems that the arrows used in WCAG to skip between
sections would be appropriate.  Perhaps either a right arrow or a down
arrow?  Both the title and the alt-text would need to be the same so that
if someone has images loaded and wants the tooltip, they would be able to
find out where it goes.

if we agree this is a possibility, we ought to informatlly test it with a
few users before recommending it.

--w

>-----Original Message-----
>From: w3c-wai-gl-request@w3.org [mailto:w3c-wai-gl-request@w3.org]On
Behalf Of Wendy A Chisholm
>Sent: Thursday, September 16, 1999 1:55 PM
>To: w3c-wai-gl@w3.org
>Subject: 3rd try: proposal for marking up groups of links
>
>
>Here's the revised proposal, the first proposal is available at
>
>http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/w3c-wai-gl/1999JulSep/0314.html
>the 2nd proposal was at:
>http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/w3c-wai-gl/1999JulSep/0328.html
>the original text that we are proposing to change is at:
>http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/WAI-WEBCONTENT-TECHS-19990505/#links
>
> 4.6.1 Grouping and bypassing links
>
>When a navigation bar - a set of links that appears on every page
>throughout a site
>highlighting other areas of the site - appears at the top of a page, a user
>who is
>reading the page through speech synthesis will have to listen to all of
>those links
>
>for each page they visit at the site before they get to new content. 
>Other users, such as some users with physical
>disabilities, may have to tab through all of these links to reach links
>further down the page.
>
>There are several methods that you can use to allow users to quickly pass
>groups
>of links (navigation bars, table of contents, etc.) to get to other
>portions of a page. 
>In today's browsers, you will need to
>provide a link before the group of links that will take the user to the first
>bit of text after the group of links.  In the future, using structural
>markup like the MAP
>element will allow a user agent to navigate past the group on user command.
>To support both today's
>and tomorrow's browsers, we suggest using the MAP element with
>the "title" attribute to group and label the links, plus a "skip" link
>before the group. 
>The "skip" link may be hidden using style sheets or be a 1 pixel image that
>is only
>visible by alt-text when images are not loaded.
>
>Example.
>
>In this example, the MAP element groups a set of links. The "title"
>attribute gives it a human readable label, which may be anything from
>"Credits," "QuickLinks around

>our site." The "class" attribute identifies  the group as a navigation bar
>(e.g., for style sheets). The link at the  beginning of the group  links to
>the anchor after the group.  This link will not be necessary once user
>agents allow users to jump over block content.
>
>     <HEAD>
>     <TITLE>How to use our site</TITLE>
>     </HEAD>
>     <BODY>    
>       <MAP title="Site-wide navigation bar - 12 choices" class="nav"
>name="navbar">   
>         [<A href="#how" title="Bypass the links you have seen on every
>other page and get right to the content.">Skip navigation bar.  Go to "how
>to use this site."</A>]
>         [<A href="home.html">Home</A>]
>         [<A href="search.html">Search</A>]
>         [<A href="new.html">New and highlighted</A>]
>         [<A href="sitemap.html">Site map</A>]
>         [ ... 8 other links ....]
>       </MAP>    
>       <H1><A name="how" id="how">How to use our site</A></H1>
>     <!-- content of page -->    
>     </BODY>    
> 
>  End example.
>
>other options that are not as forward or backward compatible:
>1. Provide a style sheet that allows users to hide the group of links.
>2. Provide a script that shows or hides the set of navigation links as
>desired by the user.
>
>
>wendy chisholm
>human factors engineer
>trace research and development center
>university of wisconsin - madison, USA
>

Received on Friday, 17 September 1999 14:31:52 UTC