- From: Lisa Seeman <seeman@netvision.net.il>
- Date: Fri, 22 Sep 2000 14:21:10 +0200
- To: <w3c-wai-gl@w3.org>
Here are the changes suggested by William, with the exemption of "gathering" [from 3.5]"...provide abbreviated labels..." [from 3.10]"...provide expansions for abbreviations and acronyms..." were I felt it was separate points. I am now handing in back to Wendy and Jason. Yours, L 3, Design for ease of comprehension 3.1 Use a consistent style of presentation that will facilitate comprehension of the content. The purpose of presentation is to communicate the meaning of the content, as effectively as possible. Thus, to aid understanding, it is vital that the structure and semantics of the content be readily apparent from the presentational conventions chosen by the author. Use color, styles, and graphics to emphasize the structure of the document, and to aid the user's ability to: a) orient himself within the document, b) focus on the important elements of the document, c) differentiate between a key element and the explanatory or supplementary material. 3.2 Divide large blocks of information into more manageable groups where natural and appropriate. For example, a) Divide user interface controls into logically organized groups. Use headings, paragraphs, lists etc., appropriately to communicate relationships among items, topics or ideas. b) Paragraphs and sections should have clear, accurate, and informative headers. c) Processing information can further made manageable by limiting each paragraph to one main idea. The topic of the paragraph can be specified (within a tag?) at the beginning of the sentence. 3.3 Use the clearest and simplest language appropriate for a site's content. This guideline is intended to facilitate comprehension of the content by all readers, especially those with cognitive disabilities. It should not be interpreted as discouraging the expression of complex or technical ideas. Authors should however strive for clarity and simplicity in their writing, and review the text with these considerations in mind prior to publication on the web. 3.4 Supplement text with graphic or auditory presentations where they will facilitate comprehension of the content. Auditory and graphical presentations can do much for improving the comprehensibility of a Web site, especially to people with cognitive disabilities or to those who are unfamiliar with the language in which the textual content is written. Particularly helpful are clear, uncluttered, minimalist diagrams representing the association and relationships between different ideas. In contrast, diagrams that are designed to represent multiple layers of ideas, are often cluttered and confusing. Note that material provided in auditory or visual forms must also be available as text (see guideline 1.1). 3.5 Use headings, labels and titles appropriately to identify structurally significant divisions within the content. For example: a) Use headings to identify important topics b) Use headings to identify subdivisions c) Label table headers, d) Label user interface controls e) Label complex structures within the content. Note that in addition to full, descriptive labels, it may also be appropriate, in designing complex structures such as tables and forms, to provide abbreviated labels which can be used when the content is rendered on small displays or via speech output. 3.6 Provide an overview or summary of highly structured materials, such as tables and groups of user interface controls. A structure should be considered complex, if it is not immediately obvious what each piece of information is, and the reason for its position within the structure. Insinuations and trends that are intended to be identified by analyzing the structure, should be explicitly stated in the summary. 3.7 Define key terms, and provide expansions for abbreviations and acronyms, which should be identified using appropriate markup. Note: only the first occurrence of an abbreviation or acronym occurring in a document need be expanded. Expansion dictionaries, for instance in metadata, may be provided as an alternative to an expansion in the text of a document. 3.8 Minimize content that will interfere with the user’s ability to focus. Animations and banners frequently disorient the user and interfere with the user’s ability to focus from the main content of the page. This can be improved by: a) Restricting these items to one section of the page to help the user retain focus. b) For a content-filled site, providing an optional banner-free view". 4, Design for ease of browsing and navigation 4.1 Provide clear and consistent navigation mechanisms throughout a document or web site. Such navigational mechanisms may include logically organized groups of hypertext links, an overview or table of contents, a site map (with an appropriate textual equivalent; see guideline 1.1), an index, etc. To help the User’s navigate, navigational mechanism should be: a) easy to locate within the over-all structure of the content. b) consistent across web pages or related documents. c) contain links that are placed on a phrase that explains the link, and not on generic phrases. Navigation techniques can also be employed to help the user skim a document, examples of this includes inpage anchors at each heading, grouping collections of links and allowing them to be bypassed. 4.2 If search functions are provided by a web site, enable different types of searches for different skill levels and preferences. elaborating text.? 4.3 Avoid methods that interfere with navigation. Practices that can disorient a visitor include a) automatic refresh, b) redirecting, c) opening a new browser window, d) frames that mess up the "back" functionality offered by browsers. To improve this situation, use the name attribute to title each frame for orientation, avoid opening new windows, and always use a readable document as the frame source. Note: (See guideline 1.1) Ensure that all links have a textual equivalents. Examples include buttons and clickable images. Image maps should be defined client side. Use the "alt" parameter on all <area> tags. A server side image map should have alternative links. For example: alt="Server side site map, text links will follow".
Received on Friday, 22 September 2000 07:27:39 UTC