Use of header elements in WCAG 2.0

Hi, all.  I'm reading through the April 24 draft.  Now that AT supports
navigation by headers (H2, H3, etc.), there's an issue about our use of
these elements in the document.  Specifically, we use the same words and
phrases in multiple places ("Examples (Informative)", "Benefits
(Informative)", etc.).  This is fine for visual presentation, but it defeats
the navigation strategies now available, e.g., in JAWS 4.01+ and HPR 3+.

In JAWS 4.01 and later, the header list works just like the Links List:
pressing Ins+F6 brings up a scrollable list of all the headers in the
document (user can choose whether or not the header level is voiced).  Like
the links list, this presents the headers out of context, so the user has to
depend on the wording to know where a given header is in the document.
Current practice doesn't allow that to happen.  Again like the Links List,
the Header List can be navigated alphabetically (that is, pressing a letter
jumps you to the next item in the list that begins with that letter).  I can
use this technique to locate all the examples (for example) or all the
benefits, but I can't tell which checkpoint I'm on.

I don't have a good solution at this point.  I know JAWS doesn't recognize a
TITLE attribute on a header element, and I don't think HPR or Window-Eyes
do, either (maybe we could encourage FS, GW Micro, IBM, DOlphin, et al., to
support this?).

John

Dr. John M. Slatin, Director
Institute for Technology and Learning
University of Texas at Austin
FAC 248, Campus mailcode G9600
Austin, TX 78712
ph 512-495-4288, fax 512-495-4524
email jslatin@mail.utexas.edu
Web http://www.ital.utexas.edu

Received on Tuesday, 30 April 2002 11:20:41 UTC