RE: accessible forms

Well, with a list this big I would look for ways to break it up beyond a
single menu (a list of 50 states is as frustrating as I ever want to deal
with, since I live in "other - non-US" which is almost always at the end of
things I deal with).

But there is technology that doesn't require this whole list to be traversed.
In Lynx (since the early 90s) as soon as you have selected something you can
move past the drop-down (unless you configure it otherwise, and even then you
can page through the list). Other tools do this - I would be surprised if HPR
doesn't.

Cheers

Charles

On Fri, 21 Jun 2002, Chris O'Kennon wrote:


  Is the problem, then, one of available technology?  Is there no way to code
  for an "escape" from a menu?  And, if someone uses a 200 item menu, will
  they still conform to the guidelines, or is there a "You did something too
  annoying to conform" clause?

  Chris O'Kennon
  Commonwealth of Virginia Webmaster/
  VIPNet Portal Architect
  www.myvirginia.org
  ______________________________________
  "Until you have the courage to lose sight of the shore,
  you will never know the terror of being forever lost at sea."


  > -----Original Message-----
  > From: jonathan chetwynd [mailto:j.chetwynd@btinternet.com]
  > Sent: Friday, June 21, 2002 2:46 PM
  > To: Chris O'Kennon; w3c-wai-gl@w3.org
  > Subject: Re: accessible forms
  >
  >
  > i've already suggested on many occassions that ~10 links is enough per
  > page(or form in this case) if one is going to run to
  > hundreds, then one
  > certainly needs to design a way to break them up.
  >
  > w3 uses something in the navigation at the start of a page
  > that allows one
  > to jump across links, perhaps it could include a warning, ie
  > 200 links.
  > also one really wants an escape key.
  >
  > visual navigation needs a different design criterion to auditory.
  > for instance at http://www.peepo.com i've arranged for the
  > 'frame' content
  > which is on every page (ie the alphabet) to frame the pages
  > visually, but to
  > be read last.
  >
  > in the interim, i'd recommend arranging for these long lists
  > to be at the
  > end of the page
  >
  >
  > ----- Original Message -----
  > From: "Chris O'Kennon" <chris@vipnet.org>
  > To: <w3c-wai-gl@w3.org>
  > Cc: <j.chetwynd@btinternet.com>
  > Sent: Friday, June 21, 2002 7:15 PM
  > Subject: accessible forms
  >
  >
  > >
  > > I read the client-side scripting draft [1] and the html
  > techniques for
  > wcag
  > > 1.0 [2].  I don't see anything about coding drop-down menus
  > so a user can
  > > move from the menu to the next form field without having to
  > tab through
  > > everything else in the menu.  For example, the Virginia Commonwealth
  > > Calendar [3] has several drop-down menus needed to access
  > the government
  > > meetings.  In order to select an agency, a screen reader
  > would then have
  > to
  > > go through the rest of the options before the user could go
  > to the next
  > form
  > > field.  Although this allows the application to be
  > technically used, the
  > > difficulty in going through 200 agencies makes it effectively
  > inaccessible.
  > >
  > > Could this be addressed in a future draft of the
  > client-side scripting
  > > techniques?  Or is it already there and I just missed it?
  > >
  > > [1] http://www.learningdifficulty.org/develop/w3c-scripts.html
  > > [2] http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/NOTE-WCAG10-HTML-TECHS-20000920/
  > > [3] http://www.vipnet.org/portal/cgi-bin/calendar.cgi
  > >
  > > Chris O'Kennon
  > > Commonwealth of Virginia Webmaster/
  > > VIPNet Portal Architect
  > > www.myvirginia.org
  > >
  > > ______________________________________
  > > "Until you have the courage to lose sight of the shore,
  > > you will never know the terror of being forever lost at sea."
  > >
  > >
  > >
  > >
  > >
  >
  >


-- 
Charles McCathieNevile    http://www.w3.org/People/Charles  phone: +61 409 134 136
W3C Web Accessibility Initiative     http://www.w3.org/WAI  fax: +33 4 92 38 78 22
Location: 21 Mitchell street FOOTSCRAY Vic 3011, Australia
(or W3C INRIA, Route des Lucioles, BP 93, 06902 Sophia Antipolis Cedex, France)

Received on Friday, 21 June 2002 15:21:57 UTC