Techniques revision - Meaningful link names

Hi Mike & Ben

One of our action items was to check with people who use screen reader and
ask their reasons for using the dialogue box that lists links.  This was in
view of possibly slackening the techniques about having "meaningful names
for links."  One suggestion on the techniques phone call was that using a
list box of Headings is a better way for Screen Reader users to understand
the overall page and therefore we could slacken the need for meaningful
links names (e.g., "details" after a paragraph) 

I just got off the phone with Harry Monk who is the Regional Director of the
Canadian Human Rights Commission.  He is a blind Jaws user.  He said he uses
the Headings lists frequently and finds them to be an excellent aid.
However he also frequently pulls up the dialogue box that lists links that
are on the page.  He says his reasons for using this "links" dialogue box
are distinct from the reasons he uses a Headings dialogue box in Jaws.
(i.e., he knows that there is a link on the page to a site that he wants to
visit but doesn't know where it is.)  He says it would be a mistake to allow
the justification of links with names such as "more details" into the
techniques document.  He says that meaningful link names make the page more
accessible regardless of whether there are properly laid out headings. His
words were "I'm just delighted when a site makes maximum us of both Headings
AND meaningful links names."

He gave examples of poorly designed sites and it appears to me that these
examples are precisely the kind brought forward as a circumstance where it
might be appropriate to use the word "details".  Yet he had trouble
navigating it.

http://www.vancouverfoundation.bc.ca/

Another similar example is the Canadian newspaper that has headlines with a
short description of the article and then a link entitled "full story".  He
said this was very difficult to navigate.
http://www.globeandmail.com/ 

So I recommend that we not justify any use ambiguous link names.

Cheers
David MacDonald



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Received on Wednesday, 6 August 2003 14:16:51 UTC