Re: Techniques revision - Meaningful link names

(Excuse me for quoting the entire post.)

What you're emphasizing here is even a topic non-disabled users know,
according to various Usability studies. The more the WAI WG tries to unite
Accessibility, Usability, and even textual subjects, the more complex the
recommendation will get... and at least, you cannot inform every developer about each
topic e.g. Usability contains if you won't publish mechanisms how to test
documents / Web sites (Usability engineering).

Is this the aim of the WG? In my opinion, the WG should plan where to stop,
although it does a good and important job -- and although it might be fine,
there definitely is a border between Accessibility and Usability.


Regards,
 Jens.



> 
> 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
> 
> 
> 
> =========================
>  
> Access Empowers People...
>        ...Barriers Disable Them
>  
>         www.eramp.com 


-- 
Jens Meiert

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Received on Thursday, 7 August 2003 05:02:45 UTC