RE: Seamless Accessibility (was Re: your mail)

Regarding  D-links- 
What about making them the same color of the background?  The screenreader
will still see it.

Cynthia D. Waddell
ADA Coordinator
City of San Jose, CA USA

> ----------
> From: 	Liam Quinn
> Sent: 	Friday, May 22, 1998 3:58 AM
> To: 	LBehrens; w3c-wai-ig@w3.org
> Subject: 	Re: Seamless Accessibility (was Re: your mail)
> 
> At 04:11 AM 22/05/98 -0700, LBehrens wrote:
> >Liam Quinn wrote:
> >> 
> >> ... D-links are obtrusive because they tell the non-visual user 
> >> that he or she is viewing a visual page ... they should only be 
> >> rendered when the user requests more information on how the page 
> >> looks visually (as with the "*" key command in Lynx).
> >> 
> >
> >Larry Behrens requests:
> >
> >Many of us are admittedly new to both the list and the finer points of 
> >accessibiility.  Could you somehow rephrase the above (for those of us 
> >who are logically impaired <G>). I thought the purpose of the D-link 
> >IS so that those who want a verbal description can get one. (?)
> 
> LQ::  The D-link is a constant reminder to the non-visual user that she is
> viewing a visual page.  A page that provides seamless accessibility makes
> the non-visual user (and every other user) feel that the page is made
> specifically for her, specifically for her browsing environment.  If you
> were writing a page specifically for a non-visual browsing environment,
> you
> would not include an image, so the seamlessly accessible page should
> appear
> to be imageless when viewed by a non-visual user.
> 
> LB::
> >Are you opining that the D-links themselves should only appear on
> >request, rather than being a constant reminder that *there's more*?
> 
> LQ::  Yes.
> 
> LB::
> >If so (and I can agree with that concept), do you have a suggestion on 
> >how that might best be done on a page?
> 
> LQ::  An author would use the LONGDESC attribute of IMG rather than an
> explicit D-link.  With OBJECTs, the author has no method to give a long
> description since there is no LONGDESC attribute on OBJECT; perhaps a
> future version of HTML will fix this.
> 
> User agents should, by default, hide long descriptions unless requested to
> show them (either all the time or for the current page).  In Lynx, the "*"
> command key should add a "[D]" or "[Desc.]" link right after the "[IMAGE]"
> (which could probably be replaced by the IMG's TITLE in brackets).  A
> graphical browser could do something similar, with the IMG's TITLE linked
> to the long description and displayed in brackets (or perhaps an inset
> frame) just after the ALT text.
> 
> -- 
> Liam Quinn
> Web Design Group            Enhanced Designs, Web Site Development
> http://www.htmlhelp.com/    http://enhanced-designs.com/
>

Received on Friday, 22 May 1998 15:11:28 UTC