Re: More questions about Lotus notes and Domino

Phill,

I'll make this simple. Use IE to tab to a twistie. The assitive technology will
say what is in the box and that is it. Tell me why a "twistie" need to be
associated with a label. There is absolutely no rule that tells the user that
this is a "twistie" and what to say with it. There is not enough semantic
information. This is a limitation of mainstay screen reading technology today
and the WAI HTML guidelines. We might suggest to the WAI group that we create a
labelFor for tag. This might also help with FORM element labeling. For example
this HTML object or text is a label for this other HTML object. Here is a
possible implementation for a twistie if we were to suggest such an
implemenation:

<A HREF="http:..." NAME="foo"> <IMG SRC="twistieexpand.gif"  ALT="+"><LABELFOR
TARGETNAME="foo">List of WAI Gurus</LABELFOR>

>I agree it might be easier if the +/- link include the adjacent text label
when viewing only links.  Is that what you >want Notes/Domino to do?

Yes, for twisties that is true. This was suggested solution before.

>Why is + or - next to a text label hard to use with a screen reader?  Whether
visually or aurally browsing, I have to >associate the "twistie" with text
label. Similar to bullets in a list, only twistie's have a function other than
>identifying them as a list item...

Bullets in a list are implemented by known browser images in which case this
could be hacked. Secondly the HTML source tells you that these are explicity
list items i.e: <LI>. ... hence semantic information through known tags in the
context of a list ordered or not.

You can take this off the WAI IG list if you believe that there is no need for
suggesting a labelfor tag definition. This seems a logical extension given all
the descriptive text added for tables.

Rich

Rich Schwerdtfeger
Lead Architect, IBM Special Needs Systems
Screen Reader/Java Development
internet: schwer@us.ibm.com



Phill Jenkins
08/07/98 06:06 PM
To: rich@accessexpressed.net
cc: w3c-wai-ig@w3.org (bcc: Richard Schwerdtfeger/Austin/IBM)
From:
Subject: Re: More questions about Lotus notes and Domino


Rich,
Your said  "This is hard to use with a screen reader."

Why is + or - next to a text label hard to use with a screen reader?  Whether
visually or aurally browsing, I have to associate the "twistie" with text
label. Similar to bullets in a list, only twistie's have a function other than
identifying them as a list item...

I agree it might be easier if the +/- link include the adjacent text label when
viewing only links.  Is that what you want Notes/Domino to do?

Since this is a specific topic - I would like to take this discussion off the
wai-ig interest list.

You also said:
"I'm still a bit unclear as to the relationship between Notes and Domino.
Which is the publishing environment? I've been assuming that Domino is Lotus'
webserver, simmilar to Apatchy and etc. It just serves pages. The
publishing environment is Notes..."

Domino is NOT just a Web server, it does handle some of the publishing task
because it knows all about Notes and the application you've designed.  I would
also recommend the following to anyone who wants to understand more:

http://www.lotus.com/home.nsf/welcome/redbook

Developing Web Applications Using Lotus Notes Designer for Domino 4.6

This redbook describes how to develop applications using Notes Designer for
Domino Release 4.6, specifically for users accessing Domino from Web browsers.
Domino combines the open networking environment of Internet standards and
protocols with the powerful application development facilities of Lotus Notes,
enabling you to develop a broad range of business applications for the Internet
and intranet.

The earlier chapters of the book introduce the concepts of Domino and creating
Web applications using Domino, for those readers who may be familiar with Web
application development but not necessarily with using Lotus Notes/Domino for
that development.

The book then describes how to use Domino design elements such as databases,
forms, subforms, views, navigators, and agents to create Web applications.
Other chapters illustrate how to include traditional Web development items,
such as HTML, Java and JavaScript, in Domino applications.

The redbook was written for Domino technical specialists and programmers in
customers, IBM business partners, and the IBM and Lotus community, who need a
good technical understanding of how to develop Web applications using Domino
Release 4.6.

Regards,
Phill Jenkins

Received on Saturday, 8 August 1998 11:28:32 UTC