RE: Can't see selection highlights

I don't have an answer for you at all, I too just hope that keyboard 
support gets better with future releases!  A couple of my own related 
experiences:

1)	Yup, can't beat Lynx for keyboard access to links.

2)	Adding a screen reader seems to make more links accessible by keyboard 
(without using the screen reader hot keys).  I am not sure why this should 
be, but at least part of it is that the speech tells where the focus is -- 
even if there is no visual cue.  More and more libraries are offering 
"adapted" workstations, so maybe this is a partial solution.

3)	It would be nice if scrolling (Page Up/Down) had some logical effect on 
where the Tab key picked up from.

4)	At the very least, internal document links should effect the Tab order.

Example:
Imagine a single page that is basically a categorized list of annotated 
links.  At the beginning of the document is a table of contents (this ToC 
might even be repeated after each major section).  Selecting the link for, 
say, #section_5 scrolls you to the middle of the document.  Great, you see 
that what you want is the first link under Section 5, so you press the Tab 
key one more time expecting to go select (what is now) the first link on 
the screen...  Whoops, you are back to the beginning of the document, still 
in the ToC menu -- with the link for #section_6 selected!  There is no easy 
way to skip over through the (hundreds maybe) links in Sections 1, 2, 3, 
and 4 before getting to the ones you want!  On work around for this is to 
use the "Find (on this page)" feature of your browsers.

An example (from a library no less) of a page that has this problem can be 
found at:  http://www.pratt.lib.md.us/databases/

Bruce

On Thursday, July 22, 1999 12:21 PM, Leonard R. Kasday 
[SMTP:kasday@acm.org] wrote:
> The major browsers, Navigator, Explorer, Opera, allow you to tab through
> links.  This is crucial for people who have difficulty with a mouse.
>
> You can see where you are clearly with Opera but it's hard to see for
> Navigator and Explorer, even for people with average vision.  So a person
> who doesn't have access to Opera, e.g. at a public library, is out of 
luck.
>
> Is there a way to make the highlight easier to see?
>
> Putting windows in high contrast mode helps sometimes, but not always. 
 For
> example, at least in black on white mode, it doesn't work with the blue
> bordered buttons at
>
> http://www.research.temple.edu/
>
> Also, this mode loses colors and magnifies the text.
>
> Lynx is also superb in this respect... but not usable of course with the
> many pages that fail to follow accessibility guidelines.
>
> Len
> -------
> Leonard R. Kasday, Ph.D.
> Universal Design Engineer, Institute on Disabilities/UAP, and
> Adjunct Professor, Electrical Engineering
> Temple University
>
> Ritter Hall Annex, Room 423, Philadelphia, PA 19122
> kasday@acm.org
> (215} 204-2247 (voice)
> (800) 750-7428 (TTY)

Received on Thursday, 22 July 1999 13:42:14 UTC