Re: [Fwd: [webwatch] Fw: VIP-L: online accessibility]

Re: drop-down boxes for navigation. It's great for those with a mouse, but
if you're using a GUI browser with keyboard control, the onChange event
triggers before you can arrow further down the list, effectively trapping
you on the first selection. That could be solved by just having a submit
input, as most (all?) forms should... check out (please be gentle, it's
still very much a work-in-progress, with no server support) the home page of
the site I'm designing for Michigan State University's RCPD (Resource Center
for Persons with Disabilities) at <http://www.msu.edu/~rcpd>.

As for forms, I agree it's difficult to get the sort of visual formatting
one expects without tables. I'm wrestling with this question myself. Is it
worth the time to put in <fieldset>s when they don't seem to have any
browser support other than excessively ugly rendering (in IE, for example)
effects? Sigh... Except for very simple forms, CSS just doesn't cut it here.
My guilt-relieving rationalization came when I noted that the WCAG doesn't
*absolutely prohibit* tables for layout, so if you're going to use them in a
way that makes your content more accessible to sizable portions of the
population (I think we would all agree that scanning a nicely formatted form
with use of color, lines, and grid layout is cognitively easier for most
people than an unformatted, one-dimensional layout) then I would say, go for
it.

David Holstius
holstius@msu.edu

Received on Sunday, 29 October 2000 14:46:45 UTC