- From: Pat Byrne <pat@glasgowwestend.co.uk>
- Date: Fri, 06 Jul 2001 21:25:39 +0100
- To: <w3c-wai-ig@w3.org>
Thanks Kynn, You point to some interesting stuff I have not looked at before. I should find out more about this. You say the answer is to use style sheets - but how should it work for browsers that can't use style sheets? Should I use the font element so that the site looks the same on non-stylesheet browsers, or just not do anything and have no colored navigation bars? i.e don't set a background color in the table that contains the navigation and just use the default link colors. Thanks, Pat on 6/7/01 12:56 am, Kynn Bartlett at kynn@reef.com wrote: > At 9:41 PM +0100 2001/7/05, Pat Byrne wrote: >> I asked my original question so that I could find the best and most >> accessible way of doing this. Using a navigation bar with a different >> background to the rest of the page is a popular technique with Web designers >> - rather that say to them 'no you can't do that' I'd rather be able to say >> 'here the most accessible way of doing it'. > > Going off on a tangent, here's a thought: > > CSS2 provides color keywords tied to the user's system preferences: > http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-CSS2/ui.html#system-colors > > One of the difficulties in creating navigation bars is that you want to > be able to do exactly what Pat describes here -- using different colors > to offset the navigation options. But usually it's difficult to figure > out how exactly to do that and still allow the user to set colors. > > I submit that by using the system defaults, you may actually be able > to solve that problem, by assuming (*) that the user will have set > reasonable color preferences on her operating system to allow the use > of the system -- and therefore you can use system colors in web > designs relatively safely. > > (*) This is a semi-safe assumption, because otherwise the user may have > problems using the entire system if the colors are not "safe" for her > use. > > This would be a good technique for the CSS Techniques document for > the following checkpoint: > > 2.2 Ensure that foreground and background color combinations provide > sufficient contrast when viewed by someone having color deficits or > when viewed on a black and white screen. [Priority 2 for images, > Priority 3 for text]. > > What's the catch? The catch is, as with any CSS, trying to figure out > if it's supported by the web browsers. Eric Meyer's CSS charts at > http://www.webreview.com/style/ (bookmark those if you haven't!) don't > seem to touch on this. > > --Kynn > > PS: The answer to Pat's question -- what is the accessible way to do > this? -- is to use CSS. That was easy. ;) -- Glasgow West End: Pat's Guide: http://www.glasgowwestend.co.uk Guide to all that's best in Glasgow's West End: What's On, Eating Out, Shopping, Flat Hunting, Local Characters, Classified Ads., Community Pinboard, Art for Sale and Free Photographs to download. ScotConnect: Quick to load, accessible Web sites - built with the minimum of fuss. Jim and Pat Byrne
Received on Friday, 6 July 2001 16:22:07 UTC