RE: putting reader text in hidden <div> tags / adding pauses

I've been unable to get JAWS 3.7 to render content that is contained in a
"display:none" div element. 

Though the original poster's experience is consistent with mine regarding it
not displaying in Opera, IE, and Netscape, at least in Windows. 

-----Original Message-----
From: David Poehlman
To: wai-ig list
Sent: 12/1/2001 8:07 AM
Subject: Fw: putting reader text in hidden <div> tags / adding pauses


The original senders address was not available but I thought this a
worthy question to toss out.

 -----Original Message-----
 From: owner-basr-l@trace.wisc.edu
[mailto:owner-basr-l@trace.wisc.edu]On
> Behalf Of Rand, Robert
 Sent: Friday, November 30, 2001 9:01 AM
> To: 'basr-l@trace.wisc.edu'
 Subject: putting reader text in hidden <div> tags / adding pauses

Hi, I'm a web developer for a federal agency website and a newcomer to
this
list. We are experimenting with adding text for for screen readers to
our
 home page and index pages that is hidden from the visual browser window
with
 the following coding:

<div style="display:none;">reader text goes here. . . .</div>

I have verified that Netscape 4.7, Explorer 5, and Opera 5.12 won't show
the
hidden text visually but that IBM Home Page Reader will read the text.
We
haven't yet tested the coding with JAWS.
 Is anyone else using this coding or can someone recommend another
approach?

 What prompted this experimentation was that in conversation with some
of
our
 staff using screen readers, we discovered that our home page, with 70+
links, is overwhelming. Visually the organization is clear, but the
screen
reader simply reads all the links one after the other without the
benefit
of
identifying main link headings. We want to add a more explanatory menu
for
screen readers with just the main links to our important index pages,
uncluttered by secondary links that they would find on the second level
index pages anyway.

 Second question is: has anyone had success with adding coding that
provides
a pause for screen readers between lists of links? Is that important?

Thanks in advance for any help.
<snipped>

 Bob Rand, Web developer
 Securities and Exchange Commission

Received on Saturday, 1 December 2001 17:49:53 UTC