RE: DHTML show/hide sections & screen readers

Think this is getting a bit too involved to figure out without sitting next to someone and having a look / listen, but what happens with the + to expand and - to close folders in Windows
Explorer & a screen reader? Do they have a sort of alt or title-like text read out? 

Would this be a good model for "similar" dhtml (eg expand / close section things like in my example) to mimic? I'm not 100% sure it would be a good idea - as a web page is not going to work like windows explorer in other ways, what do others think?

Any good resources out there that anyone's seen on this sort of accessiblity stuff and dhtml?

I did look in Joe Clark (the book) but could not find much. (*pouts*)

:) Rebecca


-----Original Message-----
From: Jim Allan [mailto:jimallan@tsbvi.edu]
Sent: Thu 12/05/2005 2:26 AM
To: Rebecca Cox; w3c-wai-ig@w3.org
Subject: RE: DHTML show/hide sections & screen readers
 
Hi,
yes this works with JAWS. and the appropriate links show in the links list.
when the page is first viewed there are only 2 links in the links list.
After expanding the first link there are 5 links in the list.

The difficulty is - there is no indication that anything changed. when the
"heading for section 1" link is activated, JAWS just repeats the link twice.
Yes the screen changes, but to the average user, nothing happened on screen
except they activated a link (presumably to go somewhere) and arrive back at
the same location...so, now they are thinking...is the webpage broken (poor
coding), or did my screen reader get confused, or did I really activate the
link, or etc.

Need to find a way to inform the user of what happened on the screen.
Perhaps, adding a title or image with alt that says "expand this section" or
something similar to the + to expand and - to close folders (as in Windows
Explorer).
I like the "close section 1" at the end of the section rather than having to
move back to the top of section to close it.

Jim Allan, Webmaster & Statewide Technical Support Specialist
Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired
1100 W. 45th St., Austin, Texas 78756
voice 512.206.9315    fax: 512.206.9264  http://www.tsbvi.edu/
"I see the Earth. It is so beautiful."--first words spoken by human in
space.
[Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin, from the Vostok 1, April 12, 1961.]

-----Original Message-----
From: w3c-wai-ig-request@w3.org [mailto:w3c-wai-ig-request@w3.org]On
Behalf Of Rebecca Cox
Sent: Wednesday, May 11, 2005 1:03 AM
To: w3c-wai-ig@w3.org
Subject: DHTML show/hide sections & screen readers




Hi all

I'm working on some pages where there is javascript run onpage load to
hide some divs (by adding CSS display: none), which are then shown when
the user clicks on a link (CSS changes to display: block). Its all in a
window.onload, no script or CSS in the HTML.

I am wondering how screen readers do with this - eg if my use of onclick
is going to cause any issues here. And in general, how do people using
screen readers eg Jaws, find this sort of DHTML? If anyone knows of any
articles etc on this I would be very interested.

My test page is up at http://users.actrix.co.nz/rebecca.cox/dhtml/

Cheers,
Rebecca

Received on Monday, 16 May 2005 09:08:14 UTC