Re: Public vs. Private information

What about adding an asterisk in front of and at the end of the 
private information? You can still use the STRONG tag to denote the 
difference and have the asterisk as an additional clue. By having the 
asterisk display first, people using a screenreader would hear the 
asterisk at the beginning of the private data, and by having it at 
the end would signal to them that it is the end of the private info.

Just a thought.

Janet M. Russeau, Web Master
Monroe County Intermediate School District
1101 South Raisinville Road
Monroe, Michigan 48161
Phone: 734.242.5799 x2067
Fax: 734.242.1363
Email: comment@misd.k12.mi.us
Visit us on the Web: http://misd.k12.mi.us


At 04:56 PM 11/20/2006, you wrote:

>Polling for some ideas / opinions.
>
>The scenario:
>Database search returns back a large chunk of data about a person - some of
>this data is public, but other bits are "private", and requires
>authentication (logged in) for it to be exposed.  The issue however is that
>the query subject (person) gets to decide what is public and what is
>private, so the field returns are variable; for example I can choose to list
>my cellular number as public or private, but the choice is up to me.  I may
>choose public but my associate may choose private.
>
>The problem:
>The issue is how to denote what is public and what is private to
>authenticated users (who are seeing both), given that for many (most) of the
>individual field returns it can be either.
>
>The on-screen return must match results each time (order), so dynamically
>grouping the public stuff and the private stuff unfortunately won't work.
>
>In the paper prototypes, the designer is displaying the public content in a
>bold font and the private content in regular font (<strong>Public
>Data</strong>), along with text that explains:
>"Information in bold is in this person's public profile.  All other
>information is available to you as an authenticated user." (I wish I could
>show you, but the examples are behind the wall)
>
>Needless to say I am uncomfortable about this, as it is relying on a mostly
>visual display to convey supplemental information.  However I am drawing a
>blank on ways of achieving the requirement that also meet accessibility
>guidelines, short of adding a "private" icon with appropriate alt text at
>the end of each private result.  This could conceivably produce a page with
>12 - 20 "private icons", an issue in it's own right.
>
>If anyone has dealt with a similar scenario, I would be curious how you
>resolved the issue (a link would be awesome!), however even if you have
>never dealt with this, if you have an idea or opinion I'm open to both.
>
>Thanks in advance.
>
>JF
>---
>John Foliot
>Academic Technology Specialist
>Stanford Online Accessibility Program
>http://soap.stanford.edu
>Stanford University
>560 Escondido Mall
>Meyer Library 181
>Stanford, CA 94305-3093

Received on Tuesday, 21 November 2006 13:41:11 UTC