Re: Page Relocate

Ryan Jean wrote:
> In the past, I've used the HTML version for immediate relocation and the JS
> version when a user clicks on a link.
> 
> The "htaccess" seems to be an immediate relocation without any warning for
> the user of a change of address, unless they looked at the address bar. Is
> there a way to use this version and have it not be immediate?

No.  In fact, the redirect will often be internal to the server.

However, I would question whether a non-immediate redirect really is a 
redirect, rather than a sequenced presentation (slide show; "server" push).

Also, if you do display something intermediate, you need to display it 
for long enough.  I would say never less than 5 seconds, but for 
material accessible by the general public, you should also consider 
people with marginal literacy in their first language or reading in a 
second language.  In the second language case, I don't think you should 
assume more than average intelligence and more than two years of middle 
school study.  For a site in English, one might one to assume below 
average intelligence of a second language user, as I suspect it is more 
likely that someone would be reading an English language site in a 
second language than an English speaker would be reading another 
language site.

I'd suggest display time, as well as being at least 5 seconds, should 
allow 1.5 seconds to identify the layout and should allow a reading 
speed of no more than 50 words a minute, for very simple Enlish language 
using only very common words.  If there are multiple languages, I'd 
suggest using the words per minute on just one of them, but adding at 
least a second for each choice, to allow the user to scan of the best 
language.  50 words a minute, may be optimistic for second language 
users who may still be able to benefit from the site.

You should relax this only if a finite time before update is strictly 
opt-in, or you are on an intranet, where its an effective condition of 
membership that there should be a certain level of literacy in the 
language used.

For a page in something like Chinese, I would allow longer, becaues it 
is more difficult to capture the text in order to look it up in a 
dictionary.
>>
>> Window.location.href="test.htm";
> 
> This breaks the back button, so is an accessibility no-no.
> 
> Whilst I believe there are scripting techniques that don't break the 

Specifically, I think it is something like location.replace()

> back button, not everyone has JavaScript, e.g. Lynx and Amaya have no 

-- 
David Woolley
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Received on Saturday, 30 August 2008 11:31:41 UTC