- From: Phill Jenkins <pjenkins@us.ibm.com>
- Date: Thu, 30 Apr 2009 09:51:34 -0500
- To: WAI Interest Group <w3c-wai-ig@w3.org>
- Message-ID: <OF6AA853AE.B5DED5A0-ON862575A8.004F88E1-862575A8.00519EFF@us.ibm.com>
> . . . switch users or keyboard only users [which includes the blind users btw] often benefit . . . need to see the links of course. CSS techniques can be used to show focused links, but this method makes it much more difficult for users to figure out what to do. They need to press Tab and suddenly a Skip to link is shown. It is better for keyboard users to see the links and build up a strategy on how to use the page. Morten, good point, I forgot to mention that a profile can (should!) be used to set the visibility of the skip links to be shown all the time based on user preference settings. This can work effectively when a user ID is used to "log-in" to a portal for example. The best practice is to allow user settings that control the behavior of "hiding" the skip links and links to Accessibility help. Our user studies, usability assessments, and user centered design work with both users with disabilities (including vision, hearing, reading, cognitive, and limited hand use) and users with no declared disability continue to confirm the need for "skip to main content" links for some and not to force it on others. Another approach is to consider the capabilities and settings of the browsers and assistive technologies - so not to burden all the responsibility on the web author. In other words, should some of this "user preferences" be better placed in the end device, browser and AT settings? For example, using headings benefits those with browsers or AT that allow them to navigate by headings And with the new specifications in ARIA, perhaps the web author created "skip to" links could be replaced with "main content tags " and could be programmatically identified by the browser + AT and then utilized by the end user Regards, Phill Jenkins, IBM Research - Human Ability & Accessibility Center
Received on Thursday, 30 April 2009 14:52:15 UTC