RE: Invisible elements for additional link text [SEC=UNOFFICIAL]

Hi all,

Where ‘read more’ follows a brief summary of an article/story it is compliant to have simply the text/link ‘read more’ as long as the link is programmatically associated with the text, e.g. in the same paragraph.

I’ve always had an issue with the use of ambiguous links like this (a hang-over from the old ‘click here’ days) but have now started employing a similar technique as mentioned with CSS hidden text which is also displayed when the link gets focused, i.e. the detail is also available to keyboard users.

What I’m now interested in/ concerned about, having never tested with it, is Dragon NaturallySpeakings functionality. If there is a page full of article summaries with simply ‘read more’ added how does the user get to any of those links? This really makes the guidelines incorrect if this is the case.

Leon

From: Christian Biggins [mailto:cbiggins@gmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, 13 September 2012 2:54 PM
To: Vivienne CONWAY
Cc: w3c-wai-ig@w3.org
Subject: Re: Invisible elements for additional link text

Hi Vivienne,

Because designers are anally retentive and very picky. It was purely from an aesthetic point of view. I personally wanted the text visible and that was the task that I had assigned.

While I agree with you that links should be descriptive and that its for able bodied people as well as disabled, this information on the site we are working on is clearly visible and context is apparent. I personally see this as very much a 'grey' area - its perfectly accessible now to both visually impaired (with assistance) and non visually impaired.

I'm not sure what happened to the other email I received about this, but I cant find it now. It was regarding dragon software. I havent tested this with anything yet and the basis of my argument is from the info on the Webaim site.

I am not swinging one way or the other, just trying to obtain peoples opinions.

Thanks!

--------------------------
Christian Biggins

On Thursday, 13 September 2012 at 2:36 PM, Vivienne CONWAY wrote:
Hi Christian

I'm trying to figure out why they would make the additional information invisible. It's not just about accessibility for screen reader users. What was their rationale?


Regards

Vivienne L. Conway, B.IT(Hons), MACS CT, AALIA(cs)
PhD Candidate & Sessional Lecturer, Edith Cowan University, Perth, W.A.
Director, Web Key IT Pty Ltd.
v.conway@ecu.edu.au<mailto:v.conway@ecu.edu.au>
v.conway@webkeyit.com<mailto:v.conway@webkeyit.com>
Mob: 0415 383 673

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________________________________
From: Christian Biggins [cbiggins@gmail.com<mailto:cbiggins@gmail.com>]
Sent: Thursday, 13 September 2012 12:03 PM
To: w3c-wai-ig@w3.org<mailto:w3c-wai-ig@w3.org>
Subject: Invisible elements for additional link text

Hi Guys,

I requested one of our designers make our 'read more' links more descriptive to include things like 'read more about article title' and his response was to have;

'<span>Read More <span class="invisible">about topic title</span></span>'

I know that the WebAIM guys are ok with invisible text for adding additional information for descriptive technologies, I was wondering what everybody elses opinions were.

Reference; http://webaim.org/articles/gonewild/#hidden


--------------------------
Christian Biggins


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