Recursive Links in menu bars

Hi all,

recently I had a discussion with somebody about recursive links in menu
bars. We were talking about static pages and identifying the current item in
the menu bar. At the simplest level we are talking about the following
alternatives: 

<ul id="nav">
<li><a href="#">page 1</a></li>
<li><a href="#"><span class="sr">Current page: </span>Page 2</a></li>
...
</ul>

Or

<ul id="nav">
<li><a href="#">Page 1</a></li>
<li><strong><span class="sr">Current page: </span>Page 2</strong></li>
...
</ul>

Considerations:

* Visual ques are expressed in CSS. The currently displayed item in the menu
bar is visually highlighted with standard color settings and in contrast
mode.
* It is unclear whether the current item should be a link or not.

There is now success criterion in WCAG 2.0 to clarify the question, but in
the best practice technique 
http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20-TECHS/G128.html
the third example presents a possibility.

I would be interested to know how others go about the matter. Should menu
items that refer to the current page be linked or not? Are there pros or
cons with respect to accessibility or usability (in general), or are there
other (e.g. technical) reasons?

Regards,
Jan

--
Jan Eric Hellbusch 
Tel.: +49 (231) 86436760 oder +49 (163) 3369925
Web: http://2bweb.de     Twitter: www.twitter.com/2bweb
-- 
Das Buch über barrierefreies Webdesign:
"Barrierefreiheit verstehen und umsetzen - Webstandards für ein zugängliches
und nutzbares Internet"
812 Seiten, Dpunkt Verlag (2011)
http://www.barrierefreies-webdesign.de/dpunkt/

Received on Sunday, 16 September 2012 15:15:25 UTC