Proposed Sub-Heading Text for Guideline 8

Guideline 8: Provide navigation mechanisms 

JRG: Proposed Sub Head Text
Users need to be able to navigate the web content.  Speech and Braille
users especially need to have advanced navigation techniques, since speech
and dynamic Braille displays offer only a temporal or very limited view of
the document at one time.   Users need to be able navigate both active and
non-active elements using strategies that support the users current
familiarity of the document and the task they are trying to accomplish. The
following are four basic types of navigation strategies user agents need to
support:

Sequential: Move sequentially between a set of element types based on the
linear order of the element(s).  This type of functionality is important
for exploring the contents of a new document.  The user knows they will
view all elements that are part of the sequential navigation.

Direct: Move directly between an element or a set of elements based on the
element content or numerical position of the element.  This type of
functionality is important for faster access to web content when they know
the location of the information of interest.  This often happens when the
user is using a frequently visited document.

Searching: Search for an element based on element content or attributes.
All elements or only a sub set of elements maybe part of the search.  This
function is important to users that are looking for particular key words or
other type of web content to efficiently identify if the information is in
the document and move to the element containing the information.

Hierarchical: Based on the document model tree move between the logical
relationships between elements.  This type of navigation allows the user to
efficiently move between logical units of the document.  This can be very
useful for strongly structured documents like books or instructional
materials.

Jon Gunderson, Ph.D., ATP
Coordinator of Assistive Communication and Information Technology
Division of Rehabilitation - Education Services
University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign
1207 S. Oak Street
Champaign, IL 61820

Voice: 217-244-5870
Fax: 217-333-0248
E-mail: jongund@uiuc.edu
WWW:	http://www.staff.uiuc.edu/~jongund
	http://www.als.uiuc.edu/InfoTechAccess

Received on Friday, 30 July 1999 17:51:34 UTC