RE: [webwatch] Change Column Layout on WAI Page

At 12:52 PM 2002-04-14 , Jim Thatcher wrote:
>I don't think the question, "should this kind of thing be encouraged"
>requires a long answer. No it should not be encouraged. Absolutely not.
>Already the WAI site has placed the navigation links on the right which
>means NO skip navigation is needed. It is hard enough to convince folks to
>do things that really make a difference; time should not be wasted doing
>things that make NO difference. Having this on the WAI site is confusing for
>visitors looking for best practices and expecting to find it on the WAI
>site.

Jim,

Does the fact that the W3C Home page has its navigation bar on the right, and so doesn't need a skip-navigation link, mean that we should stop talking about skip-navigation links?

In your survey, how many sites had navigation bars that linearize after the main content, vs. skip-navigation links?

All,

The W3C site is not a commercial site and should not be expected to strictly exemplify best commercial practice.  If it reflects something of an overkill pastiche of too many techniques, all of which may be what some sites should use, this may not be all that bad with regard to the example it sets, or the palette of examples it offers.

The astute reader will please note that for the narrow construction of "this kind of idea" that Jim answers in the negative, I also answered in the negative.

I consider that "this kind of idea" includes possible server-side options to implement what Kelly suggested in terms of having options to represent the breadcrumb trail rolled out as discrete hyperlinks or rolled up as a list box.  And I think it is important to raise that kind of idea, and not limit ourselves to what current HTML and screen readers support.  In the appropriate venue, like this one.

Jim and I are generally in flaming agreement on most of what matters in the short term.  I get long-winded and talk "on the other hand" because I want to share with this community some related things that I think matter over the longer term.  And need input from y'all.

 http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/w3c-wai-ig/2002AprJun/0057.html

Al

Received on Sunday, 14 April 2002 14:12:55 UTC