Re: [CSS21] Inaccessible Index a violation of WCAG (issue-21)

<note
class="inTransmittal">

Reference: http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-style/2007Dec/ 
0139.html
See also: http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-style/2007Dec/ 
0144.html

Thank you for opening an issue on this point.

Please note the detailed suggestions below in the issue
record as an aid to an effective repair.

Thanks.

Al
/chair PFWG

</note>

in response to Al's CR comments filed with www-style on the CR
draft of CSS 2.1 pertaining to the inaccessibility of the CSS 2.1
index, which is archived at:

http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-style/2007Dec/0139.html

an issue (Issue #21) has been created at:

http://csswg.inkedblade.net/spec/css2.1#issue-21

however, the issue as logged with the "Resolution" being "assumed
editorial", and the post which points to the CSS 2.1 issues list
does NOT include the proposed PF solution to the inaccessibility of
the CSS 2.1 index:

<q
cite="http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-style/2007Dec/0139.html">
A sufficient (and highly recommended) repair technique for this problem
can be found in the Techniques document for WCAG 2.0:

http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20-TECHS/C7.html
http://www.w3.org/TR/2007/WD-UNDERSTANDING-WCAG20-20071211/navigation-
mechanisms-refs.html

which details a repair technique which enables a user to contextualize
and fully understand the meaning and target of repetitive hyperlink
test.  The result would be individualized index items, rather than  
merely
a repetitious and uninformative listing of links by section/chapter
number ONLY, thus making it possible for the non-visual user to utilize
the index.  This repair technique also has the advantage of
individualizing each hyperlink when the document's hyperlinks are listed
in a list of links, or when one is aurally or tactilely experiencing the
index.
</q>

using the index from the CSS 2.1 PR draft, the repair would involve:

1) the following addition to the document's default stylesheet

a span { height: 1px; width: 1px; position: absolute; overflow: hidden;
top: -10px; }

2) the following addition to the index markup:

<ul class="index">

<li class="tocline0">:active, <a href="selector.html#x35"
class="index-def"><span>Definition of the dynamic pseudo-class :active
in Section </span><strong>5</strong></a>

<li class="tocline0">:after, <a href="generate.html#x5"
class="index-def"><span>Definition of  the :after pseudo-element in
Section </span><strong>12</strong></a>, <a href="selector.html#x67"
class="index-def"><span>Inserting generated content using the :after
pseudo-element, Section <span><strong>5</strong></a>

Note:

in investigating this repair, i discovered a disconnect between the
hyperlinked text (for example, 1 or 2) and the sections to which they
actually point:

list item 1: why is the original hyperlink '2'?  the selector section is
Section 5?

list item 2:  why is the first original hyperlink '1' when  the
definition
of the :after pseudo-element is in Section 12?  why is the second
hyperlink text '2', when the pointer takes one to section 5?

this makes the index doublely confusing, as there is no explanation of
the conventions used in hyperlinking terms to the document

Received on Wednesday, 23 January 2008 19:02:14 UTC