[macvoiceover] Re: Designing web pages for screen readers

Greg,

I agree. In my own websites I usually have only a link back to the home 
page at the top. That way a person can get back to a table of contents 
and doesn't have to wade through a lot of junk. I can't understand why 
web designers think they have to put all that stuff at the top of every 
page. they seem to think that because they can they must.

John

On Wed, Jan 30, 2008 at 01:19:13PM -0700, Greg Kearney wrote:
> I have been designing and programming the webpages of Curtin  
> University Centre for Accessible Technology (www.cucat.org) and it  
> doing so have collected a few thoughts about accessible web pages.
> 
> Along with as the usual things like alt tags and high contrast of  
> type. It occurred to me from my own use and that of my blind wife that  
> many pages require the screen reader, and sighted users as well, to  
> navigate through a whole range of site navigation links before ever  
> getting to the content of the site.
> 
> In the CUCAT site I have attempted to deal with this by placing the  
> navigation links at the bottom of the page so that when you land on a  
> page you reach that pages content. In the event of a very long page  
> where the navigation would be at the bottom I will have a single link  
> which will take the reader to the navigation links.
> 
> It would seem to me that this approach would be better for pages  
> intended to be read by screen readers, as well as by the sighted  
> rather than have all the visual and auditory distraction of complex  
> headers at the top of the page to navigate through before reaching the  
> true content of the page.
> 
> Also I feel the content of the page read in an uninterrupted flow  
> without breaking to offer other services or information.
> 
> As a general design rule I feel that webpages have become much to  
> complex and busy. This applies to the sighted as well as the blind.  
> Would you want a book in which the text flashed, moved or in some  
> other way animated the pages? Would you want a book in which bight  
> coloured text, unrelated to what you were reading littered the sides  
> of the main content area? The answer is, no, of course not but that is  
> often what we are getting from modern website design. There seems to  
> be of late the approach the because we can do something on a page we  
> should.
> 
> Just some thoughts to think about.
> 
> 
> Greg Kearney
> 535 S. Jackson St.
> Casper, Wyoming 82601
> 307-224-4022
> gkearney@xxxxxxxxx
> 
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-- 
John J. boyer; President, Chief Software Developer
JJB Software, Inc.
http://www.jjb-software.com
Madison, WI USA
Developing software for people with disabilities

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