Another issue with the skip to content links is that , in VoiceOver they do not move the VoiceOVer cursor to the content so when you start to read your back to where ever you were to begin with. So they don't really work.
Greg Kearney 535 S. Jackson St. Casper, Wyoming 82601 307-224-4022 gkearney@xxxxxxxxx On Jan 30, 2008, at 3:58 PM, David Poehlman wrote:
the skip nav link is a hack at best and if it is used, it should be visible for it benefits other than blind if it even benefits them. With today'sscreen readers, we don't need the skip nav link. ----- Original Message ----- From: "John J. Boyer" <john.boyer@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> To: <macvoiceover@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Wednesday, January 30, 2008 5:28 PM Subject: [macvoiceover] Re: Designing web pages for screen readers Greg, To add to my previous comments, many websites for blind people have a link at the very beginning to skip to main content. This is true of Freedom Sciensific, bookshare.org and ViewPlus, for example. I think this is a good compromise. The skip to main content link can even be made invisible to sighted persons. John On Wed, Jan 30, 2008 at 04:15:08PM -0600, John J. Boyer wrote: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 everypage. 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 oftype. It occurred to me from my own use and that of my blind wife thatmany 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 thenavigation links at the bottom of the page so that when you land on apage you reach that pages content. In the event of a very long pagewhere the navigation would be at the bottom I will have a single linkwhich 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 complexheaders at the top of the page to navigate through before reaching thetrue 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 sidesof the main content area? The answer is, no, of course not but that isoften 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@xxxxxxxxxClick on the link below to go to our homepage. http://www.icanworkthisthing.comManage your subscription by using the web interface on the link below.//www.freelists.org/list/macvoiceover Users can subscribe to this list by sending email to macvoiceover-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'subscribe' in the Subject field OR by logging into the Web interface at //www.freelists.org/list/macvoiceover-- John J. boyer; President, Chief Software Developer JJB Software, Inc. http://www.jjb-software.com Madison, WI USA Developing software for people with disabilitiesClick on the link below to go to our homepage. http://www.icanworkthisthing.comManage your subscription by using the web interface on the link below.//www.freelists.org/list/macvoiceover Users can subscribe to this list by sending email to macvoiceover-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'subscribe' in the Subject field OR by logging into the Web interface at //www.freelists.org/list/macvoiceover-- John J. boyer; President, Chief Software Developer JJB Software, Inc. http://www.jjb-software.com Madison, WI USA Developing software for people with disabilitiesClick on the link below to go to our homepage. http://www.icanworkthisthing.comManage your subscription by using the web interface on the link below.//www.freelists.org/list/macvoiceover Users can subscribe to this list by sending email to macvoiceover-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'subscribe' in the Subject field OR by logging into the Web interface at //www.freelists.org/list/macvoiceoverClick on the link below to go to our homepage. http://www.icanworkthisthing.comManage your subscription by using the web interface on the link below.//www.freelists.org/list/macvoiceover Users can subscribe to this list by sending email to macvoiceover-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'subscribe' in the Subject field OR by logging into the Web interface at //www.freelists.org/list/macvoiceover
Click on the link below to go to our homepage. http://www.icanworkthisthing.com Manage your subscription by using the web interface on the link below. //www.freelists.org/list/macvoiceoverUsers can subscribe to this list by sending email to macvoiceover-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'subscribe' in the Subject field OR by logging into the Web interface at //www.freelists.org/list/macvoiceover
