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RE: Do screen readers read hidden text?

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From: Alastair Campbell
Date: Jul 14, 2003 7:04AM

Hi David,

> The bottom line is that media="all" and media="screen" are not yet supported.
Well, I'm not so sure about that. They are supported by the vast majority of browsers in use, and especially by those using screen readers (who need to use Windows & Internet Exporer to use a screen reader on the web).

What I don't know is if Internet Explorer gives screen readers the necessary hooks to use that information.

> * Ensure that hidden text that is for programmatic purposes or that is
> deactivated user content (and therefore is not intended for users) [snipped]
> The information may be hidden in inline styles or style sheets.

Are these things problems at the moment? It isn't something I've noticed people complaining about. Surely, (subject to some test cases?) the current methods for hiding these types of content work now?

If they do currently work, would changing Jaws to apply @import CSS rules help?
If your going to update to include @import rules, would it do any harm to make an adjustment to *not* apply style sheets with the media attribute of screen? (Assuming that the hooks are there.)

> * Provide a means of supplementing label text and link text with additional
> information that does not display on the screen, but is read by the screen
> reader. Incidentally, both of these things could be accomplished by using a
> title attribute to supercede the label / link text.
I'd agree with using the title attribute to add supplimentary information, I'm not sure what the other method you mentioned is?

Oh, and I like Tom's method for skip links, the best of both worlds! (Once I've tested it in a Mac anyway ;) Perhaps that could also be used to show access keys?

-Alastair


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