Thread Subject: Re: Bypassing content.

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From: Sailesh Panchang
Date: Fri, Jun 08 2007 1:00 PM

This requirement is primarily designed to help users of screen reading
software.
User agents including assistive technologies provide ability to jump to
different elements (eg. lists, tables, frames,) on a page if structural
markup is used.
Structural markup for tables, headings lists, etc. is required by Para (g)
under 6.1 that reads "Information and relationships conveyed through
presentation shall be programmatically determinable, and notification of
changes to these is available to...". So using structural markup facilitates
AT to skip over blocks / skip to desired block.
Therefore I believe the skip block requirement being debated over
predominantly applies to navigational links. This was the intent of the 2001
S508 standards too.
Note that when groups of links are placed in a list or frame, etc. a
mechanism to skip over them is available to screen reader users- an explicit
skip nav link is not needed.

Conclusion: So I think the focus should just be "group" of navigational
links for the skipping over requirement. Consider requirement of the word
"repetitive" too.

Sailesh Panchang
Senior Accessibility Engineer
Deque Systems Inc. (www.deque.com)
11130 Sunrise Valley Drive, Suite #140,
Reston VA 20191
Phone: 703-225-0380 (ext 105)
E-mail: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =

-----Original Message-----
From: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
[mailto: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = ] On Behalf Of Hoffman,
Allen
Sent: Friday, June 08, 2007 1:28 PM
To: TEITAC Web/Software Subcommittee
Subject: Re: [teitac-websoftware] Bypassing content.

Hmmm, thinking cap on.

I am not convinced "logical tab order" is so difficult to convert to
specification/standard format, and am not convinced that this one isn't
either, yet.

Web pages that are coded to:
allow correct keyboard operation;
associate header/cell information;
expose control element information;
generally can meet this repetitive navigation requirement, but
could still have block of content to navigate through.

Screen readers now generally do this by either using algorithms to
evaluate pages for repetitive int3erface elements, or by allowing the
user to hit t to jump to next table, h for next header, or other letters
for other element types to jump through. To allow this functionality
what is important is to use consistent tagging of blocks so that, for
example, when you hit <next whatever> it doesn't actually skip extra
content, or skip in to the middle of the current block.

Imagine:

header: text.
header: text.
table: information.
header: text.
unordered list: information
header: text
table: links.

What command would one use to jump from "block" to block without a
specific consistent identifier being used for the screen reader to grab
on to and pick up the next part of the page to read?


I'm just writing this to give us all food for thought as we try and
finalize this requirement.
thanks.




Allen Hoffman -- = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = ; v: 202-447-0303

-----Original Message-----
From: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
[mailto: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = ] On Behalf Of Peter
Wallack
Sent: Friday, June 08, 2007 1:13 PM
To: TEITAC Web/Software Subcommittee
Subject: Re: [teitac-websoftware] Bypassing content.

Allen --
I like your explanation of the intent of this standard far better than
the current wording. I'm not at all keen on the phrase 'repeated on
multiple web pages' as that seems more directed toward a situation where
the user is taking a linear path through a site, which is often not the
case. How about simply:

"A mechanism shall be available to bypass blocks of content"

leaving us only to haggle over the best wording for 'block of content',
which is a concept that I think we all intrinsically understand but we'd
like something a bit more scientific.

As for testability, this probably is no more testable than having a tab
sequence that is 'logical'. This just takes it to one level higher:
having a logical division of blocks of content that you can sequence
through.

Peter Wallack
Accessibility Program Director
Oracle Corporation



Hoffman, Allen wrote:
> This one is intended to allow people to basically use things like
> headers to jump from each block to the next quickly. I'm not
> convinced this language is exactly right, or better than the original
> CFR1194.22(o) either. it is testable, but certainly is not easy to
> test in an automated fashion.
>
> I have been trying to work out testing algorithm to count the number
> of links from start of page to each link on a page, take the average
> link-count, and then by re-analyzing the links in variations of
> sequence, determine if shorter paths indeed exist, and where to set
> upper and lower boundaries on the tests to get the answer, is there a
> way to shorten the link path. if anyone can put that into a provision

> we would have a testable check on lowering "link" or "tab" path. The
> reason "block of content" is good is that it doesn't really matter
> what stuff one has to skip over to get past with the voice, the
> important factors is to be able to skip it quickly when needed.
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Allen Hoffman -- = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = ; v: 202-447-0303
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
> [mailto: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = ] On Behalf Of Sean
> Hayes
> Sent: Friday, June 08, 2007 11:49 AM
> To: TEITAC Web/Software Subcommittee
> Subject: [teitac-websoftware] Bypassing content.
>
> I have a slight issue on the testability of : "A mechanism shall be
> available to bypass blocks of content that are repeated on multiple
> Web pages."
>
> What exactly constitutes a 'block of content'?
>
> Also if the repeated content is the last thing on the page, is a
> bypass still necessary? If so, where should it bypass too?
>
> Sean Hayes
> Standards and Policy Team
> Corporate Accessibility Group
> Microsoft
> Phone:
> mob +44 7977 455002
> office +44 117 9719730
>

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