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Re: Alternate means of conveying color-coded information

for

From: Patrick H. Lauke
Date: Mar 19, 2007 11:20AM

Mary wrote:
> I recently saw the following assertion: the "title=" attribute is accepted practice for providing accessibility support and provides users with information as an alternative to the use of color.
>
> While I do not claim to have deep accessibility knowledge or insight, I've been working with web accessibility for a few years now and this is new to me. I would very much appreciate comments about this practice from this list.

Simple answer: there is no simple answer. Title attribute on what? If
it's on an element that not focussable via keyboard, I believe
screenreaders won't read it out. Even if it's on a link or similar, it
depends on specific screenreader settings. And for sighted (but possibly
colour blind) users that rely on keyboard navigation, title is never (to
my knowledge) exposed (i.e. no browser generates a tooltip or similar if
the user isn't using a mouse).

It depends on context, but in many cases I'd say that assertion is
false. You'd need to give a specific example here for a more authoritive
answer, I think...

P
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Patrick H. Lauke