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Re: Are Tag Clouds Accessible

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From: Philip Kiff
Date: Apr 27, 2007 2:40PM

Patrick wrote:
> Philip Kiff wrote:
>
>> I haven't used tag clouds myself, but at a superficial glance, the
>> del.icio.us usage in your example seems accessible enough to me:
>> they offer the option of sorting the list alphabetically (default)
>> or "by size". If you sort the list of tags by size, then a
>> non-visual user agent will be able to extract the same information
>> that is currently conveyed by size/colour to other users.
>
> I'd argue that, even when sorted by size, a non-visual user agent only
> conveys the order, and not the actual relative relationship. For
> instance, if we had
>
> apples (10) oranges (15) bananas (400) coconuts (10)
>
> in the visual way, the link for bananas would be considerably larger
> than the others by quite a large factor. Just putting that list in
> order
>
> bananas oranges apples coconuts
>
> indicates the relative order, yes, but the fact that bananas were just
> so overwhelmingly more tagged than the others, and that apples and
> coconuts are on par, is lost.

Mmmm...yes, I can see that now. And the 24ways article you point to gets at
the same kind of thing. Without some added number or data column, those
relative relationships will indeed be lost.

Phil.