WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

RE: Accessibility Observations

for

From: John Foliot - bytown internet
Date: Feb 26, 2002 11:22AM

Accessibility Observations<opinion>
You are right of course, linear structure will always be easier to navigate,
especially when you cannot rely on visual cues to get around. But consider
that consistant navigation also goes a long way. Providing a "skip nav"
mechanism on every page is a simple and effective way of providing a better
user experience for the visually impaired... it's not perfect but it helps.

Once we can rely on consistant and predictable CSS placement support, we can
and should use this mechanism to "layout" the GUI of our site, but still
maintain the linear structure of the documents. However, even in this
scenario, wouldn't you want the principle and secondary navigation "front
and center" (ie first) on each document, akin to a table of contents? How
else will the user know how to get around?

I'm not really sure than what you are trying to say. The majority of
today's sites ARE structured in a linear fashion, even when they are laid
out in tables. Frames have for the most part fallen from favor (although
you still run into them), and while not a given, most navigation schemes
today rely on top and left hand navigation "blocks". So it's not so much
the "visual" layout, but rather the structural and navigational layout which
is most important.
</opinion>

JF